For quite a few teenagers, EMA is a godsend, but for others is the cause of jealousy between students, is EMA fair?

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What is EMA?
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EMA stands for Education Maintenance Allowance and it is given to students who go into further education. It is there to help students pay for their bus fair, which they now have to pay for even when going into sixth form as well as things like books and if you go to college, they also say it's good for the fees you may have to pay for college.

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Does Everyone Get EMA?
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This is the downsides of EMA to many students across the UK, not every student is entitled to EMA, and the limitations are so tough that sometimes I almost feel guilty for having it, as sometimes maybe other people deserve the money more than me.

If your parents earned £30,000 last year or above, then you will not be entitled to EMA. Even if your parents earned a pound over or anything like that you will not be considered for EMA. One of the annoying things is it's taken from last years income and in today's climate where parents and even students are loosing their jobs left, right and centre, this is unfair in my opinion.

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Why Do You Get EMA?
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For some reason the Government thinks that the reason that people don't go into further education is because of the money involved with it. So there smart idea is to give some students from low income families an allowance for turning up at school so they will get better grades blah blah blah.

How many people have seen the annoying boy/girl in class? Well imagine, they now get paid to be annoying and turning up in class. This is something that does get on my nerves, it shouldn't be based on just turning up to college, I am one of the people that would turn up anyway, it should be based on you handing in the work for all of your deadlines and things like that.

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How Long Do You Get EMA For?
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I am in my second year of college and my second year of getting EMA. If I didn't get into Uni I'll be wanting to do a different course at college and for that I will get 1 more year of EMA, and then that is it. I will have to fend for myself then.

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How Do You Get The Money?
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It depends on different schools/colleges, last year I had to carry around a timetable with me, and within every lesson I had, I had to get the lecturers signature, and at the end of the week. Now everything is done electronically, so no more faking the lecturer's signatures, you actually have to turn up.

If you attend a full week, you will be paid the following week into your bank account.

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How To Apply For EMA?
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You can get an application form off the website or from your careers advisor and fill it in and send it off with the note of the parents last years income. This can take a while, so it's best to do it as soon as possible.

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Is It Worth Applying For EMA?
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I know this is stupid question, but I think it deserves to be here, yes it is well worth applying for EMA, I know quite a few people who struggle without it. My bus into college is £2 per journey and I go to college 4 days a week, you do the maths, but this does add up. I find if I have a job whilst at college, I lag behind with my college work.

EMA is a good motivator but for the wrong reasons, it brings the wrong kind of people into college and why should they be paid to annoy us, when people are there every day for no reason other than they want to be there get diddly squat.

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If You Get A Part Time Job, Does It Affect EMA Payments?
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Nope, not at all. The money you get is all decided from your parents income from the previous year, nothing you earn comes into consideration.

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Stories
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I know quite a few people who have been let down by this system, the worst one being two of my good friends who are twins. One lives mainly with their dad and the other with their mum, they both have the same bus fair price and stuff like that, but the dad earned way over the limit so that friend gets nothing whilst my other mate gets the full £30. They attempted to change over the address but the guys at EMA would do nothing.

One of my other mate is the middle child out of quite a few siblings (6 to be exact) and she gets nothing, but if her parents didn't earn over the £30,000 mark, they wouldn't be able to keep a roof over the kids heads. As well as that they can't afford to give my friend £30 a week, like EMA expect them to.

Finally the one that matters most today, my mate's mum who is the sole breadwinner for the household lost her job, and she can barely afford to keep feeding her children let alone give them £30, but EMA only take it from last years income, not the income you are earning at the time.

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Final Opinion
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EMA shouldn't be called EMA, it should be called If your parents are divorced or scrounge of the government then you can get EMA. I come from a single parent home and my mum doesn't earn anything near the £30,000 limit, so I'm fine, but EMA does almost say that if you are divorced then you are able to get EMA.

I know one kid at my old highschool whose parents have never worked in their lives and are on incapacity benefits (they seem fine) as well and he gets EMA and he disrupts lessons horribly and never seems to get into trouble. You don't have to do work, you can mess around, as long as you're in the lessons you get the money. This is wrong.

I have been pretty smart with my EMA, I don't think I have spent a dime of it on anything other than my driving, so I when it came to learning, I could rely on this money to let me have a lesson every week.

I would be going to college everyday even if I didn't have EMA, I think I would take more days off for things like the flu, cold or even stomach pains but I make the people around me suffer with my moaning just because I don't want to loose my EMA. However since they have changed to electronic form, you have to rely on your teachers to mark you in, I have had problems the last few weeks with my teacher not doing this properly and apparently my attendance has been poor even though I have had only one day off since the start of the year, this is getting on my nerves, and I am having to wait to scream at said teacher because she seems to be taking a lot of time off recently. EMA is a good thing if you are under the £30,000 limit, if not, it's quite an annoying thing.

(C) This review was written on Ciao in my first year of college (2007/2008) it has been updated now, but just to cover my back it is my work on the other site as well.

xxx