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According to a recent survey, 70% of students who receive the education maintenance allowance (EMA) will drop out of college if the government follows through on plans to scrap it.
The EMA is a means-tested allowance of between £10 and £30, paid to 16- to 19-year-olds who stay on in education. In 2009/10, 635,000 learners received at least one EMA payment, and around 80 per cent of those the full £30.
The EMA helped support a huge increase in the number of young people from less well-off backgrounds going onto college. Students in areas with higher levels of social hardship are most dependent on the weekly financial support, and will therefore be hit hard by this cut. Thousands of students could now be forced to drop out of college which will in turn also put even more college jobs at risk.
The government has announced its intention to scrap the scheme, and that applications for the EMA after 1 January 2011 will not be accepted. However, an all-day debate will take place in Parliament on 19 January 2011 and it's vital that you encourage your MP to take part and argue against the change - see below for details.
See ATL's help and advice page on the EMA for more information.
An Education Select Committee will be considering the impact of EMA and its replacement on 2 March 2011. The inquiry will focus on issues including:
16-19 participation in education and training
what impact the Education Maintenance Allowance has had on the participation, attendance, achievement and welfare of young people
how effective the Discretionary Learner Support Fund will be in replacing it.
You can:
sign the joint union EMA petition at http://emacampaign.org.uk/sign/
watch this video from protests at one college on the day of action against the cuts, held on 13 December 2010.
read up on the issues and up-to-date news at http://emacampaign.org.uk and http://saveema.co.uk/.