Investigation into potential conflicts of interest in the award of Disabled Students’ Allowance
The National Audit Office has published the findings from its investigation into potential conflicts of interest in the award of Disabled Students’ Allowance (DSA). The report examines in particular the arrangements for disabled students at Plymouth University whose support requirements were assessed by an assessment centre based on the University’s main campus.
In response to concerns raised in 2013 by the Chair of the Public Accounts Committee, the NAO has investigated three specific issues:
- whether there are potential conflicts of interest in the assessment of support requirements of disabled students by an assessment centre on the main campus of Plymouth University, and the provision of that support by Claro Learning Ltd, a support provider operating in the south-west;
- whether relationships between disability needs assessors, support providers and Plymouth University are costing the taxpayer money; and
- whether a larger than expected proportion of students at Plymouth University receive DSA.
The Rt Hon Margaret Hodge MP, Chair of the Committee of Public Accounts said:
"It feels just wrong that Access South West, the company that assessed the support requirements of disabled students at Plymouth University, was the same company as Claro, which was providing support to disabled students using taxpayers’ money.
The Department for Business, Innovation & Skills did not spot soon enough the conflict of interest between Access South West and Claro, where the assessor of students’ support requirements at Access South West was married to the director of Claro. Furthermore, the chief executive of Claro was the line manager of the regional manager of Access South West.
The Department missed a red flag by not noticing that the average payment for students assessed by the Access South West centre in Plymouth was more than double what disabled students received nationally on average – an average total per student of £4,759 assessed by Access South West centre in Plymouth compared with an average total per student of £2,227 assessed by centres nationally.
Time and time again my Committee has raised concerns about the risks to public money posed by conflicts of interests. In this case the Department needs to get a much better grip on its oversight of Disabled Students’ Allowance if it is to make sure that the public purse is not put at risk.”