§ Mr. Paul MarsdenTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment how many students in Shrewsbury and Atcham have benefited from the disabled students' allowance; how much has been spent in total on these students; and if he will make a statement. [156507]
§ Mr. WicksData are only available by local education authority, not by constituency area. Shropshire LEA paid out in disabled students allowances (DSAs) in academic year 1998–99 as follows:
£ DSAs Students Expenditure General allowance 16 2,255 Non-medical personal help 42 52,654 Specialist items of equipment 40 58,364 Total 98 113,273 Note:
Students may be in receipt of more than one allowance and therefore there will be an element of double counting in the student figures.
Provisional estimates suggest that 70 full-time undergraduate, 15 part-time and 10 postgraduate students at a total cost of £240,000 will have received DSAs in Shropshire in 2000–01, a doubling of expenditure in two years. The Government's policies of removing the means test for DSAs in 1998–99 and extending DSAs to part-time and postgraduate students in 2000–01 have 121W benefited disabled higher education students in every area of the country, leading to an increase in expenditure on DSAs in England and Wales from £10.4 million in 1996–97 to an estimated £34 million this academic year.