Blog: Why I need the Education Maintenance Allowance
Tuesday 14th December 2010, 8:49AM GMT.
Blog: There were more student protests yesterday, not about university tuition fees but about cuts to the Education Maintenance Allowance (EMA), writes Shrewsbury student Liam Thomas.
This is an education grant aimed at some of the country’s poorest teenagers.
The EMA allows students aged 16-18 to stay in education, and yesterday sixth form and college students, together with staff and trade unions, were protesting against the government’s plans to cut it.
I currently receive the full EMA – that’s £30 a week.
I’ve been told that I will continue to receive the allowance because, as part of the contract I signed with the EMA people, the payments cannot be terminated halfway through the year (APPARENTLY). I’m relieved about this.
But if I was two years younger, I would seriously be reconsidering if I should be going to sixth form or not.
I’m from a single parent family and our income is well below the limit for full EMA, even though my mum holds down two jobs, so without the weekly payments I probably wouldn’t be able to go to college.
The bus fare is £18 a week and then there are books, stationary and printing costs, and that’s not including buying food as I take my own lunch (I’m known as Lunchbox Liam). It’s quite an expensive time going to college.
The Government has been saying that there will be money available for the poorest of families; I haven’t heard anything about these other funds, and with the reputation that Nick Clegg now has, I really don’t trust anything those MPs say.
Just this week, I found out that my bonus has been scrapped too. The bonus is £100 given to all EMA students if their attendance is good and they have had good effort grades in the November reports. In other words, it’s a reward for doing well.
Losing the bonus is a bit of a pain for me because it means that I won’t be able to buy any Christmas presents this year. And before I have people telling me to get off my backside and get a job, I’ve applied for upwards of 10 different jobs, but to no avail.
I would have joined in with the protests today, but unfortunately I’ve been poorly with a virus, so I’ve been showing my support on Facebook and Twitter.
I’m just glad that I’ve had this financial support so far, and I feel sorry for those people who won’t.
I’ll leave you with a joke:
Why did Nick Clegg cross the road?
Because he said he wouldn’t.
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You say ‘Losing the bonus is a bit of a pain for me because it means that I won’t be able to buy any Christmas presents this year’ !!!!
End of argument methinks, using taxpayers money to buy your Christmas presents, how obscene is that.
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I agree. I was feeling quite sympathetic til I read that line!
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You are making an assumption. Perhaps he means that the money he would have used for Christmas presents will now have to be spent on travelling to college. Depends how you look at it.
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There are not alot of jobs going around and the reward is quite justified with the amount of hard work A levels are nowadays.
Even if you get a job you end up having to lose most of your social development because of the work hours and the 8 hours of homework a night.
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I think every student is different and copes in the best way they can throughout their education. There were plenty of jobs available when I was at Sixth Form and I held down three, but I didn’t earn enough to pay for university and, despite now running my own business, I still cannot afford to get a degree – but I am not protesting about it, this is life – a very important lesson that everyone has to learn.
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I’m with you on that. University and even college is not the be all and end all. As for jobs, I’m pretty sure there are plenty of Christmas temporary roles about at the moment that could earn this young man enough cash to pay for his Christmas presents!
I can almost get my head around being paid £30 a week to stay on in education if it covers the cost of you being there when you have no other form of income to fund it.
However, the idea of getting £100 as a ‘bonus’ for turning up, working hard and getting decent grades (i.e. doing what every normal student should) I find pretty shocking. There was no cash prize for us for doing well at school that I remember, just the satisfaction of knowing you had done your best and hopefully had the qualifications you needed in life, whatever they might be.
I’m a bit confused as to his mention of the cost of books too. Do schools not provide the text books anymore? I know at university I had to buy my own but at sixth form they were provided on loan for the duration of my education there!
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The allowance should never have been introduced.
I was doing a paper round until I was 16 and I only gave it up when I had a Saturday job in a factory second shop and I served Sunday lunches in a pub. At 17 I was working a couple of evenings a week in a care home. My mum didn’t have much money but as I was still in full time education she still had her family allowance/child benefit and tax credits to help fund bus fares and such. I didn’t have a wardrobe full of clothes and I made the best of what I had because I wanted to go to college.
You get your college education for free but you still want tax payers to give you pocket money on top?
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Bus! Luxury! I had to walk to school. barefoot. in the snow.
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Yes but when you are used to catching a bus then not being able to pay for it would be a major thing. If your used to walking then I am sure walking is fine.
The point is if you don’t have something then you don’t miss it. If you have it and then it gets taken away you feel it more.
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Ever thought of getting a weekend , evening job??
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What you need to remember is jobs are not readily available as they were years ago. There is hardly enough to support “grown-up” workers, yet alone teenage ones too.
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There are loads of jobs, temping, casualwork, not stuff you’d want to make a career of, but enough to bring in a wage to support studying. Liam may have to apply for far more than 10, the more he applies for the better.
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Hard to believe he could not get a job for a few hours in a shop, ware house, fast food outlet, at this time of year try harder by putting less obstacles in your way .
