Education Maintenance Allowance (EMA)

The EMA came into effect September 2004, and is an allowance for those of you who stay in education (sixthform or college) after year 11. The EMA pays up to £30 a week directly into your bank account (so long as you attend lessons) for any academic or vocational course which involves at least 12 hours of guided education a week.

To qualify your household income (your family’s income) must be below £30,000 a year, you need to be a UK national or have been granted indefinite leave to remain in the country, or have refugee status, or if you are European you need to meet “Home Student” criteria.

The idea is that the money can go towards covering things like travel costs, books or equipment, and as said before is up to £30 a week. At the time of writing this article the “scale” used to work out how much you can receive is as follows:

up to £20,270 per year you get £30 per week
£20,271 - £24,850 per year you get £20 a week
£24,851 - £30,000 per year you get £10 a week

To find out more you can contact:

EMA Helpline
Tel: 0808 1016 219

Your local Connexions office

Or you can call 0845 60 222 60 to request a copy of the EMA leaflet.