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DSA - travel support

Emily123

Hello - appreciate any advice please. Son has epilepsy and receives DSA whilst at Uni.
His epilepsy can be triggered by stress/anxiety - he had breakthrough seizures during a level exams, mocks, interviews etc.
At uni he’s been lucky enough to get a disabled room and halls a short walk from campus and walks with friends/a small group each day.
However occasionally he has to attend other locations (couple of times per term) alone - for example his exams are in a different location to his course-mates as he’s been given allowances(extra time) for epilepsy. He’s not confident in getting there on his own so wants to order a taxi in case of any issues.
He emailed his DSA advisor with just these specific journeys and proof of scheduling/ location etc.
However the DSA advisor has said they’d only support these journeys if he could
prove he had a diagnosis of anxiety. Their words were ‘travel support will only be paid if you have a diagnosis of anxiety not because you have epilepsy’.

He’s supplied letters from his epilepsy consultant saying his epilepsy is triggered by stress/anxiety but apparently this isn’t enough.
I’m a little confused as having an epileptic seizure alone, while travelling to an exam, would seem to me worse or at least on a par with anxiety but apparently anxiety can be funded for travel but not having seizures whilst travelling.
He’s provided a form and said the GP will have to confirm a diagnosis of anxiety - separate to the epilepsy - in order to be eligible.
I was a bit surprised as he’s been banned automatically from driving due to seizures - I’m not clear that this is the case for everyone with anxiety and am just wondering if this is standard practice and if anxiety is more serious for travel than seizures?

Thanks in advance.

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Comments

bg844

Once the GP fills in the DSA form your son will have the chance to re-do an assessment, all concerns can be raised then and he can ask the assessor to recommend taxis. As per guidance online, he may have to put a slight contribution towards (nothing much, a few pounds at most). As he had evidence of epilepsy at the beginning he did not require the GP to fill the form in then.

To answer your question on if anxiety is more serious than seizures, I obviously think it isn’t although I really cannot comment on how anxiety presents itself in others.

Good luck with the situation you are in and I hope you don’t have to wait a long time for your GP to get around to filling in your form.

bg844

To add, some local authorities do have a free bus pass scheme for those who would or have been refused a drivers licence, mine does. I know every LA is different but it may be worth a look in to that also.