Is EMA fair?

True true, but then those who recieve EMA are even worse off than yourself. If your parents are struggling to pay for you, how much harder is it for those parents whose children are recieving EMA.

i get £20 ema a week and every penny + some more goes on books, travel, food, equipment costs (i do photgraphy), ema is not pointless at all, and those saying it is might want to try getting to college when you dont have a job and your parents give you nothing to go to college, without it i very much doubt i would be able to go to get the education i want

i would also add it greatly encourages atendance, i know many people that have not once purposly missed a lesson as they new if they did they wouldnt get any money the following week

the system is a little unfair - the fact the my parents now earn under the limit needed for £30 a week but its based on the year befores earnings

its also based on income - not how much money you actually have - ie, a freind of mine gets 30 pounds a week and 20 pounds from his dad, so obviously hes not going to spend 50 pounds a week on college costs




ema is a valuable and much appreciated weekly income that allows people in the kinda area that i live in to actually want to better thenselves and not just get stuck in the same old dead end job routine

Apart from the dodgy tactics EMA used to stop me getting the £10 a week i should be getting, as you can read in a previous post of mine on here, i have another problem with this. The people who are getting £10 a week and are close to the 30K limit are actually getting more money than i am, especially since i have 4 siblings, thus unbalancing the whole system. Because of the dodgy tactics used by EMA i have missed out on hundreds of pounds that i am entitled to under the law, whilst there are apparently thousands of people scamming the money out of EMA, and people who are fairly getting it, despite being in a better financial situation than myself. This does sound selfish, but it's just i'm bloody pissed off that i have missed out on this because some EMA guy thinks my family's car is worth £5000! and for some reason should be added to our income?!

The entire EMA scheme is flawed. The methods by which it is decided who gets the payments are useless and open to fraud. The only factor they take into account is parental income, which on its own is pretty useless. And the fact that quite literally, a person with 1 penny less than £30K will get £10 a week, whereas a person with 1 penny more than 30K gets nothing. Not to mention the very questionable methods used by EMA to try and avoid payment wherever possible.

The whole reason for creating the scheme is nonsensical rubbish. The main idea was to try and increase the number of students staying on to sit A-levels by providing them with a small sort of income to do it. However, i very much doubt there is a single person who's decision to stay on and do A-levels has been the result of the fact that they can get EMA payments. Especially since anybody, even in a minimum wage job, could earn a lot more by leaving school than they could through EMA. Yes, i'm sure it does help a lot of students, but the fact is the system is a shambles.

I have even written to my MP in a desperate attempt to try and resolve one of my main issues with the EMA scheme, why the number of dependent children is not also taken into account along with the parental income, since this is of course a major issue when it comes to what amount of the income is being used to support a child. The reply......the usual politician bullsh*t, saying how it has nothing to do with the number of children in a family (yet some how it is related to the family income!?) then some more stuff not evenly remotely linked to my question, and so all in all they don't know what they're talking about. Not that i expected much else.

I have nothing against EMA in principal, although it may not achieve what the government wants it to (afterall what does?!) i am sure it does help some students, but the fact remains that others are abusing the system at the expense of the taxpayer, since the system it seems, is quite easy to manipulate, whilst many more are not benefiting from the system when they should be, and all because of the huge flaws in the process of deciding who gets EMA, and the seemingly relentless efforts of the EMA to avoid paying wherever possible.

Rant over

probally not, since you're so up my arse about it. but since when did the TSR demographic ever come near to the real picture of british 16-18 education.

Says the person who couldnt find a single reason for his statements...

Maybe someday you will find out what the word argument means and be able to contribute to threads as opposed to mindless crap. And maybe TSR isnt proportional, do the mods actively seek and force any minorities to sign up?? Of course not, its our choice and the overwhelming majority are incredible people and not just aged 16-18 but they can still put forward a valid opinion.

How exactly are the tactics dodgy? I am also unsure why you say your family car has been added to your parent's income. Your car is a current asset, therefore it shouldn't be included. That makes no sense. The fact is, your moaning because your not entitled to EMA. Deal with it. How are people abusing the system? If a student lives at home with his mother who is on a low-income whilst their father is in a well paid job, then it shouldn't matter, that is their choice. That is quite simply not manipulation, you haven't told your parents to split up! The EMA do not attempt to avoid paying, otherwise the system wouldn't have been set up. How do you know it hasn't achieved Government's intention. Include some figures in your argument instead of moaning, and perhaps I will agree with some of your unfounded points.

I am moaning because i and my brother are both legally enititled to receiving EMA, and yet we are not receiving it through no fault of our own.

Have you actually tried phoning them and making them aware of the mistake, asked to speak to a supervisor? You might get somewhere if you concentrated that 'moaning' at the EMA people, and not those that can't help you with your situation.

This is undisputable.