extra financial support for student with BPD?

Oldernotwiser

j-josie wrote: »

On reflection, I don't think she'll be applying for DLA or ESA anyway. It is much better for her all round if she can get a p/t job. I certainly don't want her to live with the belief that the depression/BPD makes her unemployable.
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As I said to someone earlier,there's no reason why someone on DLA can't work, even full time, and many people do.

the_devil_made_me_do_it

student_advisor wrote: »

Although the forms for DLA & ESA are very negative, I would not view it as a negative thing to have to claim them.

Claiming one or the other in itself passports a student on to more funding such as housing benefit and the special support grant. This means the student has more time to devote to their course and takes the pressure off financially.

She could always apply for the benefits and use any spare time to volunteer - boosts bank balance, confidence & CV all in one. Most universities have a volunteer body of some kind, often through the student union.

Why if an individual is awarded DLA, would they be also entitled to HB?

bitsandpieces

j-josie wrote: »

On reflection, I don't think she'll be applying for DLA or ESA anyway. It is much better for her all round if she can get a p/t job. I certainly don't want her to live with the belief that the depression/BPD makes her unemployable.

As others have said, lots of people claiming DLA work full time. You can claim this benefit while working long hours and earning a *very* good wage - it's just intended to cover some of the extra costs which come with disability. Your daughter may want to apply for it (and I wouldn't know whether she's eligible) but I wouldn't associate it with being unemployable.

You will often find that universities don't share information about disability with teaching staff etc. unless this is explicitly requested (there may be data protection issues, and some students would not want this to happen). When applying for DSA, your daughter will need to be in touch with disability services at the university anyway. If it would be useful, she might ask them to write to her lecturers to suggest some things that they might do to be helpful. This way, she won't need to tell every staff member individually.

When claiming DSA, think about everything that would be useful. If your daughter will need to work at home more, think about claiming for things like a printer, consumables, book purchases (if she can't get to the library), broadband, etc. If your daughter can't make some lectures, DSA may cover some of the costs of recording them. If additional support from someone at the university (for example, with timetabling her academic work) would help, you can also claim for staff time.

Oldernotwiser

the_devil_made_me_do_it wrote: »

Why if an individual is awarded DLA, would they be also entitled to HB?

HB (now LHA) is means tested and I think a student who received full student funding would be getting too much income to be eligible.