EMA

[Houdini Logic]

One of my mates gets about £2,000 every time his loan comes in (three times a uni year), and around £1,000 on top of that in grants every time. I understand some people need extra help, I have no issues with that, but some of this money is just excessive and not particularly justifiable.

Grants are only available to people whose families can't support them.

In my opinion and even with a grant, £9,000 a year (£750 a month) is hardly excessive to pay your rent, bills, food, materials and generally survive.

What figure would you suggest is 'justifiable'?

[Alexikokopops]

I'm pretty sure it's just used to buy crack. We live in Broken Britain, people

[Joe.]

Grants are only available to people whose families can't support them.

In my opinion and even with a grant, £9,000 a year (£750 a month) is hardly excessive to pay your rent, bills, food, materials and generally survive.

What figure would you suggest is 'justifiable'?

No they're not. I get a small-ish one, and I don't even know how.

[Finnegan]

It's a poor system but the idea behind it is nice. I always thought it was less about 'buying books' and more simply a cash incentive so kids stayed in school and could focus 100% on their education without having their time split by a job.

I have no issue with that.

[Finnegan]

No they're not. I get a small-ish one, and I don't even know how.

A government grant or a uni one? I got 500 a term from my uni just for having good A Levels and picking them, haha.

[Fosse Boy]

EMA was a system roundly abused at my old school. Kids would literally just turn up only for registartaion every day then waltz off home with their cash. No checks to make sure they were in lessons or owt like that. Don't get me wrong kids from poorer backgrounds should definitely be given financial assistance on some things like learning materials and travel, but it was made perfectly clear when EMA was announced that it was for whatever those who got it wanted to spend it on (Smirnoff Ice, Bacardi Breezers or, as mentioned, crack). No checks put in place so while kids like me (was only slightly above the band to receive any EMA, aw diddums) spent our Saturdays serving burgers or stacking shelves, kids who got EMA were abusing their grants however they pleased. Good idea in principle but badly put into practice and widely abused.

I'm pretty sure it's just used to buy crack. We live in Broken Britain, people

Pretty sure all schools are like this these days...

[lcfc"weasel"]

My £30/week this year has, if I'm being honest, allowed me to miss only aways this season, and the £20 I receive next year will do exactly the same. It's wrong but still.

[Miquel The Work Geordie]

EMA is absolute horse shit, ridiculous system that does completely the opposite of what it's supposed to do. £30 a week is quite a lot for somebody still in college to do absolutely nothing but turn up, and there was people like me working six hours a week still not getting that amount.

Quality, I love the opinions of people that never got it. If you did get EMA though, would you dismiss the system?

I got thirty quid a week for two years of college and one year at Del Monte for doing the square root of bugger all really. I bought booze with it.

I just love the unconditional hatred for the scheme by anyone that had to actually work to earn money. I'd despise it if I'd have had to. But I didn't and I got wasted a lot, so I don't care.

[ajthefox]

Quality, I love the opinions of people that never got it. If you did get EMA though, would you dismiss the system?

I got thirty quid a week for two years of college and one year at Del Monte for doing the square root of bugger all really. I bought booze with it.

I just love the unconditional hatred for the scheme by anyone that had to actually work to earn money. I'd despise it if I'd have had to. But I didn't and I got wasted a lot, so I don't care.

I genuinely would dismiss it even if I was getting it because as you and many others have shown, although the idea behind EMA is fair enough it's application is terrible.

Would you not rather the money was put to better use?

[Miquel The Work Geordie]

I genuinely would dismiss it even if I was getting it because as you and many others have shown, although the idea behind EMA is fair enough it's application is terrible.

Would you not rather the money was put to better use?

Sorry, but if you were getting thirty quid a week for doing things you'd do anyway (Turning up to lessons etc), there is no way you'd have any qualms about the system, you'd revel in it.

[Joe.]

A government grant or a uni one? I got 500 a term from my uni just for having good A Levels and picking them, haha.

Uni one! I didn't get one last year and my step-dad's earnings went slightly up from then so I have no idea how I get it. Not complaining, but it's odd.

Quality, I love the opinions of people that never got it. If you did get EMA though, would you dismiss the system?

I got thirty quid a week for two years of college and one year at Del Monte for doing the square root of bugger all really. I bought booze with it.

I just love the unconditional hatred for the scheme by anyone that had to actually work to earn money. I'd despise it if I'd have had to. But I didn't and I got wasted a lot, so I don't care.

Damn right I'm bitter. And if I got it? Of course I fucking wouldn't! But as I never got it and had to suffer around those that did, I am entitled to rant my bollocks off. Damn straight.

