Have Your Say on a possible replacement for EMA

Squeekyhead

Hi,

My son currently attends college in another county from where we live. To get there he has to pay the £12 train fare plus the bus fare to get to the college as it is a rural setting.

No other college in our locality offer the course my son attends so attending college closer to home is not an option.

If my son did not get EMA payments he would be unable to attend his course. This is because all household income is used to pay the mortgage, utility bills, food and petrol.

Please consider students in similar situations to my son who really do need EMA or something similar to get to college!

Squeekhead

skipsmum

workingmums wrote: »

Having read all the numerous post its makes me laugh at the society we live in. My husband and I decided to have our two children, and we managed that with no help from the government! They are our responsibility and I know times are hard (as they are for us) but why do some people in this country expect hand outs all the time!!! Those on low incomes like previously stated will still get financial help whilst children are in education so why 'expect' more?. It is up to us as parents to look after our children that we decided to have and not the government. We should be teaching are children that you get further in life by working hard - not by getting handouts and thinking its our right to be given money! We should take responsibility of our own children and stop moaning that we're not being given enough money - if you want something, work for it - dont expect it to be given.
Parents in America save up from when their children are born for a college fund - maybe we should start doing the same instead of expecting someone else to!

We do work, but having not had the benefit of college education we are low wage earners. We want our kids to do better; better education = better job prospects. I don't particularly agree with EMA but the tax credits and child benefit we get for DS does not cover £140 a month bus fares.

We don't expect "handouts" but we do expect a state education to be affordable by the people who need to use it. If this includes subsidising buses, so be it.

s4eyes

The EMA should be replaced with a travel pass to cover travel to and from the school/college and to any work placements. The child's parent should continue to get Child Benefit as they do at the moment. CRB checks should not be paid for anyway as the child is a volunteer. Books should be provided for by the school or college as that is the most cost efficient way of supplying and reusing books. School meals should be free if the family is on benefits.
If the teenager wants spending money they should be able to get a part-time job like we always had to.

sla66

I am a single parent of a 16yr old and I can honestly say, what a help EMA has been to me and my son. Kids from all walks of life should be entitled to a higher education without being segregated. Parents, sometimes through no fault of their own, have income issues, but that doesn't mean there children are not bright enough for college!!! My son, by the way, would love to be the next Stephen Hawkins and I earn 15k per year...

Taiko

I could turn anyone who thinks that higher education is a right into Stephen Hawking.

Just need to find a few wheelchairs.

Tripleeagle

Oldernotwiser wrote: »

There are no "right reasons"! If it's brought students into college then the scheme has been a success.

You call 'bribing students to stay on after 16' a "success"? If people are staying on so that they can get £10-30/week, they are staying on for the wrong reasons. As a consequence, you have people who are attending classes which they clearly don't want to be in, you have students wasting two years of their life when they could be doing real work of some kind, and in addition to that it's costing the taxpayer hundreds of millions a year.

Sure, it's a "success" if that's what you planned to do in the first place. But whether it's a good scheme or not is a different matter.

I go to school because my qualifications, in the end, will hopefully be worth something. I don't go because I can get £30 in benefits which I don't need. Chucking money at students is not a way of creating a "better-educated" workforce.

Tripleeagle

bluetimone97 wrote: »

In my son's colleges (two sons, two colleges) they have to have 100% attendance, if they are sick for even one day or have a hospital appointment they lose EMA, their work has to be handed in on time as one of the qualifying factors too.

If they are absent, they simply need a note from their parents. You are allowed to be sick as long as it's reasonably justified.

Tripleeagle

hushabye wrote: »

We were £100 a year over the threshold but with young children also meant that our household expenditure far exceeded that of his friends' parents.

Couldn't you have refused the extra £100 from your employer or put it in a company pension scheme?

Tripleeagle

bambinaUK wrote: »

Personally I think the media has latched onto the fact that some students boasted about using the EMA to fund their social lives, but the reality is that very few actually do and the public are more than willing to believe the worst of teenagers.

This is untrue in my school, and in any other schools I have heard of. Visit TheStudentRoom.co.uk, the biggest student forum in the world, and you will see that most teenagers on there agree with the scrappage of the scheme. "Very few" is a more appropriate description of the number of people who spend their allowance on their education.

You imagine that the media is exaggerating everything. But, for once, you can actually trust the press!

Taiko

Most students on TSR though are from well off families, who do not qualify for EMA. Most of them lack the maturity to handle situation and criticism. A lot of their comments are that way due to envy, not how it is done.