The government will withdraw almost £400 million of support to students by installing a new bursary scheme in place of Labour’s Educational Maintenance Allowance (EMA), according to proposals for the next academic year.
Home Secretary Michael Gove announced on Monday that the new scheme will guarantee regular payments amounting to £1,200 a year to approximately 12,000 16-19 year olds who are currently in care, have just left care or whose parents are on income support.
Whereas the original EMA scheme had allocated £560 million, the incumbent government’s plans will only allocate £180 million directly to students.
The remaining funds will be given to schools which will then have the responsibility of handing out financial support to students that they feel have what Gove described as “genuine financial barriers” to staying in education.
According to NUS Vice President Shane Chowen “Those who will receive automatic payments represent a tiny percentage of those eligible for EMA.
“The majority of this reduced support fund will be available only on a discretionary basis, which means hundreds of thousands of young people will be applying to sixth forms and colleges not knowing what support they will receive.
At a time when youth unemployment is so high those looking towards further education will be worried that they will be unable to make up the shortfall in funds through part-time work.
Dan Tomlinson, a first-year Univ student who received EMA at school, said, “The coalition’s new policy is still lacking in detail. I’m worried for people just like me in Year 11 who may feel they won’t be able to afford sixth form or college.”
Members of the ‘Save EMA’ campaign commented, “If Michael Gove thinks that he deserves credit after giving 70p extra a week to 12,000 of the poorest students while at the same time taking away £30 a week [from] many of their classmates whose finances are marginally better, then he really is delusional.”
