Join us on FacebookLast week the debate around tuition fees was focus on whether it would put people off from going to university from low income backgrounds yesterday that choice was taken away from them as the Education Maintenance Allowance (EMA) was axed. When I say it was axed that is what effectively was done, as when you turn to page 42 of the green book you see that the saving from “replacing” EMA is £0.5 billion which also happens to be the entire budget for the scheme.
If you don’t know what EMAs are, they were basically a means-tested allowance of between £10 and £30, paid to 16- to 19-year-olds who stay on in education and who are from deprived backgrounds where household income must be below £30,810 per year. Those receiving the £30 payment make up 80 percent of all recipients and to able to recive this payment it requires household income to be below £20,817 per year. This sum may seem insignificant to some but as a survey carried out by the NUS in 2008 found 65% of participants on the highest EMA rate of £30 stated that they could not continue to study without EMA.
But if this still does not convince you to their importance then at least the weight of evidence supporting EMAs far outbalances the arguments of any naysayers. For example, research by the Institute for Fiscal Studies shows attainment at GCSE and A-level by recipients of EMA has risen by 5 to 7 percentage points since its introduction, and by even more for those living in the most deprived neighbourhoods. In addition, RCU Market Research Services carried out research on the national scheme and published a report called Evaluation of the EMA National Roll-out 2007, which concluded:
“EMA is reducing NEET (those Not in Employment Education or Training) and also motivating learners to work harder.”
Ipsos MORI published a report in 2008 called Evaluation of Extension of Education Maintenance Allowance to Entry-to-Employment and Programme Led Apprenticeships. This report reached similar conclusions to the RCU research:
“EMA is reducing NEET and also motivating learners to work harder.”
But, if one wants to look for an example of why the axe should not be drawn over the EMA system, then one just has to look to Scotland. The SNP administration in Holyrood, that administers EMA for Scotland, has cut the budget for EMA by 20 percent and made regressive changes to the scheme’s eligibility criteria. These changes in criteria to the EMA in Scotland lowered the threshold for the £30 payment and axed the £10 and £20 payments.
This has unfortunately led to fears in Scotland that progress made will be undone by the SNP administration’s policy of cutting the EMA budget. The NUS at the time of the cut claimed that it would lead to 8,000 students dropping out and as youth unemployment in Scotland has risen by 7,000 it is hard to dispute their early prediction.
The £20 and £10 payments may seem a small amount of money to some, but this maintenance allowance removes some of the barriers to participation in education, and the £10 and £20 brackets are useful in this case, particularly in covering costs towards transport.
Figures released by the Scottish Government only last year on EMA highlighted that the old system developed under the Labour administration was successful. The figures showed 39,110 college students and school pupils from low-income families were taking up the allowance in 2007-8, meaning they were up from 38,760 in 2006-07.
The figures also showed that the allowance proved to help school pupils from low-income families stay on in education with 77% of school pupils on the EMA scheme for the full year completing the attendance rates and learning expectations set out for them compared to 70% in 2006-7. The percentage of those on the EMA for a full year, receiving £10 and £20 payments, completing the scheme increased to 82% (the figures for 2006-7 were 74% for those on £10 payments and £73% for those on £20 payments).
These figures may just be a list of endless statistics for some but for me it is a different story. Since I started the Save EMA campaign I have had hundreds of emails and messages from teenagers on the website who are very worried about their futures. Take this one from Nick: “Without EMA I wouldn’t be able to go to college and become what I have always dreamed of being.”
This is something I can relate to as I was on EMA and I know that attending sixth form depended on those payments and when they were delayed it meant I missed college. My old sixth form now has half the students on EMA and it pains me greatly to think that there are many people like myself at my old sixth form who will not have the same opportunity to stay on in education and get the qualifications to live a better life. But I will leave you with the words of Alex another of the many people who have emailed me and written on our website, which for me sums up what the CSR means for people like us:
“I need EMA otherwise I will have no education. In other words… no future.” Alex
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please support this campaign.im a low paid civil servant earning under £15,000 per year and im a lone parent ,not by choice.I get CTC and CHB for my 17year old daughter.She was awarded the full EMA allowance of £30 pw which for us is a lifeline. we dont care about or want the bonuses but the allowance we do.I couldnt bear it if she had to finish college just one term in because i cant afford her travel,lunches and graphic design materials.
Does anyone have a difinitive date that this will take place? is it stopping before xmas 2010? at the end of the financial year? at the end of the agreement they have already signed up for? i need to plan for this
What i dont htink the government has taken into consideration is that people who no longer cannot carry on with their studies or courses will then have a far more greater chance of not getting a job which in turn means that the people who are not able to get a job will then possibly go onto the dole or claim other benefits which will in turn mean that the government will have to pay more in the long run then when they were paying ema. This will not obviously be the circumstances everywhere but the point still stays save the money now or pay more in the future.
I’m disappointed in this decision, I know for one that I would definately not be where I am currently were it not for EMA. I’m currently studying Biomedical materials science at the University of Nottingham. Had I not been able to recieved EMA I would have gone down one of two roads. I would have either had to drop out of school and go to find a job with only GCSE qualifications, not something I would have liked to do, or I could have gone on with my A levels and either not had enough money for food or not have enough to keep up with payments on the house.
