Now as this issue has been the cause of recent riots in London, as the current to government wishes to axe EMA (Education Maintenance Allowance), to save money, cutting the deficit, save the world, cure world hunger etc etc etc. Now personally I’m thinking EMA is nothing but pure shit, and doesn’t serve it’s purpose, and was pretty much just vote fodder for the 2005 election.

Now many moons ago back in 2004, (the year I left school), EMA was introduced country wide; meaning my year were the first to receive the money.

Now the whole purpose of EMA, was supposedly to  prevent kids leaving school and not going into higher education, like sixth form or college or whatnot. It was also meant to allow kids to go on with their education without having to get a part time job, which in theory would take up their oh so precious learning time.

Now to get this EMA shit, your household (ie parents’) income had to be below £30000. Theory being this was the threshold at which people were magically able to afford everything. At the time our household income was around £40000, so I wasn’t eligible for this grant. This assumed therefore, that my parents had enough money to pay for all my education costs, books, stationary etc etc.

EMA would give you a certain weekly payment to the child of either £10, £20 or £30, depending on household income, plus the opportunity to get a termly bonus of something like £100; I can’t remember.

To get this money, you had to turn up for every lesson, or lecture, or meeting and such.

The whole system was pretty much a bribe to get kids to stay in education, essentially…. Theoretically.

Now all this sounds like pure genius, a fare, just system to assist the less well off in being educated, to make education available to all, regardless of background etc etc etc. Bullshit.

Now I don’t doubt for a minute that then, and now, EMA helps a great many, and indeed is a good idea, however, it is not means tested AT ALL.

My issues with this scheme as are follows:

  • It assumes that people earning £30000+ have enough money to pay for their kids education, books, and shit. Now whilst my parents did pay for this, I found that many people getting this EMA were also subject to many other benefits in addition, such as child tax credits (which btw were not included in the household income calculations). My parents didn’t give me anywhere near £30 a week to myself, so I had to go get a job, which brings my onto my next point
  • It was supposedly to stop kids needing to get a part time job to supplement their income or whatever. So people who didn’t get EMA had to get a job to supplement their income if their parents couldn’t/wouldn’t give them £30 a week or whatever. Also, EMA wasn’t stopped if you did go out and get a job. Now in my mind, if you’re receiving EMA and have a job, you should be prosecuted for effectively committing fraud. Back in ’04 I worked about 9 hours a week, and was just about bringing home the same as the maximum EMA bonus.
    How the FUCK  was this fair? I had to go out there and work for my money, whilst some other kids got it for nothing. Useless.
  • The payment was cash, this was particularly stupid, as the money was meant to help you with educaiton, so you were meant to spend it on stuff like books, stationary, possibly clothing you needed, or travel to college etc. An awful lot of people I knew just spent it on booze, cigarettes (lol, student days) and food. Yay, government paying for kids to be unhealthy, how apt. If the payment was truley for this point, why the fuck wasn’t it vouchers (kinda like US food stamps), or why didn’t the government have a sort of shop setup where you could go for this stuff?
  • It meant  you had to go to every lesson. Now back then I had a kind of… Patchy-at-best attendance record, seeing as it didn’t matter for shit if I turned up or not, since I got no free shit for being there, thus I ended up being completely de-motivated, hell I even remember skipping school/college to go to work since I needed money that bad. Also, many cheated this system, I personally saw many kids get signed off for “being there” when they weren’t just cause the tutors knew how much of this money they actually needed. Now THAT’S a great way to spend taxpayer money eh?
  • The Bonus thing was fucking bullshit. £100 for just going to school. *I* went to school, where the fuck was my £100? Seriously, this was the most unfair part of it IMO, my parents didn’t give me £100 for every school term, or every college semester just for being there. Useless.

Essentially the whole idea was a vote winning idea. Now it was a good idea, just implemented badly (like most Labour policies are), meaning that I personally ended up being screwed over, and actually nearly ended up being kicked out of college after my first year due to my piss poor attendance; which as far as I remember was mostly due to me working cause I needed money. As I said earlier, my parents (rightly so IMO) didn’t give me any money after I was about 16/17, as in their minds I should have had a part time job anyway. That’s pretty much how I see it now, having a part time job is a good thing, but whatever, that’s digressing. I used to spend quite a bit of money just being at college, mostly in food and booze, but I couldn’t get this from any other source, so I had to fund it personally.

So to conclude, EMA is bullshit, it should be scrapped and be replaced with some form of FAIR eduction grant or similar so that there IS incentive for people to stay in education (which is kind of defunct now as the law has changed anyway), and to help pay for the less fortunate, just not in such an unfair and useless way.

Rant over.