It was a woeful system though, I probably could have at least admitted to that if I'd have gotten it.

[Benji]

EMA system has so many flaws it's unbelievable. I don't get it but i know a guy at college whos dad has a brand new aston martin and must be a millionaire and gets £30 a week somehow, whereas the people which really need it get the same or less.

At least when I was there, the biggest loop hole was that if your parents were self-employed, there were ways and means of making their definition of income come well within what was needed to get the £30. If you're PAYE, it's pretty easy to tell if you're lying.

[Miquel The Work Geordie]

Damn right I'm bitter. And if I got it? Of course I fucking wouldn't! But as I never got it and had to suffer around those that did, I am entitled to rant my bollocks off. Damn straight.

It was a woeful system though, I probably could have at least admitted to that if I'd have gotten it.

Ha, I'll gladly admit it's flawed to buggery man!

*I have just remembered though, I did actually spend the majority of my EMA at Del Monte on art materials / public transport so it did actually come in really handy considering I had no job at that time, especially given the costs of an art / design course. At college I invested heavily in cider, though.

[Tommeh]

It's bullshit and is also repeated at university level. You'll pick up a grand extra if you qualified for EMA at college called a Bursary. No wonder this country is so fvcked

[lcfc_jme]

The gripe to me is that unfortunately its now some kind of political weapon used by people that don't seem to realise that from my experience and from the looks of it most others, the majority:

Surely there's another way

I agree that when it's being abused it's completely ridiculous. I heard stories that people used to trace the signatures of their tutors and sign the cards (we had those as our sort of "monitor" to ensure people turned up and were entitled to EMA) so they were still entitled to their EMA and their EMA bonuses despite not turning up to classes. It's admirable cheek, but the system shouldn't have been left open to those kind of exploits in the first place.

Sound to me like you were committed to going to college, and that you would have spent your earnings on the stuff you needed had it been necessary, rather than on going and and buying clothes etc. So the EMA might not in fact have been what made it possible to go to college, but rather the fact you were willing to work part time is what made it happen?

Oh yeah, don't get me wrong, I'd have been at college regardless of whether EMA existed or not 'cos I a) wanted to go to uni and b) really didn't believe I was mature enough to work full-time and "be an adult", as it were. The fact that EMA existed and I got it was just an added bonus of my college attendance, I guess. The working part-time thing started the summer before I went to college to give me money to do things over the summer and go to Leicester games, just seemed logical to continue it whilst on my courses as I felt that £30 p/w wouldn't have covered everything I needed and wanted to do.

[Fosse Boy]

It's bullshit and is also repeated at university level. You'll pick up a grand extra if you qualified for EMA at college called a Bursary. No wonder this country is so fvcked

Amen to that. My flatmate in my first year's dad was a millionaire, was paying all his fees etc but because his parents were split up and mum was below the threshold he still got flippin' thousands in grants while I was surviving on less than £50 a month at times.

[Guest Mee-9]

I get the full £30.

I saved up mine a few months ago to buy a new laptop. The primary purpose I bought it was so I could take it to College, do my work in the Library during free lessons, bring it home, do my work at home.

I'm not condoning the fact that SOME/MOST people use it for alternative reasons that don't relate to college.

But some of my friends are really hard up, and the £30 a week gets them to college, and if any is left over, saved to buy some other things.

The point raised that it's simply used as an incentive to get students out of bed is fairly valid. Some of my friends are like that, Saying 'I onli cum 2 colidge cuz of ma ema.' Fact of the matter being, why bother turn up for 20+ hours off college a week, just for £30. Surely the real incentive would be for people like a few of my mates to get a job, Rather than waste spaces on courses that are full up.

[Fosse Boy]

I get the full £30.

I saved up mine a few months ago to buy a new laptop. The primary purpose I bought it was so I could take it to College, do my work in the Library during free lessons, bring it home, do my work at home.

I'm not condoning the fact that SOME/MOST people use it for alternative reasons that don't relate to college.

But some of my friends are really hard up, and the £30 a week gets them to college, and if any is left over, saved to buy some other things.

The point raised that it's simply used as an incentive to get students out of bed is fairly valid. Some of my friends are like that, Saying 'I onli cum 2 colidge cuz of ma ema.' Fact of the matter being, why bother turn up for 20+ hours off college a week, just for £30. Surely the real incentive would be for people like a few of my mates to get a job, Rather than waste spaces on courses that are full up.

Well you've answered your own question. Because it's easier to sit in a classroom for 20 hours a week and be paid £30 for your trouble than it is to do an entry level job.