Paying for fluency devices

For a stammer which affects work or study, an Access to Work or student grant may be available for an electronic fluency device, if this helps the individual.

Fluency devices

Both Access to Work grants and Disabled Students' Allowance are non-means tested allowances, so they are not dependent on your income. For people who stammer, their main interest is that they could pay for an electronic fluency device.

Electronic fluency devices help some people who stammer to speak more fluently. These devices play the person's speech back into their ear with a delay and/or at a different pitch, or play a noise into the ear to mask their speech. Examples marketed in the UK are SpeechEasy and VoiceAmp. Other firms sell devices from outside the UK. See BSA website: Electronic fluency devices on these devices, their effectiveness, and possible suppliers.

The grants on this page may also be available for other support, such as text-to-speech software. However, fluency devices seem to be their most common use in connection with stammering.

Access to Work grant

This is a grant towards extra employment costs that result from a person's disability. Access to Work grants have been given towards the cost of electronic fluency devices where they benefit the individual.

A stammer should very often quality as a 'disability' for the purpose of Access to Work grants, since the test is whether there is a 'disability' within Equality Act 2010. Access to Work also includes disabilities that are only apparent in the workplace.

The availability of the grant is a relevant factor towards an employer being required to provide a device as a reasonable adjustment under the Equality Act 2010.

The BSA website: Electronic Fluency Devices: Access to Work has information specifically on current arrangements for Access to Work grants on electronic fluency devices. General information on Access to Work is at:

Access to work: Public sector

The Access to Work scheme has been withdrawn in central government deparments, but disabled staff there are still supposed to get the same support.

The Sayce report (link to dwp.gov.uk) on Specialist disability employment programmes (June 2011, page 93) suggested a central budget for adjustments within each Government department, to avoid disincentives from employing disabled people within smaller teams which may have a limited budget. The Government's initial July 2011 response (pdf) rather talks round this and does not actually say it agrees. (On the Sayce report generally, a further government response was issued in March 2012 following a consultation.)

Disabled students' allowances

Aimed at students going into higher education, or already in it, again the main interest of these allowances for people who stammer is that they could pay for an electronic fluency device. Allowances have certainly been granted to fund VoiceAmp devices - an example is at 'Student allowance granted for fluency device' on BSA website. The allowance can also pay for a computer to calibrate the device, and premiums to insure the equipment.

For more information on Disabled Students' Allowances:
There is a 'Skill' information booklet at www.skill.org.uk/uploads/he_dsa.doc. Also the disability officer at your university should be able to help, and the supplier of the device may be able to. Official guidance and forms depend on where you normally live:

England: direct.gov.uk: "Disabled Students' Allowances - an introduction".
Scotland: www.saas.gov.uk/student_support/special_circumstances/disabled_students_allowance.htm
Wales: www.studentfinancewales.co.uk
Northern Ireland: www.studentfinanceni.co.uk

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Paying for fluency devices

Fluency devices

Access to Work grant

Access to work: Public sector

Disabled students' allowances

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