EMA Applications closed as of January 2011

[Recursion]

They should replace it with a coupon system only certain shops (like Waterstones, WH Smith etc) accepted.

Also lol at the people getting pissed, fair enough if you spent it on useful things, but for the people who bought computer games and concert tickets, kinda about time they scrapped it.

[AgnesIO]

I shouldn't be entitled to it but I said I lived with my nan so now I get £30 a week, feels good man. Also, I think people are over reacting a bit, you don't need much for college except a pen and some paper. I doubt any of you actually buy college realted things with the money anyway.

Please, please, please say your first bit was a joke.

Are you guys not ******* listening or something?

I work part time. I also live away from my parents. This means having to pay rent along with bills and money for food etc.

I know another 5 students in the exact same situation.

And I know another 50,000 students who are not in that situation. You made a life choice, where you decided to rest on the governments shoulders. It's time to stop.

Its a ******* joke, EMA hardly uses up any of the Govenments money anyway and I did actually use it for 3 month savers and equipment. I wouldn't mind if they gave out free bus passes or other **** because I would just get a job to socialise but the Government are just targetting those who don't have voice when it comes to voting. However 5 years time they'll be out hopefully

I can think of twenty people off the top of my head on £30 a week - that is £600 by itself. That is only twenty of the thousands of people taking it. Free buss passes would be a good idea, but EMA is a joke.

That's such a good argument. No substance whatsoever.

How on earth was it unfair?

I think you meant to say 'im really really really spoilt, my mommy an daddy are really rich and buy everything for me, I really wanted tht extra EMA, really really did cause im a really spoilt brat and i will get what i want!!!'

The system was not unfair, it was just distributed in the totally wrong way.

Great idea, lousy execution.

I never have and never will be entitled to EMA. Let me tell you now though, I pay every penny for my education - not my parents. I work to earn money. Perhaps you could do the same.

Also, I swear when the iPad was announced the first thing you said on here is 'After about ten weeks EMA I will be able to afford it!!' No wonder it is being scrapped.

Do something about it then, quit college and get an apprenticeship? Get a higher paying job? Earn money other ways?
*REMOVED*

I totally agree. +Rep

They should replace it with a coupon system only certain shops (like Waterstones, WH Smith etc) accepted.

Also lol at the people getting pissed, fair enough if you spent it on useful things, but for the people who bought computer games and concert tickets, kinda about time they scrapped it.

This is what I think would work. Vouchers and stuff - things that cannot be spent for peoples social lives.

[Storking]

I think they're only stopping the £20 and £10 payments in Wales so hopefully i'll still get the £30 next year :B

but as a receiver of the £30 EMA a week, i'm king of glad it's being stopped because in a lot of cases people were spending on alcohol and 'luxury' items and that's completely not what the programme was for.. but if I were in the governments shoes i'd have made it so that instead of so much money, you get coupons(as said above) for the typical school shops and then extra money if you need it.. and giving free travel on buses/trains would be great because that's what most people say they spend it on

I just hope they're putting the money that would normally be spent on EMA in areas that really need it(universities !) rather than wasting it on crap.

[e5]

I never got EMA anyway.... so all is fair now

But as always, they always want to look for ways to save money... So instead of scrappin the scheme completely, they should offer free bus/train travel and coupons as said above. People definately were spending the money on other things rather than school-related bits, so they are making sense by stopping it.

[Mikey]

I do agree with what the government have done. All the people in my school who receive it don't use the money for educational purposes, they use it on other things like going to the cinema with there mates or getting drunk. I don't receive it because my mum and dad earn over the entry requirement amount but like my mum and dad are struggling to give me money for school bus fares/train fares and school supplies while these people get the money in hand and spend it on crap like I said above. I think they should of changed EMA so the money is less and that the money is actually used on there education? e.g bus passes, vouchers for bookshops and stationery shops?

[Inseriousity.]

why dont you just get a part time job..

Easier said than done with the job market atm.
I do believe the EMA system needed reform but atm I'm under the impression that they're planning to bring in a new 'pupil premium' that's just more of the same thing with a different name. Time will tell

[Ajthedragon]

I would've used mine for alcohol, fun and games anyway, I happily get along with paper round money.

[Nemo]

Will probably end up getting a job anyway next week, intending/intended to get one this year but keep pushing it back coz im so lazy and already have enough money. Will end up tutoring or something, only 3 hours a week to get the equivalent of my EMA then

[Oleh]

I recently started 6form and started receiving EMA and to me it is an incentive for staying on to be further educated. Not a money farm whereby every week i can spend it on whatever i like. I do spend it on Travel to the cinema but thats £10 on the cinema, the other £20 goes on the odd t-shirt or jeans which permits me to look respectful at sixth form as well as in house things such as learning related gear (trips to colleges) as well as to keep myself fed through the hours im there.

You may say "why depend on EMA in the first place" - Because when the 2010-2011 term started no news about EMA being abolished was being circulated. The very sentence "why depend on EMA in the first place" is applicable to everybody for example. A Man loses his £380 ,8 hour a day, job with little to no warning. He depends on this job to keep his family of 2 children and a housewife housed and fed. and the odds and ends go into the children's car/university fund. Without this £380 a week he is going to have to declare bankruptcy and be forced to live on the streets as he barely scrapes by on his current earnings. Would you then criticize him on "depending on his weekly income to live"? Think long and hard about what you are thinking.

Feel free to pick fault. This was just a educational example i quickly thought up

[FlyingJesus]

I don't get why people are even still discussing the merits and demerits of this as though it'll actually affect anyone when it's clearly been posted that further education students from low-income families will still be getting financial aid, just from the schools and colleges themselves