Support for my Child

Education Maintenance Allowance The Education Maintenance Allowance scheme (EMA) provides students with weekly payments to encourage them to stay in full time education. The payments are available if the student lives in household where the total income is £30,000 per year or under. The amount paid is between £10 and £30, depending on the exact income.

In order to obtain any payment for the week, the student must attend all the lessons for that week. Details of the scheme are available from the Government's EMA web site. Applying for EMA Students apply to the national EMA Assessment and Payments body, not to the College. Where a student applies late, payments will only be backdated a few weeks - to get a full year's payments, students should apply well before the beginning of September.

Students must get a bank account! The application cannot be processed until the student (not their parents) have one. How it works Students must attend all lessons each week in order to receive the payment.

EMA payments are based on the student's attendance record, and students have a responsibility to check that this is correct and amend it as necessary.

General Rules

If you are absent through illness, you will get no EMA payment for the week, unless you present documentation as described below. Your EMA payments are based on your attendance record. It is up to you to check your record and correct any errors within two weeks. After two weeks, if your record still shows absences, a permanent stop will be placed on your payment for that week

These absences WILL NOT STOP EMA payments:

• Illness, if you have a hospital appointment letter
• Orthodontist appointment with letter
• Students with long-term illness - these will be dealt with on an individual basis
• Funeral of immediate family member
• Practical driving test
• University or job interview - provided the job interview is for Work Experience or full-time employment after you leave Sixth Form
• Any other reason acceptable to the Sixth Form - documentary evidence must be provided

These absences WILL STOP EMA payments:

• Illness, except where there is documentary evidence as above.
• Unexplained absences
• Holiday
• Daytime interview for part-time work whilst you are studying at Sixth Form
• Doctor's or dentist's appointments