EMA - small rant

milkydrink

zoezoe wrote: »

Plus even if my daughter were to stay at home I would not give her £30 a week. ?

Are you saying it costs you less than £30 a week to keep her?

zoezoe wrote: »

Clearly I provide her with a home and food and give her some pocket money but not £30 a week. I would pay ttravel costs to college also.?

Home, Food, pocket money, Travel cost FOR LESS THAN £30 PER WEEK!!
I drive my daughter to & from college, but when she sometimes gets the bus its £5 return per day (& I also live in Surrey)

zoezoe wrote: »

The students who do get the EMA presumably would have £30 a week pocket money? Which is more than my daughter gets.
Who does give their children £30 a week ?

I give my daughter £20 & pay her travel costs, & buy her clothes, tolietries, college bits'n'bobs. And before you say it, we are not well off.

Hapless_2

pandas66 wrote: »

Thank you, that was my point . Presumably her education comes 1st, but it would suffer I'm afraid. I allow my son to work his afternoon off and Saturday morning, that is plenty IMO. Actually so do college as son has just read this over my shoulder and said there is a max number of working hours at his college, 12.

Also if (like my neice) there is a requirement to do work experience, no doubt any wage earning would have to be put aside, the same goes for field trips etc.

Oldernotwiser

EMA is not supposed to be just pocket money, it's also supposed to cover the expenses of remaining in education. I don't see that the question of Income Support comes into things as this is only available to young people of 16/17 in unusual and exceptional circumstances. The option of being able to leave school and claim benefits was removed many years ago.

TheWaltons_3

Oldernotwiser wrote: »

EMA is not supposed to be just pocket money, it's also supposed to cover the expenses of remaining in education. I don't see that the question of Income Support comes into things as this is only available to young people of 16/17 in unusual and exceptional circumstances. The option of being able to leave school and claim benefits was removed many years ago.

Those exceptional circumstances, I would not wish on anyone, having been there.

Yeah it's great getting Dole when you're 16... whilst all your friends go home to lovingly prepared dinners with their parents..

Hapless_2

TheWaltons wrote: »

Those exceptional circumstances, I would not wish on anyone, having been there.

Yeah it's great getting Dole when you're 16... whilst all your friends go home to lovingly prepared dinners with their parents..

And you are quite possibly sat in a bedsit, while the people in the room next door are getting laid/drunk/stoned or all 3, was not 16 but I was there not much older than that.

TheWaltons_3

Hapless wrote: »

And you are quite possibly sat in a bedsit, while the people in the room next door are getting laid/drunk/stoned or all 3, was not 16 but I was there not much older than that.

Living on Toast..

Hapless_2

hoping the toilet carpet is dry.......

Tigger36

Just wanted to set something straight incase anyone gets any ideas - anyone under 18 who leaves home IS NOT automatically 'estranged' and entitled to Income Support. That's dangerous talk. If the parent(s) are willing to have them at home they WILL NOT get it. There are really strict rules around this and 'estrangement' isn't simply a case of 'I don't live with my family any longer.'
EMA helps a lot of young people out - I work with homeless teenagers and I would be petrified at the very thought of a 16 year old trying to live on £300 per month, working and trying to study.

Oldernotwiser

Tigger36 wrote: »

Just wanted to set something straight incase anyone gets any ideas - anyone under 18 who leaves home IS NOT automatically 'estranged' and entitled to Income Support. That's dangerous talk. If the parent(s) are willing to have them at home they WILL NOT get it. There are really strict rules around this and 'estrangement' isn't simply a case of 'I don't live with my family any longer.'
EMA helps a lot of young people out - I work with homeless teenagers and I would be petrified at the very thought of a 16 year old trying to live on £300 per month, working and trying to study.

Thank you, that was the point I was making about IS not being generally available to 16/17 year olds except in extreme circumstances. People seem to think that young people can just move out and claim benefits just because they don't get on with their parents and that's just not true.

TheWaltons_3

Tigger36 wrote: »

Just wanted to set something straight incase anyone gets any ideas - anyone under 18 who leaves home IS NOT automatically 'estranged' and entitled to Income Support. That's dangerous talk. If the parent(s) are willing to have them at home they WILL NOT get it. There are really strict rules around this and 'estrangement' isn't simply a case of 'I don't live with my family any longer.'
EMA helps a lot of young people out - I work with homeless teenagers and I would be petrified at the very thought of a 16 year old trying to live on £300 per month, working and trying to study.

This is why I said exceptional circumstances - being a social services care leaver after 12 years is one of them. I received IS at 16 for these reasons, so feel quite within my rights to comment.