In reply to this....
Well I'm able to substantiate it in terms of my own experiences.
All of my friends used it on for purposes other than 'educational maintenence'. In this thread alone EMA-'earners' are talking about using it for the January sales rather than 'I need that EMA to pay for an upcoming trip'.
People at my college actually BOASTED about getting free money to use on alcohol on a Friday, these were people in my Politics class etc.
So from my view, yes, the average EMA'-earner' does use it for ******** stuff.
All of which is irrelevent. I'm not against the principle of EMA, in fact, I support it. But it's impossible to need £30 a week for educational stuff. Bus passes cost a max of £80 a TERM. You also can't spend more than £30 on stuff like paper and pens in a term. So why not implement this voucher and free bus pass system anyway? It would save money, and no-one loses out in terms of education.
Give me a reason why people MUST have £30 a week, and why a voucher system wouldn't work.
I don't read the Daily Mail, btw.
I have to say i only just about manage to buy everything i need for my course with my weekly payment of £30. I'm studying Art and Design you see and my course consists of 3 8 week projects which i have to complete, after the 8 weeks are up i get another 3 projects and start again. This goes on for 2 years untill my course is complete. Now i wouldnt mind if all i needed to complete these projects were a pen and paper, i wish! But no i need a lot of materials which the college does not supply for me. I study photography, Fine art and Multi Media which are the 3 different projects that i have. For each subject/Project i have to produce a sketch book full of ideas, drawings anything really. These sketch books must be A3 and cost me 6 pounds each I then have to produce 3 maybe 4 final art pieces for each project which costs a lot of money for the materials.
Im very greatful to have 30 pounds a week to help me do this, and i can say that i do not spend my EMA on anything other than my bus fair to and from college, my trip and studio fee, and also the materials i need to complete each project i get.