Should the Goverment get rid of EMA?

[anotheoldgit]

http://tinyurl.com/48p43jy

Do you think it wrong if the Goverment scraps the Education Maintenance Allowance (EMA)?

This small weekly sum must be very beneficial to some students of poorer families in enabling them to stay on school.

Although abused by some, this money is used by some students to by pens, pencils, exercise books and text books etc, in some cases it is used in transport fares to enable them to get to school, also food.

This pittance is classed as expenses for the students, and the MPs should know all about them, at least the students won't be travelling 1st class.

Query, If these youngsters finished school at 16, how much would they be paid in "Job Seekers Allowance" while they looked for a job?

[Kathyan]

I don't think 16 and 17 year olds qualify for JSA.

[Ankou]

ema will be replaced by an enhanced learner support fund – this is administered by the individual school or college allowing them to make discretionary payments to those students they believe to be in greatest need.

young people who are currently receiving the ema will continue to receive it to the end of this academic year. those who are continuing their education next september and need financial help with learning costs may be eligible for support from the enhanced discretionary learner support fund.

if you are aged 16 or 17 it is unlikely that you will have worked for long enough to pay sufficient ni contributions to get contribution-based jsa.

if you are an unemployed 16 or 17 year old you may be able to get income-based jsa for a short period in special circumstances. for example, if one of the following applies:

• you are forced to live away from your parents and will suffer severe hardship if you do not get jsa

• you are a member of a couple who are responsible for a child

[sara3]

I'll have to pay for everything for my daughter when the EMA goes.

btw, she doesn't smoke or go out partying every night, and she can't find a job.

it's going to be tough on me.

[Coobeastie]

http://www.theanswerb...w/Question965818.html

Unfortunately some who get it currently don't seem to need it other than to feed a habit. Hopefully the system Ankou has mentioned will ensure those who really need it still get the help.

[modeller]

All I know is some of my pupils were driven to school by their parents and received free school meals and wrote about their foreign holidays. Some of those over 16 didn't turn up to school very often so they were hardly in full time education. I agree that was over 10 years ago but the system was abused then as it appears to be now.
W

[carolegif]

Anyone who listened to the Victoria Derbyshire show on Five Live today would know that none of the students on the programme spent it on books etc. Several didn't even know what is was for, one used it to go to Paris and others used it to go out on a Friday night!!

[mike11111]

Of course it should be scrapped, along with reducing the school-leaving age to 10. All that coal unmined and all those chimneys unswept. This could be the start of our economic recovery.

[Theland1]

After a lifetime of working, 80 hour weeks, 12 hour shifts, 7 days etc etc, I am now on benefits due to poor health.
My youngest son, 16, is doing very well in school, maths and sciences especially, and wants to go to university preceded by 6th form college.
I am at my wits end trying to figure out the finances without stigmatizing him as "poor".
The abolition of EMA is very worrying and callous in my opinion.

[DaisyNonna]

Northerner are you Mike?

[carolegif]

I can't understand why they feel the need to give students EMA payments for college, then when they get to university expect them to borrow large amounts of money to get a degree!

[Sqad]

Theland

" am at my wits end trying to figure out the finances without stigmatizing him as "poor".

What are the stigmata of being "poor"......I am a bit confused at that statement.

[mike11111]

Yes, Daisy, how did you guess? :-)

[rov1100]

Paying them £30.pw is a pittance compared with other handouts. As most of them would not continue their education what is likely to happen to them. Maybe turn to crime, sit around causing trouble, or under the mothers apron springs driving her nuts. It may be different if there were jobs about for everyone but they're not.

If they missed one day of a week there allowance is stopped for that week. At least the majority of the kids are doing something useful more than can be said for the millions collecting their dole and down the betting shop.

[DaisyNonna]

Come from a family of colliers with open fires! What's your excuse?

[sara3]

Steve, not everyone is entitled to it. it depends on the parents' income.

[factor-fiction]

Government.
In my experience many of those who receive EMA still don't seem to be able to afford to bring a pen and pencil with them to college.

[sara3]

so I have the only teenager in the country who wants an education, doesn't have a crack habit, turns up for lessons and actually needs this EMA.

who'd have thought it?

[bunkmoreland]

My nephew and niece on my husband's side of the family,are from a single mum household,and have been raised on benefits(her ex husband pleaded "poverty") and financial help from the rest of the family. They qualify for ema,and one uses it for phone minutes,and the other saved it all up to buy a guitar!!! ..It's paid directly to these children,not their parents,also through the summer and a bonus at Christmas!!...I stayed on at school from 16-18 to improve my education in the hope of getting a better job. Too many nowadays are looking for the £30 per week pocket money:-(