Education Maintenance Allowance

Education Maintenance Allowance (EMA) (Welsh: Lwfans Cynhaliaeth Addysg; LCA) is a financial scheme applicable to students and those undertaking unpaid work-based learning in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland and aged between sixteen and nineteen whose parents had a certain level of taxable income. It is no longer paid in England. It applies to those doing, or applying to do, at least 12 hours of guided learning on further education courses in school sixth forms, sixth form colleges and Further Education colleges. This includes a wide range of courses up to and including level 3, such as A-levels, GCSEs, BTECs GNVQs, NVQs and other vocational qualifications. Those partaking in an Entry to Employment (E2E course, formerly known as Work based Learning) must do at least 16 hours a week of guided study. Any missed lessons except for extenuating circumstances voids payment for that week. In 2010 the weekly payment for the England scheme were:

In Scotland a flat rate of £30/week per student is payable where assessed income is £20,351 or less (or £22,403 where there is more than one child in the household).

The Labour Party claimed the EMA scheme was of great benefit to those teenagers from low-income households, encouraging people to stay in education past the legally required age of 16 (end of year 11; fourth year in Scotland, and year 12 in Northern Ireland). Once in education it encouraged high attendance in return for bonuses. A 2006 BBC report suggested that even with the EMA, parents earning less than £30,000 a year still struggle to support teenagers enough to enable them to stay in education past 16.

In tests done by 56 of the 150 English local education authorities in 2004, the Institute for Fiscal Studies and Loughborough University found staying-on rates improved up 5.9 percentage points among those who were eligible. This effect was most pronounced amongst boys whose parents were unemployed or employed in unskilled or semi-skilled manual jobs, the group with lowest stay-on rates, and arguably facing the most social pressure to earn money and peer pressure that education is unimportant.

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