Spotlight: Bursaries and Grants
“We have to give up our privacy all the time just to survive.”
Bursaries and grants are a key way disabled people access opportunities. Household means testing or proof of benefits or income is not an appropriate measure for disabled people because:
a) Disabled people may face significantly higher living costs than non-disabled people. (“Disabled people spend an average of £550 a month on costs related to their disability.” – Facts, Figures and Disability in the UK, Papworth Trust, 2018).
b) Means-tested benefits are withdrawn from disabled people based on partner income, forcing disabled people to be dependent on the income of their non-disabled partner (this is a significant risk factor for disabled people experiencing domestic control and abuse; insisting on household means testing for grants and bursaries can compound this because they will be reliant on their partner or spouse to contribute to or pay the fee).
Alternative ways of managing means-tested grants to ensure that they are given to people who can’t participate without them might include an honour system, allowing people to apply for partial grants, or a recommended contribution based on disposable income after housing, bills, and other necessities have been covered. This can also be mitigated with solidarity pricing encouraging people with a higher disposable income to contribute to the fund to cover the cost of people with a lower income attending.
Reference: Jamie Hale