I’m glad I was able to go through and do my A-levels and go on to get a place at university. I am now however concerned about my brother who is in the same position I was two years ago, however his choice is being taken away from him. It sickens me that the government can claim to be ‘fair’ when they have no remorse about taking away a future from children.
It won’t be long until I can show the government the wounds, the wounds that they have created. Aspirations out of reach of children, simply for being too poor to afford to go to college or a sixth form and then onto university.
It can only in turn cause an increase in unemployment in those less fortunate. If you’re planning to cut down money on the job seekers allowance bill aswell then surely any increase in unemployment is not going to be good for the deficit reduction.
If there are job losses around the country from spending cuts (Around the country, you can’t get on the road and get a job somewhere else if everywhere has high unemployment) then surely increasing any unemployment is not a good thing.
I know several people who were in the same situation as me, people applying for medicine, law and dentistry, that would not have been able to carry on with their studies at A level without this financial aid. I have however realised that most of this is not going to change anything, there is afterall no honour among thieves, and so appealing to their sense of human decency is fairly pointless but I feel I must at least say something while there is still something left to save.
So I guess in conclusion, stop and think a second about what you’re doing. Instead of cutting where there is money, cut where it won’t negatively affect unemployment, growth or people’s futures.
I’m not necessarily against EMA or anything but I do think something needs to be done about it. For example, like a lot of people have been saying, EMA is being abused and it needs to be monitored.
On one side you have the people who abuse it, their parents are together but technically split up so despite the fact they have a huge house and have loads of money, they still get EMA because the parens they’re living with doesn’t earn the money. On the other side, you have people who spend their EMA on food and transport to even get to college and those are the kind that need EMA.
I think to completely get rid of EMA is a bad choice. With raising uni fees and everything now, it seems like they don’t want people to go to university or college and get qualifications.
The higher the uni fees, there will be a reduction in people going to university which means less people with qualifications and less people being able to get decent jobs. All in all, this is bad for the economy!
how do they accept students to get to college and buy equipment and lunch with no money ??
i mean expect
I receive EMA at the moment, I get £30 a week… Without this payment, I don’t know how I’ll be getting to college every day, my season ticket is £30 a month, and it’s approximately £10 a week for food, plus I’ve got to buy all my materials for my subjects seeing as I take Fine Art, Graphic Design, Photography and Psychology.
These subjects don’t come cheap, and I’m barely making it along as I am, I’m worried that I’ll have to drop out when they stop EMA. I know my mum cannot pay for me, we barely manage as it is, just living on the necessities.. The most luxury we get is a packet of biscuits every 2 weeks… My mum earns less than £16,000 a year and is unable to work due to my younger brother only going to school part time.
EMA is an incentive to get to college every day on time, when I was at school, I wasn’t bothered about getting there on time daily but because of EMA, my attendance is now 100% and hasn’t faltered once… Me being late for school didn’t affect my GCSE’s though, I got 21 C-A grade GCSE’s and I’ve already been graded as A’s in every one of my A levels.. Without EMA, I feel that my grades will severely drop.
How would David Cameron like his salary to be cut 100%? Because that’s what he’s doing to me.
I agree with Emma Y, EMA is great and very necessary for students that do have financial problems but I know from my experience that it is not properly assessed. For example, if you’re parents are divorced, it doesn’t matter how much both parents earn, it is based purely on what one household earns, as this is the case, you could be living with your mum who doesn’t earn much n yet your dad could be a multi-millionaire and that student will still get £30 a week, but their dad supports them financially. EMA should definately not be axed, it is important, but better measures need to be applied. As it stands at the minute, students who are lucky enough to not be from a broken home are being punished, they don’t get £30 a week off their parents because they often can’t afford that. I personally had to get a Saturday job when I was 16 and I still didn’t earn £30 a week but I knew lots of people that got £30 EMA due to their parents being divorced and they didn’t have to get a job, how is that fair?
This government is ridiculous!! I blame the Lib Dems!! The EMA is what covers my transport costs and equipment. Without EMA and rising fares I don’t know how I will manage. Plus, with rising uni fees to absurd amounts that are half my mum’s annual income it makes you wonder what is the future!
I wasn’t aware of some of the info that you wrote about so I want to just say thank you. scholarships
IIv no idea what im going t o do when Ema goes. Im
in lower sixth studying four a levels, I’m
a young carer for two little
childre n and a mentally ill mother who cant work. My father devoted 20years of his life to roal mail and my not have.
Job next year. I dont have time to hold down a job. So im going to have to drop out of school to get a job…..oh i cant because nobody is
hiring(!) ema was a sort of ‘life line’ it paid for transport to school, textbooks and trips i have to go on to compleat case studies
for up coming exams. All of this a
dds up. the ‘government have said th
eir peice ‘poor people shouldnt get futher education’ ‘if u cant afford it you cant have it’ the uni fees says it all. The. rich get richer and the poor get poorer. Well lets hope everybody gets their wits about them soon. Sorry typos. Comp not very good.