Disabled Student Allowances

Student Finance England

What we will cover today

• Our Product

• Our Students

• Our Department

• Our Applications

• Case Study:

Application Process

Needs Assessment

Entitlement Process

Payments

• Response Team

• Our Achievements

• 2017 Changes

• Consent To Share

Our Product

Disabled Student

Allowance

(DSA)

Grant

Non Income Assessed

Full Time & Part Time

Undergraduate & Postgraduate

Equality Act

9 Month Time Limit

Previous Study ELQ

Our Students – AY 15/16

10566

15411

Gender

Male Female

18604

2055

5304

Mode of Study

Full-TimePart-TimePostgraduate

Our Department

Service Manager

4 Operations Managers

Continuous

Improvement

Manager

Stakeholder

Consultant

14 Team Managers + 4 Developing Team Managers

3 Improvement

Specialists

Our Department

48 Administration Assistants •Process 3rd party invoices

• Handle aged debt queries

• Handle payment reporting

48 Assessors • Review applications

•Review medical evidence

• Process student claims

•6 staff DSA Response Line

110 Officers •Review Needs Assessments

•Handle Emails

•2 Act as Trainers

•27 Act as QA

•2 roll into CIT

• 3 Act as Investigators

•2 Act as Report Analysts

•6 Act as Taxi Account Managers

Our Applications

0

10000

20000

30000

40000

50000

60000

70000

80000

2011/12 2012/13 2013/14 2014/15 2015/16 2016/17

No

of

app

licat

ion

s re

c'd

Academic year

DSA applications rec'd by academic year

Our Applications

0

1000

2000

3000

4000

5000

6000

7000

8000

9000

10000

Nu

mb

er

of

ite

ms

Academic year 15/16

DSA1 Rec'd

NAR Rec'd

Fictional Case Study - Hector

•University of Hedges

•Full-time Undergraduate

•Studying Business Management

•Diagnosis of Dyslexia and Arthritis

•Struggled during the first term of

course

Our Process - Application

Our Process - Entitlement

Non-Medical Help

• Specialist 1-2-1 Study Skills

• Assistive Technology Support

• Specialist Mentor

• British Sign Language Interpreters

Equipment

• Assistive Software

• Ergonomic Equipment

• Audio Capture Equipment

• Radio Aids

Travel

• Reimbursement for Occasional Travel

• Taxi Account for Frequent Travel

• Millage Reimbursement

General

• Consumables (paper, ink)

• Cost of Study Needs Assessment

Our Process – Payments – Invoices

Invoices

Process 320,000

£138 million paid in 2015

10% Queried

68% NMH

10% Equipment

10% GA

4% Travel

0.3% Payment Errors

Aim to review within 20

Working Days

Only items agreed on the DSA2 can be paid

for.

Invoices are usually paid out of the academic

year in which the support was received.

Invoices are either sent to us via post (70%) or

via our e-invoicing system (30%).

Our process – Payments – claims

Photocopying

Printer Consumables

Equipment Non

Medical Help

Colour Sensitivity

Accommodation

Mileage Claims

Taxi Receipts

Types of Claim:

All student claims must be submitted with an itemised

and dated receipt to show proof of purchase.

Only items agreed on the DSA2 can be reimbursed.

Items may be purchased before the start of the AY

providing all other reimbursement rules are met.

Claims are usually paid out of the academic year in which

the receipts are dated.

Response Team

0

1000

2000

3000

4000

5000

6000

7000

Number of calls made to the Response Team

95.50

96.00

96.50

97.00

97.50

98.00

Jan-1

6

Feb-1

6

Mar-

16

Apr-

16

May-1

6

Jun-1

6

Jul-16

Aug-1

6

Sep-1

6

Oct-

16

Nov-1

6

Dec-1

6

% of calls handled by the Response Team

Our Achievements Working Reports from our Inbox

Voice of the customer - (56%) indicate the time taken to process the DSA

application (end to end) is reason for dissatisfaction.

“The process took far too long. I applied in aug and didn't receive my

equipment till feb”

“It is a long winded application. It takes a

lot of time and is very complicated,

especially for a dyslexic student! There was a lot to

sort and organise and the different

companies or people who work within that process make it hard to know who to call for some help along

the way”

“Applied in Mid 2015 for starting in October 2015. Order was not processed

until Mid-Feb 2016. Considering most of the

support was designed to help settle into Uni, this poor

response is a failure on SFE's part. I'm halfway through the

year and haven't received anything yet”

Driver of dissatisfaction Percentage

Processing time 56%

Our Achievements Needs Assessment Report Template

•More accurate when processing

•Fair - same information for all students

•Enables external reporting

•Enables the assessment of any impact due to changes

Consistency

•Reduction in errors

•Less complaints

•Shorter processing time - staff know exactly where to find the information

•Reduction in text making the report more 'reader friendly'

Customer Experience

2017 Changes

• Armed Forces – Any serving personnel or family members will now be

eligible for DSA support.

• NHS - New students on most Nursing, Midwifery and allied health

professions (AHP) courses from 1st August 2017 will have their funding

provided by SFE and they will be eligible for DSA support.

Consent to share

• This is obtained from students on their DSA1 application form (both DSA1F and DSA1SL) or

via a separate CTS form.

• It relates only to sharing information regarding a student’s DSA application.

• The DSA team can be contacted by third parties by email and over the phone.

Before 2016/17 2016/17 onwards

Consent to Share

DSA Team

• DSA CtS is obtained from students on their DSA1 application form or via a separate CtS form • It relates only to sharing information regarding a student’s DSA application • 3 options for CtS: Disability Service at HEP/LP, DSA Needs Assessor & DSA Suppliers • The DSA team can be contacted by third parties by email and over the phone: Contact number: 01325 215 194 Email: disability_adviser@slc.co.uk

Customer Contact Centre

• Customer Specific queries

• CtS can be set up for a third party to access

and discuss account

• Simplified CtS process for HEP/LP; 4 quick

and easy questions

Partner Services Support Desk • There is no CtS option on these lines • Business to Business and Advanced Learner Loans lines, we can provide high level information to the HEP's/LP's • If the query is student specific, the HEP/LP should call the Customer Contact Centre

Contact details - phone

Students can get advice on their DSA by contacting the standard phone line.

IVR option for students to speak to specially trained advisors supported by

members of the DSA Team.

Student contact number: 0300 100 0607

Stakeholders can contact the DSA Team through our dedicated line.

The line is open from 09:30 – 16:30

Contact number: 01325 215 194

(Please do not provide this number to students or their sponsors)

Contact details - email

We have 6 dedicated email addresses for contacting the DSA Team, each is

worked by specialist staff with the skill set to answer the queries.

Disability Advisers - disability_adviser@slc.co.uk

Needs Assessors - access_centre@slc.co.uk

Suppliers / Providers - invoice_team@slc.co.uk

Students - dsa_team@slc.co.uk

PGP reports - needs_assessment_reports@slc.co.uk

Late Application requests - dsa_late_apps@slc.co.uk

We answer approximately 100,000 emails every year.

Resources

Additional information about DSA can be found at:

http://www.practitioners.slc.co.uk/products/disabled-students-

allowances/dsas-updates-for-practitioners.aspx

This site gives information about current processing times, has

factsheets on aspects of DSA, copies of our forms and

provides links to policy documents.

Amy Hedges

DSA Improvement Specialist

amy_hedges@slc.co.uk

01325 215 147

Emma Wright

DSA Officer

emma_wright@slc.co.uk

01325 215 147