Ema

janet37

Does any one know what is happening with EMA payments? My son hasnt had any at all since last july. When I have tried to telphone the helpline it just says we are expereincing difficulties well to be frank so am I!! Dont really know where to go for advice for him, some of the kids on his course have had to pack in as they just cant keep on, although it is not a large amount it does help them. we recieved a letter to say he would be getting it and that was in august we have heard nothing since then. dont really know who to ask about it. Seems to of just disssapeared.

mcjordi

there seems to be a big back log atm, my mate over the road from me goes to college although hes not moaing about it atm he has a little part time jobs which keeps him coming although im sure he will get what is owed soon

pandaonmyshoulder

My daughter was told she would get ema and so far no money has gone into her account even though I phone ema every single week without fail :mad: They keep sending her confirmation but stating the totally incorrect bank details:mad: We keep telling them by letter,phone and we have sent countless copy bank statements and still no ema:mad: Luckily the college my daughter attends have agreed to pay for her bus pass until the ema mess is sorted out but obviously the Bank of Mum & Dad is having to fund everything else for the course so far and to be honest it is affecting our family budget to a large extent.

sharronej

We are in the same position, my dd applied in July and after numerous phone calls where they won't even look her file up, we have finally recieved a letter saying that she does qualify - I was hoping that is would be through next week but having read the other posts that seem optimistic! The problem apparantly is that they have a new computer system - why does getting a new system bring the entire system to a halt? It's a mystery to me.

Voyager2002

Try reading the papers!

This was on the six o' clock news last night: the company running the EMA scheme is incompetent, and now the government has withdrawn the contract from them.

And yes, they were from the USA. You would have thought that our rulers would have learned something from the CSA mess!

sharronej

Don't buy a paper voyager2002, they tend to depress me LOL I only hope that they sort it out soon because I'm struggling to keep up with dd's expenses

ferrettpecker

I work in a college as an EMA officer. The company who took over the contract this year have thankfully had the contract taken off them, and it has been given back to the company that had it before. I'm hoping this means it will go back to the old inline system too as that was so much easier. I'll try and explain as simply as possible what is happening.

After a student applies, they *should* recieve their part 2 contract back (the bit that is given to college) within 2 weeks of their application being processed. We've noticed that the main backlog appears to be from forms sent in during the last 2 weeks of August, however, after speaking to someone at EMA yesterday, these are all finally being processed (this week) so students should expect to recieve their contract within 2 weeks.

Once the contract is handed into college, the staff there (ie. Me) log this contract and the student should start getting paid (if the student applied on or before the 31st October their money will be backdated to the start of September, however, this might not all go in at once, it may be one or 2 extra payments a week due to the fact that its such a slow and long winded process to make payments, it's often impossible to do them all at once) but their Friday payments will go in as normal. It's just a case of checking bank statements every week to see if back payments have been made.

Also, if students are waiting on money and find themselves in financial hardship where they are at a point where they may need to leave college, there are a number of options available in all colleges including Learner Support Fund and Emergency Welfare funds - speak to Student Services and see whats there available.

I've had so many angry parents phoning me daily, and whilst most of them understand when I explain that its a country-wide problem because the ema system is pants, there's the odd few who are still rude - they don't realise that their darling children are going to go straight to the bottom of my pile of payments! It may sound harsh, but when you've got to manually pay each week for over 1000 students whilst trying to do battle with a system that is so slow/or crashes, then it's hard, and if they don't understand that, their kids go to the bottom of the pile.

The best thing to do in all honesty is to pop into college and speak to the EMA officers if you can, let them explain how far ahead they are, and as I said, they'll be able to lp you with any financial worries the student maybe having until then.. Hope this helps!

folkestonelisa

I must be one of the lucky ones. My son applied for his in about May and had all his paperwork through and ready by the time he started college, so hes been getting his money every week without fail since he started.:j

sharronej

ferrettpecker wrote: »

I
After a student applies, they *should* recieve their part 2 contract back (the bit that is given to college) within 2 weeks of their application being processed. We've noticed that the main backlog appears to be from forms sent in during the last 2 weeks of August, however, after speaking to someone at EMA yesterday, these are all finally being processed (this week) so students should expect to recieve their contract within 2 weeks.

Once the contract is handed into college, the staff there (ie. Me) log this contract and the student should start getting paid

Thanks for taking the time to explain for us, my dd took her contract into college over a week ago but we haven't heard anything so I had assumed the form got sent back to the EMA offices and had warned her to expect another five week wait! Hopefully, she will hear soon

ferrettpecker

sharronej wrote: »

Thanks for taking the time to explain for us, my dd took her contract into college over a week ago but we haven't heard anything so I had assumed the form got sent back to the EMA offices and had warned her to expect another five week wait! Hopefully, she will hear soon

If she's had her contract back (an A4 sheet of paper with 2 parts, one she fills in and signs, the other half her course tutor fills in and signs) and handed it in to college, she should be recieving her money by now. Once I get that contract, I log it onto the system that day and the student starts getting their money the following Friday.

May be worth phoning her college (or going in yourself) to see what's happening. Once the contract has been issued its basically all ok on the EMA side, it's just up to college to pay the student

bluestaff

Thankyou ferretpecker my son has been waiting since august so hopefully he will be sorted soon. :j thanks again