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I never had an ema, I went to sixth form before it was introduced. at 16 I got a Christmas temp job and was made permanent in the January. While I was doing my a levels I also worked between 16 and 40 hours per week. I know times are harder now but there are temp jobs there if people are willing to get them and work hard at it. I still came out of it with 3Bs and 2 AS levels at grade C. It’s all possible you just have to work for it.
I took a year out and worked after my A levels then decided that buying a house was more important than going to university so I bought my first house and did my degree through the Open University while working full time. It took me 4 years to complete my degree which isn’t bad when these ‘full time’ students do it in 3. I do wish they would stop moaning and just get on with it! Incidentally, I’m not that old, I graduated this year…
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Lindsey,
I think very similarly to you.
I left school at 16, did an NVQ whilst working 37 hours a week, then i did a HNC part time at TCAT, now I’m in the last year of my degree part time at a local university.
The whole lot has cost me under £5000, funded by myself only and I bought my first house last year.
I’m 22 – not so hard with a bit of work is it?
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Stop whining, get on with it, the rest of the country have to. Are you being evicted? Have you had your gas, water or electric cut off because you can’t pay the bills? No, so you don’t have it hard at all. I’ve had to pay for my education since I left school, all my course fees, everything and I moved out of the home at 18 so I’ve been qualifying, working full time and doing part time jobs to keep a roof over my head.
Baby!
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Well Earache Abounds.
For your information, I’ve experienced Gas, Electric, Water, and Phone line cut off, due to lack of funds!
And as for being a baby atleast I don’t hide behind a fake name!
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Stop moaning and get a job! I did! It helps to pay for things you know!
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Wayne i agree with you.
I have worked from i left school. Most People who get EMA just sit in class doing noting or there wasting it on booze at the weekend. I think.
I dont disagree with EMA fully but the £100 bonus, I have a part time job and i save up but spending EDUCATION MAINTENCE ALLOWENCE on gifts is just bad yer save it up but spending the whole £100 i bet you have course work to do over the holiday what if you run out of ink who you going to blame that on.
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Well, ‘Lunchbox Liam’, have you ever considered getting a part time job during the weekend? We all have to make our sacrifices for the wellbeing of the country’s economy. Why don’t you make your contribution instead of relying on the taxpayer? There were days when people did not recieve EMA, and to think that you would reconsider attending a college course in relation to not recieving EMA, I personally think is disgusting. I’ve seen your previous letters about having nothing to do – there’s something for you to do. GET A JOB.
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Hello Arthur
Please cast your eye back to paragraph 10
I’ve applied for 10 different jobs, that’s just in the past 2 months, and I have not had any offers, I think that the statistic is that for every one application there are 18 applicants.
I would make my “contribution instead of relying on the taxpayer” but when I can’t get a job, it’s impossible to contribute.
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Only 10 jobs?? in 2 months!!!
You need to get in the real world!
Those out of work at the moment are applying for near 10 a day!
Grow up and stop sponging.
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rb.
The problem with applying for “near 10 a day” is that a lot of those are either full time, or more hours than the college allows me to work. If I got a job with more than 10 hours a week, and my college found out, I would have diciplinary action, which could result in me being kicked out of college!
And I would give my tax in the future to support disadvantaged young people, so they can go to college, as I know what it’s like being less advantaged.
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Liam, when I was at college I worked evenings and weekends, particularly over Christmas where I was doing 40 hours a week. I attended all my lessons and got all my coursework on time. What a load of rubbish ‘I would be kicked out for working more than 10 hours a week’!!
I think this has a lot more to do with not wanting to work than not being able to
rb sorry this is a reply to you not Liam, I cant post a reply to his comment
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Lindsay,
I’m sorry if the rules that my college impliments are not to your standards.
Do you want to have a word with my principle??!!
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Liam,
That’ll be ‘Principal’, not ‘principle’…
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Are you a real person Liam or just a spouting voice created by a youth group ?
Your comments are pathetic, I have read all your blogs and letters and cannot believe that you represent a single teenager in Shrewsbury.
Get a life and live in the real world, sex, drugs and rock & roll are part of life now, you cannot live in the past nor can you change the future, you have to accept the way that others live or you are going to be left behind alone, with few friends.
Move forward and accept that you cannot change the way the world is today.
You can hide behind your comments but no one is going to take you seriously, ever.
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I’m embarrassed myself (A Shrewsbury Sixth Form student) that you’re trying to represent the views of all modern teenagers who are also experiencing the EMA cut. I’m not from a rich family – we have enough money to buy food and pay bills, but not much else, yet I have a part time job while studying which pays for education costs such as stationary, paper and printing costs. In this world Liam, you wont always get something for nothing. Yes, my EMA will be stopped, but I’m not going to cry about it like you are. You have alot to learn.
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I find the EMA argument completely riduculous. As far as I was aware, EMA didnt exist in 2001 – 03 when I was a Sixth Former. I, like many of my fellow sixth formers worked part time to have money for all the expenses listed in the blog.
In 2002, my pay was £35 a week for 12 hours work and was more than enough to fund getting to/from college, lunch, books and even to pay to watch STFC at home on Saturday (ee when I wer a lad).
I had to apply for loads of jobs before getting lucky. Its called life.
I’ve never supported EMA and will be glad to see the back of it. I believe there should be a travel subsidy to help rural students get to and from college but thats it!!!
As for bonuses for turning up – I turn up to my NHS job every day. Do you think I will be getting a nice big bonus at the end of the year?? Put that one on the list of maybe’s!!!
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I am very lucky in that as my husband has a good job i do not have to work however i do hold down a part time job to buy treats and non essential christmas presents should I wish. Perhaps I should increase my hours so more of my tax goes to you poor students so that you can buy your presents with my money!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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All you people are probably going on an image of what students are. Young people drinking and falling about the place & also rioting up & down the country. The majority really do rely on the EMA, because believe it or not people do need equiptment and materials for college, and also to help their own families out.
Its fine for all of you to say get a job. But where to find one in this economic climate?!?!
I do hope you smug, ignorant, one-eyed jobsworths look at it from a different point of view and realise how lucky you are to actually have a job!!
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I’m not lucky to have my job Melv, I have it because I’m qualified (at my own cost) and skilled.
What money did students use to buy equipments, etc before the EMA was introduced Melv?
And I’ve got two eyes thank you very much, I find them very useful for filling in vat returns.
And I can do all that without having had to have been bribed to study!
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Well done for speaking out Liam. There has been quite a lot of coverage of this on the BBC today.
I am appalled that the government intend to raise the leaving age of finishing college to 18 in 2015. The schools are disadvantaged enough with disruptive pupils who have no intention of even attempting to use their limited cerebal capacity and making them stay on even longer to disrupt the other ambitious students is not good at all.
The comments on here are somewhat smug a bit like those from the government where those who are dishing the dirt are either from priviledged backgrounds or rose in their careers through university which was provided by the state. As well as that at a time when students were not a commodity to be milked, credit was not available or promoted and making ends meet a mutually shared challenge.
Many students were reliant on EMA for travel so again the government takes money out of the ecomomy and food outlets will suffer and train fares be hiked up again.
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Refer to post 6 – mine and lindseys comments.
Just ripped what you have said to shreds.
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Thank you rb
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Thanks for your support eva land
:)
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EMA gives students from low income families the motivation and support to go to sixth form hopefully to gain qualifications. Not all will use it wisely, not all will gain top A levels but most will gain extra qualifications which will give them a chance at a career with prospects. Removing it just kicks away a bit more hope.
So many people do not realise how lucky they are to have supportive parents.
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Thanks for your support!
:)
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15 years ago – blimey, thats gone quick – I attended college, acheived some good results all while working part time (17.5 hours per week actually). It is perfectly possible.
Its about time students took financial responsibility for the investment in their own futures and not rely on state handouts.
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Liam – Clearly you need to work harder and get into the real world.
I could more than guarentee that you EMA went on more than “books and stationary”. How much of it goes on booze? Please reveal.
You need to find a job and stop making excuses – Get off Call Of Duty and sort your life out.
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Well Mr/Mrs Sensible.
Not a single penny of my EMA goes on booze. I DONT DRINK ALCOHOL!!!
And as for Call Of Duty, I haven’t got the patience for it, Let alone the time!
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Liam, I am sorry you have been a target of some insensitive patronising comments. EMA was introduced because not enough people from less privileged backgrounds were staying on for further education. An educated workforce is the key to a prosperous economy so you play a very important role in our future. Ignore these comments, study hard and good luck.
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Thank you!!!
Why can’t everyone be as supportive as you?
:)
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I was a recipient of the EMA, or equivalent, many years ago. I left home at 15 and went to college I had to leave home because my Dad wanted me bringing in money and I wanted a better education and not to have to work stacking shelves (not that there’s anything wrong with that, just wanted more options). I had to work to get by, collecting glasses, Saturday job in a shop, Sunday job, worked all through the holidays and saved my money so I could eat and pay rent (I rented a room in someones house) I lived off value beans and bread, Sunday lunch with my grandma saw me getting a decent meal and a decent bath. I was fortunate that I got the jobs I applied for, I know of others who applied for upwards of lots more than 10. Speak with the college about your situation, they may allow you to work. Apply for lots and lots and lots and lots more jobs. Review your spelling – especially on job applications. Set your sights a little lower and take any job going….This is an experience that can build character, which is so useful later on. Believe me I learned loads about myself as well as gained a formal education in the process. It was d*amn hard and I’m so proud of the resolve I had then that I still carry with me, and I’m very successful personally and professionally now.
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Liam, I agree with Davey Wavey. Log on to Shropshire Fights Back to find out more about cuts in your area.
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Thanks Jayne
:)
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There should be no bonus for doing well, what about the other students who do well, but have no bonus, yes I agrre with EMA
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