Join us on FacebookThis is a guest post by Shane Chowen who is the NUS Vice President for Further Education…
This is it - the new Government have got their feet firmly under the table and their vision of a smaller state and 
reductions in public spending now becoming a reality.
One way the Coalition want to identify ways to save money is by opening a public consultation - asking the public for their ideas on where our taxes can be used more efficiently.
Below is a link to that website - and EMA has been aggressively targetted, with many submissions calling for it to be abolished.
http://spendingchallenge.hm-treasury.gov.uk/how-can-we-rethink-public-services-to-deliver-more-for-less/search?text=EMA
We can not stand by and let the Coalition believe these claims!
Please register on the site and add your comments about why scrapping EMA is a bad idea.
We know the system is not perfect, we know that there are people that need it that aren’t getting it. But the truth is that the voices of those that need it most - the poorest in our Colleges and Sixth Forms - are not being represented.
This is where we need you to come in.
To help, here’s a link to the NUS EMA Survey that we did earlier this year - where we found that 55% of young people on EMA could not afford to study without it.:
http://www.nusconnect.org.uk/news/article/fixitbackit/143/
Let’s make the case, stand up for those who need this support and Save EMA from the cuts!
Shane Chowen
NUS Vice President (FE)
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Without EMA I would not have been able to afford my textbooks, or my travel to college. Please don’t get rid of it - so many young people depend on it.
EMA is so important. As young people coming from less privileged backgrounds, EMA is relied upon, not only for extra curricular fees, but also as a financial cushion for those hoping to go to University. I’m hoping to finish my A Levels and go on to University to do a degree in primary education. Without EMA my ambitions wouldn’t be possible, and now there are plans to increase University fees. This may help our economy, but it’s not going to provide any incentive for young people to vote for a party that’s making it impossible to continue into further education.
Ema is so important to me i only live with my mother and it is hard for us now to survive and if you cut ema i will have to leave college and find a full time job that i will not enjoy because i need to help my mother.
I am a single parent and work 37 hours a week and have 3 children of whom two of those attend 6th form college. They both receive £30 ema and it helps them buy books and helps with their bus fares. Without that, i dont think i would be able to give them the money for bus fares, books etc. Please don’t scrap it, it is a great help for me.
The only way i can travel to school is by using the money I get from EMA. There will be many more like me who will have the same problem causing late marks and absences.
EMA is a students lifeline……my daughter has just started college studying A levels at Canterbury, she uses her EMA to pay her own bus fare and buy any books/pay for trips…..I am a single parent on a annual salary of £11,000……..I wouldn’t say we were from a less privilaged background but we will struggle if this is stopped….along with thousends of hard grafting students.