Arthritis and Public Transport.

BluesWalk

Hey guys, I will be going to College this year and I have to claim for travelling expenses. My College is 1 hour 45 minutes away from where I live, taking 3 busses. It's also a lot of waiting around, walking to different places and up hills etc, while lugging my bag and laptop around. That's 3 and a half hours per day.


Sounds daunting to me and I don't think I could face it. However my College is like a 25 minute drive away in my automatic car.


The problem is that I have to say that I am unable to use public transport for my application to receive some extra money to help with petrol. How would you go about this? I know that a lot of the funding people are really horrible and if you can take like 2 steps forward you can climb a mountain

stickywicket

I had to do something very similar when going to school with a satchel in tow - many, many years ago It wasn't easy at all and I sometimes had to lean on my friends for help.

I suggest you ask your GP or rheumatologist for a letter confirming your problems and endorsing your application. You'll possibly have to pay for it but it sounds as if it'd be money well spent. Good luck!

As5567

BluesWalk wrote:

Hey guys, I will be going to College this year and I have to claim for travelling expenses. My College is 1 hour 45 minutes away from where I live, taking 3 busses. It's also a lot of waiting around, walking to different places and up hills etc, while lugging my bag and laptop around. That's 3 and a half hours per day.


Sounds daunting to me and I don't think I could face it. However my College is like a 25 minute drive away in my automatic car.


The problem is that I have to say that I am unable to use public transport for my application to receive some extra money to help with petrol. How would you go about this? I know that a lot of the funding people are really horrible and if you can take like 2 steps forward you can climb a mountain

You might be able to get a free taxi to and from college, your council should be able to tell you more about this. I had a taxi to and from college, and at one point to and from university. Having access to your own car doesn't make a difference so it's worth asking, it also saved me a lot of stress about trying to find a parking spot close to the main entrance etc.

dreamdaisy

I think you've answered your own question - detail the difficulties you will face with using public transport and hopefully the apparently frivolous god of grants will smile upon you.

I admit my curiosity is piqued: why do you 'have' to claim? DD

BluesWalk

dreamdaisy wrote:

I think you've answered your own question - detail the difficulties you will face with using public transport and hopefully the apparently frivolous god of grants will smile upon you.

I admit my curiosity is piqued: why do you 'have' to claim? DD

Basically it's money that is there to help people like me who have difficulty. So it would be silly not to ask for help towards petrol etc as being a student = poverty.

dreamdaisy

I think I am right in remembering that you live in Scotland which entitles you to free tuition plus you already own an automatic car. What is your definition of poverty? I know mine but again I am merely curious: when I was a student I couldn't afford a car (although I could drive) and my parents paid my subsistence grant (so I kept things as cheap as I could). Mind you, this is pre-history when the world was lived in black-and-white. DD