Decision report 201000423

Summary
Ms C was dissatisfied with the handling of her request for travel expenses and disagreed with the decision taken by the Student Awards Agency for Scotland (SAAS) to restrict her travel expenses. She also complained about how the SAAS handled her appeal against their decision not to reimburse the expenses. We found that the SAAS had assessed her travel expenses in line with their policy. However, we also found that they had failed on a number of occasions to correct Ms C's misunderstanding that she was entitled to full travel expenses under the Disabled Student Allowance. When Ms C was advised of SAAS's decision to restrict her travel costs, she withdrew from her course.

We considered that, as a result of not having full information, Ms C was unable to make an informed choice about whether to start her university studies and, as a result, incurred travel costs that she was unable to afford. We upheld the complaint, although we did not uphold the further complaint that the SAAS had failed to investigate her appeal.

Recommendation
We recommended that SAAS:
• reimburse Ms C for the travel costs she incurred as a result of travelling by train to the university, excluding the amount already paid to her. This was to be offset against any outstanding debt.