EMA TO BE SCRAPPED

 

 Pedro Diogo

EMA TO BE SCRAPPED

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The week before half-term, the government announced its Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR), detailing the cuts being made in almost every department. Further Education has been particularly hit by these cuts. The Chancellor of the Excheque the  announced that the Education Maintenance Allowance (EMA) was to be scrapped, affecting hundreds of thousands of students in schools and colleges across the UK. The Department for Education's website states that "[EMA] will be replaced by an enhanced discretionary learner support fund" and that "decisions about which young people should receive financial support will be made by schools, colleges and training providers who are in a better position...to determine the needs of individual students." The EMA scheme will close to new applicants in January 2011, although students who currently receive the allowance will continue to get it until the end of this Academic Year.

Christopher Sanchez, President of the RuTC Students' Union said that “this is unfair and puts students from poor backgrounds at risk of not being able to buy their books or travel to college.”

What this means to students who currently receive EMA

From next September it is up to schools and colleges to decide which students need financial support. Schools and colleges will have to devise their own regulations for awarding this extra financial help.

Under current regulations, only students from low-income backgrounds whose annual household income is under £30,800 receive the means-tested benefit. Around eighty percent of those who receive the allowance come from families whose income is less than £20,817 per year.

What students use EMA for

Oliver, A Level student at RuTC said "I use EMA to buy my books and other materials I need for college" and added, “I understand why these cuts are being made and support them.”

Savanna, also an A Level student at RuTC said “I use EMA to help pay for travel costs, food and the occasional trip to the cinema!”

A campaign to save the allowance, 'SaveEMA.co.uk', has launched an online petition and is lobbying the Government and MPs to continue providing students from deprived backgrounds the opportunity to attend Further Education. Most students who receive EMA will not be able to attend college without it according to research carried out by the Institute for Fiscal Studies, RCU Market Research and Ipsos MORI between 2007-2009.