Ema

boldaslove

i think it's only term time. i managed to get mine sorted today - turns out the helpline people were supposed to tell me to pick up forms from reception once i'd handed in the entitlement letter, for my tutor to sign. they're processing it now. if anyone's in a similar situation go and have a word with reception or guidance staff, apparantly if you've qualified for ema/alg and you have your acceptance letter they can pay you by cheque until you're on the system properly. i'm not sure if this is just my college's policy or a general one, but it's worth checking.

MissPop

bestpud wrote: »

I hope you will pay her back?

MY dd loaned money from me while waiting for hers and paid it back when she received her backpayment.

Of course! Luckily I'm pretty self-sufficient (EMA keeps me going, and I've just received my first pay cheque for my Christmas job, woop) and I really didn't spend much - I felt awful buying new shoes, but my other ones were falling apart!

But I'll be putting some of my back payment (£240! :j) to new clothes, which my mum would give me money for anyway - she is always pleading with me to get clothes! How many mums can say that?!

Anyway, I hope everyone gets their soon!

SuziQ

Just to clarify an earlier poster,ema is only paid for term-time not holidays.

trixie73

my son applied middle of july.he started college on 1st sept. he recieved a payment a fortnight ago , it was 4 weeks payments . since then he has had nothing.

wobbles08

My Son applied in july, he only recieved his NOE 2 weeks ago he took it to college and was told he would receive 5 weeks money on 27th Oct (yesterday) Im sure he should have been owed 7 weeks money, he started college full time on Monday 8th sept.

he went to cash machine yesterday to find nothing in his account, the money appeared today. Does EMA normally get paid weekly or fortnightly? and what day of the week does it usually go in the bank?

Thanks
Wobs

aaranj

wobbles08 wrote: »

Does EMA normally get paid weekly or fortnightly? and what day of the week does it usually go in the bank?

for me the money gets paid in weekly on a thursday and at clears at 00:01 friday morning (but can be withdrawn on thursday)

geordie_lass_2

EMA asessments and payments are now being dealt with by a private company called Liberata. The delays have been horrendous, my DS applied in June this year and at last has just received his first payment today of backdated amounts.
However, he also got a letter from the college today explaining that they had been unable to authorise payment for any students for week commencing 20th October. This is because Liberata had automatically assumed that students had a two week half term holiday, despite the fact that the college had told them in September that it was a one week holiday starting on 27th October and have blocked the ability for colleges to authorise payments for the "extra" week!

The college has explained Liberata's error to them and are awaiting a decision as to if and when the money will be paid.
If anyone else is missing a payment then this may be why, if this has happened nationally then my guess is that it may also affect students with different half term holiday dates too, Liberata seem to have assumed a two week holiday date of 20th October - 2nd November for all students.
This also affects those claiming ALG, my older DS is in the same boat, as EMA and ALG are both dealt with by Liberata.

For anyone still waiting to hear about their claim I would advise you check with the EMA helpline tonight (closes at 8pm) that they have your child's claim forms, EMA will be backdated to the start of term only if they receive your form by the end of this month, ie: today.

We waited since June with no acknowledgment from them as to whether or not they had actually received DS forms or not and only found out after several long phone calls as each time they were have problems accessing their system.

timnicebutdim_2

geordie_lass wrote: »

Liberata seem to have assumed a two week holiday date of 20th October - 2nd November for all students.

Hi, just to confirm this, as an EMA superuser I've also had problems paying students for the week commencing 20/10/08. Liberata have said it's an IT issue and are working on it but it's taking time and I haven't had much luck yet. The online system to authorise payments is also horrendous! Although it is an interim system and you can't change study patterns once a student is registered as it goes to the default term dates. I expect something will be done soon as most colleges will be in the same boat so watch this space... (hopefully!)

aaranj

geordie_lass wrote: »

Liberata seem to have assumed a two week holiday date of 20th October - 2nd November for all students.

are you sure? because i recieved my payment no probs for week commencing 20th October.

Alibat

My daughter applied for her EMA in July and received her NoE at the beginning of October. The week after that she had a letter saying they had received her application and would get round to looking at it as soon as they could. :rolleyes: Our P60's etc didn't turn up until last week which I had started to become quite worried about.

Her backdated payments came through in dribs and drabs which made it difficult for her to know exactly where she stood. She also got paid in her half term week, but not the first week she went back. We tend to have half term here earlier than most so maybe that's understandable but she's getting quite fed up of not knowing what money she is going to have and when. Personally I think she should just be glad she gets anything at all, but that's a whole other story. :rolleyes: