Ema Problems

sunrise27_2

AnxiousMum wrote: »

Sorry Sunrise! it wasn't you!

thank you I'm not about to give up my child benefit and tax credits as well lol

kingfisherblue

There is always a cut off point when changes occur - even if you weren't aware of the change. It might be frustrating, but it isn't going to be altered for one person. If nothing else, your daughter will have learned not to leave things to the last minute.

FWIW, I think EMA will be obsolete in a short time anyway. The school leaving age is to be increased from 16 to 18 - everybody will have to be in some sort of employment or training. I can't remember exactly when this will occur, but a decision was made about three years ago. I remember that it affects my two youngest (but I would want them to stay on anyway).

Right, I've found it. The plans are to raise the school leaving age to 18 in 2013.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/6254833.stm

Whether this is definitely going ahead, I'm not sure, but presumably it will mean an end to EMA as a sweetener to keep young people in education as they won't have any choice. It will also help the economic recovery I would have thought.

Mupette

Oldernotwiser wrote: »

Unless I've misunderstood you, she sat on the forms from the 2nd until the 28th July rather than getting them signed ASAP so I imagine she's kicking herself!

Awww you got there first, I was wondering too why it took her a few weeks to get these forms signed, if it was that important that she had this money then I would of thought she would of made it a priority to get them sorted, if not had time for a free £30 i would of made the time.

It may seem unfair that the rules changed on the day, perhaps we can lobby to have the date moved one day along for your daughter.

cmhbyandco

The op needed to vent her feelings about what she felt was unfair. I can understand that so why are you all criticising her??

Is it so wrong to be angry about this?? She has every right & surely having now to defend herself is more unfair.

Please be a little more empathetic towards people than being critical!!

I thought these boards were for support & advice not for people to defend themselves!!

Robbie64

sunrise27 wrote: »

I have just found this on a website
this means that courses starting from the 28th June 2010 the e2e variant of ema will not be available to new learners and all new learners will be income assessed,
for learners whose programme starts before the 28th June the current arrangements will continue until the end of the course or 10th January 2011 whichever comes first
does that mean that if my daughter had started the course on the 27th June then she would have been paid ema until the end of the course in November ???

if this is the case I am even more annoyed as her and her friends liased with both colleges for a suitable start date for the new course, she finished the hair course on the 24th June and could easily have started the new one the next day on the 25th June ( if someone , anyone !!! had told them of the new 28th June rule ) she would now not be having any problems and would be paid to the end of her course at the end of November !!!

Just to point out that the information you posted above means that even if she had completed the paperwork before 28 June 2010 she wouldn't have got any EMA. You have picked up on this in your reply above but elsewhere in this thread you seem to think that it was the date the application was made and not the date the course was due to start that matters, which is not correct.

sunrise27_2

Oldernotwiser wrote: »

Unless I've misunderstood you, she sat on the forms from the 2nd until the 28th July rather than getting them signed ASAP so I imagine she's kicking herself!

she certainly did not sit on the forms , she was told to take them with her on the 28th June the day she started the course, she had made sure she'd got everything filled in with plenty of time and had the ema approved
surely the college should have told them about the ema changes and advised them to get their papers signed earlier

sunrise27_2

Robbie64 wrote: »

Just to point out that the information you posted above means that even if she had completed the paperwork before 28 June 2010 she wouldn't have got any EMA. You have picked up on this in your reply above but elsewhere in this thread you seem to think that it was the date the application was made and not the date the course was due to start that matters, which is not correct.

I have been told by the ema that if she'd got the forms signed even the day before which before people pick holes would have been a sunday so if she'd taken the forms and got them signed on the Friday she would have been entitled to it
Again the college should have been aware of this and told the students

Indie_Kid

sunrise27 wrote: »

I have been told by the ema that if she'd got the forms signed even the day before which before people pick holes would have been a sunday so if she'd taken the forms and got them signed on the Friday she would have been entitled to it
Again the college should have been aware of this and told the students

It's the students responsibility to find out what they're entitled to.

sunrise27_2

cmhbyandco wrote: »

The op needed to vent her feelings about what she felt was unfair. I can understand that so why are you all criticising her??

Is it so wrong to be angry about this?? She has every right & surely having now to defend herself is more unfair.

Please be a little more empathetic towards people than being critical!!

I thought these boards were for support & advice not for people to defend themselves!!

thank you so much I really appreciate it
my daughter is trying so hard to better herself yet around her sees many friends claiming ema and not bothering to find work , many of her friends are claiming benefits , many have children , many of these she sees out dressed to the nines, nails done beautifully , she listens to them tell her about their sunbed sessions, their nights out nightclubbing and she wonders where she's going wrong as she can't afford to do all these things. Her boyfriend is off to uni in September and is working hard to get some money behind him
they are trying to do the right things and a lot of that is down to the way they have been brought up
as I said she would have still done the nail course even without getting ema but to be promised something and then to have it taken away because of some new rule that she knew nothing about is slightly unfair in my opinion.
people criticize young people for being lazy , not bothering to work , just hanging round town centres etc , my daughter is not like this , she is working hard to build a future for herself yet she's still being criticized
life is certainly unfair !!!!!!

sunrise27_2

sh1305 wrote: »

It's the students responsibility to find out what they're entitled to.

she did !!!! when she went to visit the new college she told them she wasn't entitled to ema as we earnt too much , they told her she was as it was an e2e course and our earnings weren't taken into consideration.
she did all the right things, we looked into it online which told us she was entitled to it , even on direct.gov it said nothing about the changes
they have changed it now but on the 7th July it was still saying students on e2e courses were entitled to the full £30 regardless of parents income
what more was she supposed to do ?????