Education Maintenance Allowance (EMA) Presentation (PDF, 1.1Mb)

Who can apply?• If you were born between the 1 st of March 1994 and 28 thof February 1998 you may be eligible for EMA!• If you were born between the 1 st of March 1994 and 30 thSeptember 1997 you can receive EMA from August2012!• If you were born between the 1 st of October 1993 and29 h of February 1998 you can receive EMA fromJanuary 2014!

How will I be eligible?• You must be attending school for a minimum of 21hours a week, as in guided learning hours within classtime. This can include study leave, projects, and workexperience at the discretion of the school.• You must also meet the nationality and residencyrequirements. You can obtain more information from theEMA Unit about this.

How do I apply?• Collect an application form from your school office or call 822 763 andan application can be sent out to you.• The earlier you apply, the earlier your application can be processed.You must remember that there are deadlines and cut off dates on theform. If your application is processed before certain dates your moneywill be backtracked which means…MORE MONEY!!!• Before submitting the application make sure all the relevant sectionshave been completed by yourself and your parent/carer, all relevantdocuments have been collected and the form has been signed andsent to the address given.• Once all your paperwork has been received you will receive a letterstating whether or not the your application has been successful, thedate of your first payment and the amount you will receive. You musttake this to the school with the signed and completed LearningAgreement to start your payments.

What can prevent me from receiving myEMA payments?• If you are late for school either in the morning orafternoon with no sufficient explanation.• If you don’t keep to the goals set in the LearningAgreement.• If you are absent without an explanation.

• (From a student who has just finished her second year ofuniversity.)“ I thought it was a good help when it came to saving up and goingaway to University, it was reassuring to know that I’d havemoney every month so could focus more on my studies and nothaving to worry so much about getting a part time job”Any extra things I should keep inmind?• You will not receive EMA during holidays.• You have to reapply for EMA each school year.• Even if you have a part-time job, this is not taken into accountwhen you apply for EMA, if you are eligible you will receive it.• Keep all your paperwork together as you will need to refer to it ata later date.• EMA is an excellent tool to help start saving for college oruniversity