Is EMA Fair???

Lethal

Just to add some input. I'm 17, go to sixth form and receive the full £30 EMA payment. Just to say that people do nothing at school and get paid 30 pounds for it is a big generalisation.

The money did help me a lot, especially at the start of the year where i spent:
-£20-30 x3 on textbooks for 1 subject. I ended up buying them for 3 of my 5 subjects
-£30 for subscribtions for economics and politics magazines aimed at sixth formers
-An £85 yearly subscription for the Economist
-In addition to this, i would have needed to spend 80p a day for a Daily Broadsheet such as The Times which was needed for my Politics and Economics exams, however i was lucky as my mums friend works in a journalist company which bought all the quality newspapers each day and i took his 2nd hand copy of the Times and Financial times for free.

-Also i am quite lucky in living not too far from my school and being able to travel free by bus using my ZIP card. Many others in my school also had to pay half the adult price each day to get to school by tube.

Ofcourse the EMA wasn't enough for all that, as i also had to buy food for lunch each day elsewell so i got help from selling stuff on Amazon and asking for a bit from my mum. I know that theres not alot of money in my fam, so i felt bad asking for money from parents, even though they were willing to give me everything they had, so i tried to use them as a last resort.

I achieved 5 A's for the AS exams, of which 4 were 90% +


So in conclusion i think its harsh to generalise and say that those who receive it are people that do little to no work and don't spend the money wisely. I accept that there are a lot of people that mess about and don't use the money for educational purposes, but for people like me and my friends it helps a lot.

LemonGrove

Lethal wrote: »

So in conclusion i think its harsh to generalise and say that those who receive it are people that do little to no work and don't spend the money wisely. I accept that there are a lot of people that mess about and don't use the money for educational purposes, but for people like me and my friends it helps a lot.

Agreed. I hate generalisations about education, employment etc.

thabiz wrote: »

EMA is designed to sweeten up the unemployment figures and save the state money. EMA is £30 a week, is a pain to apply for so many dont even bother. And can be taken away from you for being late to a lesson. Its a tiny drop in the ocean. The fiddles of MPs, PMs, big business and generally the very wealthy are the problem. And im sure would make the £30 a week look like the joke it really is. .

You're basing that on what? I had my application form handed to me without asking for it, and was presented again with the forms 3 more times during the transition between school/college. The few pages are hardly a problem to fill in either, and if you have problems putting a cross next to where you are from then with the application there is a large book of help notes. Once that is done you put this all in the freepost envelope - again included - then they write back to you.

rev_henry

LemonGrove wrote: »

You're basing that on what? I had my application form handed to me without asking for it, and was presented again with the forms 3 more times during the transition between school/college. The few pages are hardly a problem to fill in either, and if you have problems putting a cross next to where you are from then with the application there is a large book of help notes. Once that is done you put this all in the freepost envelope - again included - then they write back to you.

Agreed. Similar thing happened to me towards the end of 5th year (year, erm, 11 to some people?) and I got very irritated by it as at that point I didn't think I'd be eligible. Felt rather like a slap on the face. I think the problem is really at their end. The people who process the apps and handle the phone calls were utterly incapable, although they're slightly better now.

looby75

LemonGrove wrote: »

The few pages are hardly a problem to fill in either, and if you have problems putting a cross next to where you are from then with the application there is a large book of help notes. Once that is done you put this all in the freepost envelope - again included - then they write back to you.

I made the huge mistake of reading the book of notes before trying to fill the form in lol The notes got me so confused (they seemed to contradict themselves throughout!) that I binned them and just filled the form out in the way I thought made most sense.....it was obviously right as dd was awarded her EMA within 10 days

patchwork_cat

Agree 100 % with the 2 A level students. There are far too many assumptions by some posters as to the motivations, class and academic ability of those receiving EMA which TBH had me grinding my teeth.

Also to the poster saying that public sector is a growth industry ummm pardon?

The reason my DS receives EMA is that his father works in the public sector! He is a graduate with post graduate qualifications, but because he works in local government he receives about 10K less than the private sector. I am a housewife ( waiting for a hysterectomy before returning to work) whose DD has only just started grammar school.

bumpoowee

In some ways, the students who don't get EMA are lucky. It is a huge disincentive to getting a part time job so those who do get it will be unlikely to bother working and will end up with empty CVs when they come out of college. My part time experience from when I was a student was a big help in getting me a job when I did finish education.

LemonGrove

bumpoowee wrote: »

In some ways, the students who don't get EMA are lucky. It is a huge disincentive to getting a part time job so those who do get it will be unlikely to bother working and will end up with empty CVs when they come out of college. My part time experience from when I was a student was a big help in getting me a job when I did finish education.

The other side is that they have no incentive to attend as much as those who get it. There will always be days when we wake up feeling crap and unable to face the day, the students who get EMA will still have to force themselves to go in or they will lose the weeks money. Those who don't get it will see no reason to get out of bed as they will be losing nothing.

looby75 wrote: »

I made the huge mistake of reading the book of notes before trying to fill the form in lol The notes got me so confused (they seemed to contradict themselves throughout!) that I binned them and just filled the form out in the way I thought made most sense.....it was obviously right as dd was awarded her EMA within 10 days

They aren't the clearest of things like, I only read mine once for clarification on the bank account details form at the back, and it didn't help.

looby75

bumpoowee wrote: »

In some ways, the students who don't get EMA are lucky. It is a huge disincentive to getting a part time job so those who do get it will be unlikely to bother working and will end up with empty CVs when they come out of college. My part time experience from when I was a student was a big help in getting me a job when I did finish education.

I'd have to disagree with you there about students who get EMA having a disincentive to getting a job. My dd and all of her friends who also get EMA are looking for work for the simple fact they know that uni is going to be very expensive and that their parents aren't going to be in the position to help them out much. Also to get in to any decent uni you need much more than just good A-level results to put on your cv/application. Most uni's accept that students will need to work and they like to know that students have a history of working while studying effectively.

andyrules

LemonGrove wrote: »

The other side is that they have no incentive to attend as much as those who get it. There will always be days when we wake up feeling crap and unable to face the day, the students who get EMA will still have to force themselves to go in or they will lose the weeks money. Those who don't get it will see no reason to get out of bed as they will be losing nothing.

Now that's something isn't it? Students who simply cba to study. What hope for the workforce?

Thankfully, there are still some young people who wouldn't dream of skiving off - ema or no ema.

rev_henry

You can have sick days and still get paid you know. In fact you'll still get paid if you have any AUTHORISED absence, afaik. At least that's how it is at my school, you just have to get a note from parents saying you were ill.