EMA - prompt payments

[ukyp]

Campaign proposal

To reform and closely regulate Education Maintenance Allowance (EMA) to ensure young people do not miss out on payments

Purpose of campaign

The ultimate goal of this campaign will be to reform the process in which EMA is handled at the moment. The Region would like to see that the handling of payments of EMA is more efficient, so that young people actually get their payments on time and not weeks after they are meant to, as well as making it easier to get disputes sorted quicker then at present.

Read more about this campaign

Discuss

· What do you think of this campaign idea?
· Is this issue important to you?
· Is the campaign realistic and achievable?
· What challenges would this campaign face?
· How could we make this campaign successful?

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[ciara_squires]

As a student on EMA i think this important, i didn't recieve a bit of money until the end of OCTOBER! and some people have only just recieved their money...this may be fine for some people but during that time it was hard for me to get to college as i often didn't have money for train...i get my payments late constantly!!! and sometimes miss them because a teacher has done the register wrong, I have to chase this up and then get a delayed payment, why should poorer students have to put up with this? the govt shouldn't have got an external company to do it- it's an utter shambles.

[Paul]

Originally Posted by ciara_squires

As a student on EMA i think this important, i didn't recieve a bit of money until the end of OCTOBER! and some people have only just recieved their money...this may be fine for some people but during that time it was hard for me to get to college as i often didn't have money for train...i get my payments late constantly!!! and sometimes miss them because a teacher has done the register wrong, I have to chase this up and then get a delayed payment, why should poorer students have to put up with this? the govt shouldn't have got an external company to do it- it's an utter shambles.

IF the government did it themselves (still on a national basis) would that stop the teachers filling in the register incorrectly?

Wouldn't a more local system be better for responsiveness?

[Patriot 167]

I get EMA and I get it every Friday.

(Just thought I'd let you know).

[ciara_squires]

Originally Posted by Patriot 167

I get EMA and I get it every Friday.

(Just thought I'd let you know).

you're lucky then, alot of people don't, and the appealing of EMA which hasn't been payed is draining when it's happening repeatably...
also some people still or have only just got any money at all...

[pretzels]

Apart from the one-off delay this September, my EMA has always been on time.

It totally depends on your sixth form or college, and if there's a problem, you need to take it up with them.

This proposal is less than half-baked.

[AdamJogeeMYP]

I am a member of the London region, and so I should support this campaign- theoretically anyway!

Two things- I appreciate there are a significant number of our constituents, who are eligible and indeed claim EMA payments. I just worry that we could be isolating the young people who aren't eligible- we have to be broadly representative of the WHOLE country. That said, I do appreciate, also, that we have to ensure these young people are heard, if they aren't getting their EMA on time- we must make noise about it.

Secondly, I notice the North East have a similiar campaign- that looks at reforming the criteria that one has to meet, to be elible for EMA payments. Perhaps we could merge the two? I know the two regions are in discussion about this already, so we make sure this issue has a better chance of getting through.

[M-lo]

How do we plan to do this? As previously stated, this is a matter mainly for individual schools or colleges to sort out- hardly a matter for a national campaign. I hardly think the government intends to get EMA payments arriving late.

I agree with AdamJogeeMYP- it would make a lot of sense for the two EMA campaigns to merge.

[ccooper]

I think ema is an absolute joke and so many people are on it that shouldn't be and none of it really goes on books or buses or whatever they say, it just goes on nights out at the weekend, why cant everyone just get a weekend job or something why should you pay someone to go to school

[Marcus89]

I was on EMA and was working part time aswell. I netted about £600-800 a month during college. Enough to pay any college related things, £50 on a friday night in the pub and another £300-400 to keep me going. EMA can be a joke to some people (i.e me) but to others, they really do need it.