New Financial Support Arrangements Announced for Students in Receipt of Educational Maintenance Allowance (EMA)
Following the announcement by the Education Secretary on Monday 28th March 2011 about the financial support arrangements for students aged 16-18, we want to share the following information with you. These new arrangements will affect students who are planning to continue to study with the college in 2011/12, and new students applying to study for the first time.
We are pleased that the Government has recognised the importance of financial support in assisting young people on full time education programmes. It appears likely that EMA will be replaced by transitional funding arrangements for those students currently in receipt of EMA depending on individual circumstances*.and a ’16-19 Bursary Fund’.
16-19 Bursary Fund The consultation document refers to a bursary fund of at least £1,200 per year to young people in the following vulnerable groups:
• Young people aged 16 and 17 year in care
• Care leaver aged 16.17 and 18 years
• Young people aged 16, 17 and 18 who are receipt of income support
The 16-19 Bursary Fund is also designed to support the most vulnerable learners for help with meals, transport, books or other course-related costs.
Colleges will have the opportunity to decide eligibility criteria for the scheme and whether to pay bursaries in one lump sum or in instalments. Please note Bursaries may be ‘in kind’ rather than cash payments, e.g. transport subsidies or equipment
Transitional Arrangements
Transitional arrangements have been announced for young people currently in receipt of EMA. This does not include the vulnerable groups already described above. The consultation document refers to the following:
• Young people who received an EMA Guarantee for the first time in 2009/10 will continue to receive EMA at the same level of payment through to the end of 2011/12 academic year.
• For those young people who are expected to continue to the 2nd year of their programme and received the EMA payment of £30 per week are likely to receive a payment of £20 to the end of the 2011/12 academic year.
The proposals are currently out for consultation and guidance is not likely to be issued until the end of May 2011. We are hoping to receive further clarity on the new funding arrangements within the next few weeks, and we are working on the model using our 2010/11 student cohort to estimate the likely funding Regent College will receive.
