What is Educational Maintenance Allowance (EMA)?

Education Maintenance Allowance (or EMA for short) could give you up to £30 a week to help out with the costs of staying in learning after 16.

The money’s paid directly into your bank account. Once it’s there, you can use it to pay for whatever you like – for example, books, travel or equipment.

Which helps you concentrate on learning without worrying so much about money.

You won’t have to stop working part-time if you get EMA: how much you earn won’t make any difference at all to how much EMA you can get.

To get EMA, you will need to be aged between 16 and 19 and to have left compulsory education. You will need to be thinking about:

• starting a full-time further education course at a college or school
• joining an LSC–funded Entry to Employment (e2e) programme; or
• starting a Programme Led Apprenticeship

For you to qualify for EMA, your household income (Parents Carers) has to be below £30,810. For more information, speak to your Connexions PA.

This page was last updated on the 18th of February 2008 and is scheduled for review on or before the 18th of February 2009