How do I apply for Disabled Students' Allowance?

The steps, in order

Disabled Students' Allowance (DSA) is funding from Student Finance England that pays for the support you need to study, on top of your other student finance. Apply for DSA through your Student Finance England account if you are already claiming student finance; otherwise complete a DSA1 form. You must send medical or diagnostic evidence. SLC replies within 4 weeks (2025-26).

1. If you have applied for student finance, log in to your account: DSA shows up as a task on your to-do list, so you do not start a separate claim.
2. If you do not need student finance (some postgraduates, for example), fill in the DSA1 form for the academic year you are studying and post it to Student Finance England.
3. Send your evidence with the form. The Student Loans Company (SLC) will not process the application until it has it.

The evidence gate

This is the step that stops most applications. DSA cannot be claimed on suspicion alone. For a physical or sensory disability, a mental health condition or a long-term health condition, you send a doctor's or consultant's letter, or the completed DSA disability evidence form. For a specific learning difficulty such as dyslexia or ADHD, you send a post-16 diagnostic assessment carried out by a practitioner psychologist or a suitably qualified specialist teacher. A strong suspicion without evidence will not get your application processed, so if a diagnosis is still pending, sort the evidence out first.

The timeline, and the needs assessment

SLC tells you within 4 weeks whether your application has been approved. After that you do not book your own assessment: an appointed supplier (Study Tech or Capita) contacts you to arrange a DSA needs assessment, which works out what support you actually need. The whole chain, from applying to having equipment and support in place, can take up to 14 weeks. For 2025-26 and 2026-27 the single combined allowance is worth up to £27,783, and it is not based on your household income.

If it stalls

The most common hold-up is missing evidence, so check SLC has everything before you chase. If you disagree with a decision you can ask SLC to look at it again. Your university's disability adviser can help you gather the right evidence and keep the application moving, and they can put short interim support in place while you wait.

This page is general information, not clinical or legal advice.