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mikey asks...
Hi i am claiming ema for the first time but i dont understand what is happening with all these delays please can you explain? thank you. mikey
What we suggest...
Hello Mikey
Thank you for contacting us with your enquiry.
We understand from your enquiry that you have put a claim in for EMA and are concerned about the delays and indeed want to know why they are delays in the first place.
EMA stands for Education Maintenance Allowance (EMA). This benefit is to help you stay in education after the age of 16 if your household income is less than £30,810. The allowances are £10, £20 or £30 per week depending on your household income, with extra bonuses available if you have good attendance and progress. Your course needs to include at least 12 hours of guided learning a week and can be either academic or vocational, including Learning Skills Council (LSC) funded E2E courses or a learning programme that leads to an apprenticeship. You need to have a bank account for your payments to be paid into, and can spend the allowance on whatever you like in connection with your course - books, trips, special equipment etc. If you are awarded EMA your parents or carers won't lose any welfare benefits and you can still have a small part - time job.
We are presuming that you have already applied for EMA. This would either be by phone or on paper and your parents or guardians would have had to send in the relevant information regarding their household income for the relevant tax year. This might be their Tax Credit Award Notice (TC602), or P60.
If you are eligible for EMA a Notice of Entitlement (NOE) will be sent to you confirming the weekly amount you will receive. It is important that you keep your NOE safe, as you will not be able to claim EMA without it. When you enrol on your course or programme you must take your NOE with you on the day (or as soon as possible afterwards). Your school, college or learning provider will also ask you to sign a learning agreement, setting out what's expected of you in terms of attendance, behaviour, coursework and progress.
We are therefore guessing you have already started college and haven't received any confirmation or money. The best thing you can do is to ring the EMA helpline:
EMA Helpline Number - 0800 121 8989. The helpline is open Monday - Friday 7am - 8pm and now 8am - 4pm on a Saturday and Sunday.
Technical problems with the helpline for Education Maintenance Allowance (EMA) and the Adult Learning Grant (ALG) have been fixed. However, because of the high demand for the helpline, advisers are unable to take calls as quickly as they would like. Extra staff have being taken on to solve this problem.
Technical problems with the EMA helpline have also meant that some people have had difficulty getting hold of an application form. So that no-one who is entitled to EMA misses out, the deadline for getting backdated payments has been extended.This means that as long as you've got your application in by the end of October, you won't miss out on any payments. So the sooner you ring them the sooner you know if they have received your application and whether it's processing or not. If, for some reason you have to fill another application form in you still have the time to be able to do this.
There are a few reasons why there are delays processing people's applications. Although EMAs are UK-wide the problems affect only England, where the administration of the scheme has been contracted out to a company called Liberata. There have been some difficulties introducing the new system for processing applications. Many are being processed manually, and this has led to some delays. Extra staff has been brought in to speed things up, and the aim is to respond to all applications within five weeks of receipt. Students have even had trouble getting hold of application forms, which have not been available online as had been advertised, and there have been "technical issues" with the phone systems.
Below are some reasons taken from news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/education/7637687.stm which explain Liberata's situation:
'Contractor Liberata says 1,000 extra staff is being employed to manually enter data into its system because its software is not working.
It says that between 10,000 and 12,000 applications are being resolved daily but blames a spike in applications at the beginning of term for the increasing backlog.
A spokesman also acknowledged that the IT system sourced by one of its technology partners was "less than optimal".
The Learning and Skills Council, which has overall responsibility for the scheme, says no student should be facing hardship because it is funding extra support which could be accessed from their colleges.
But the Association of Colleges said many colleges may not have the resources to fund such support, because the LSC money was not available up front and had to be reclaimed.
However, any students facing financial hardship as a result of the delay should contact their college as colleges will now have in place extra hardship grants and loans to support learners in need'. Therefore if you are struggling it might be best to ask your college if there is any support available for you. Also could you possibly ask family for help until your money comes through (if you qualify for EMA).
Other support is available. Learner Support Funds provide extra help with things like books and equipment, visits and field trips and living costs. They are intended for those students in the greatest need. The eligibility criteria are usually set by schools and colleagues.
They can be paid as well as the Education Maintenance Allowance and may be given if you have extra difficulties such as
- a disability or learning difficulty
- you have been looked after by your local authority
- you are on probation
- your family has serious financial difficulties
You can get more information about this from your college or visit: www.support4learning.org.uk
If you're at a Further Education College you may be able to get help for other special circumstances, for example to help with an emergency, with any debts you have, or because your course is residential. So whatever your situation, always ask at college or at your local Connexions Centre on what help you might be able to get to help you to continue your studies. You tell us you are in Lancashire and that your nearest town is Blackburn so we give below contact details for the Connexions Centre in Blackburn, but if you are not actually resident in Blackburn with Darwen you may want to go to a centre in Lancashire near your home. You could contact us again telling us which town you would access or you can find the location of the InfoCentres for Young People in Lancashire on www.lancsycs.org.
Your local Connexions Centre probably is:
Blackburn Connexions Centre
Ground Floor, St John's Court
Ainsworth Street
Blackburn
BB1 6AD
Tel: 01254 267780
Opening times are 9am - 5pm Mon, Wed, Thurs and Fri and 10am - 5pm on a Tuesday.
It may also be worth thinking about getting a part - time job to fit around your studies if you're finding it financially hard. Now is the time that companies will be thinking of taking extra staff on for Christmas jobs. Therefore it's worth sending your CV to all the local employers - e.g. supermarkets, factories, retail stores etc and seeing if you can get any part-time work if you feel you need to.
The following links are taking from www.whatnow.co.uk and are designed to help you with your CV and where to look when searching for jobs:
http://www.whatnow.co.uk/downloads/SAMPLE_LETTER.doc
http://www.whatnow.co.uk/site/scripts/download_info.php?fileID=877
http://www.whatnow.co.uk/site/scripts/download_info.php?fileID=886
It is also worth looking in your local newspapers such as the Lancashire Evening Telegraph as well. Your local Connexions centre will also check your CV to see if it is okay and will help with interview techniques and mock interviews as well.
Finally, we hope we have answered your enquiry and that you now have enough information on what to do regarding your EMA and what other possibilities you can explore as well. In case you want to look on the web for any further information or updates on the situation this is the site to visit:
www.moneytolearn.direct.gov.uk
Please come back to us if you require further assistance or have any other enquiries on this, or anything else.
Good luck with your studies and we hope your EMA entitlement is sorted out soon.
Best Wishes
Q2A
Expert advice and every precaution has been taken to ensure that the information on this page is trustworthy and reliable, but the publishers do not hold themselves responsible for any inaccuracy as information can go out of date very quickly. This page gives general guidance only and should not be treated as a complete and authoritative statement of the law. With regard to suggested weblinks given in this reply please note that Lancashire County Council is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
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