EMA to stop?

sanaxe1 · 9 Dec 2006 at 12:31

punky_munky said:
What is EMA? From this thread I get the impression that kids are getting paid to go to school? What?

Its getting paid to go to college or 6th form if your mum and dad earn below a certain bracket

Edit - Beat to it

VeNT · 9 Dec 2006 at 12:31

sanaxe1 said:
Its getting paid to go to college or 6th form if your mum and dad earn below a certain bracket

Edit - Beat to it

you just lost at the internets.

scaramanga182 · 9 Dec 2006 at 12:37

About time too. Having had to work briefly on the ema helpline, whilst between proper jobs I can say its one massive waste of tax payers money that is openly abused. I remember going to school because I wanted to better myself not because I got paid.

Macabre · 9 Dec 2006 at 12:40

scaramanga182 said:
About time too. Having had to work briefly on the ema helpline, whilst between proper jobs I can say its one massive waste of tax payers money that is openly abused. I remember going to school because I wanted to better myself not because I got paid.

I'd rather it went to us than into building asylum seeker housing for free and going into the immigrant benefits.

Andy Pandy · 9 Dec 2006 at 12:40

my dad says that because i get ema, he doesnt get the things that support your children or w/e. So basically ema is stopping giving money to my dad and giving it to me. Its not free money.

punky_munky · 9 Dec 2006 at 12:40

Well it seems a bit daft really.

vincent1989 · 9 Dec 2006 at 12:40

meh, hope it doesn't stop, as being paid weekly is useful for bus fair and un expected bills, but having said that, even if it does stop before i finish college at the end of the next school/college year my job pays more than enough...still, £120 per month is a bit of a loss.

and for all those whiners who bitch about other people getting benefits, dont be so gay, get used to it, people who are less well of get benefits because people that are better off are usually far better off. i get £30 a week because my dad did the system, went to school/college/university, got his degree, and got **** on by society, and now works in sainsburys, thats why i get £30 a week, heck, i even have to help support my family with my job, it's not all a bed of roses for some people, wish my family had no financial worries, like those bitching about how EMA works

vincent1989 · 9 Dec 2006 at 12:41

Andy Pandy said:
my dad says that because i get ema, he doesnt get the things that support your children or w/e. So basically ema is stopping giving money to my dad and giving it to me. Its not free money.

thats totally incorrect
EMA is on top of any child benefits/housing benefits w/e other benefits your family gets.

edit

straight from the horses mouth...or site

EMA said:
"It'll probably affect the amount of benefits my parents claim"

Not at all. Your family won't lose any of its money from benefits - even Child Benefit - because EMA is paid on top of any other financial support the government gives you.

Psyk · 9 Dec 2006 at 12:42

VeNT said:
college
its for kids who's parents get paid less than X amount. to keep em in college with the illusion that if they go to college, and then uni, there will be a job for them at the end (ha)

That's the parents who live with them. Which means if your parents are divorced and say you live with your mother who has a part time job at sainsburys, while your dad is a high flying business man who gives huge amounts of child support each month, you'd still get your EMA despite the fact you're filthy rich.

gam3r · 9 Dec 2006 at 12:42

Good, i think its a silly system. Especially the way they see the people of "deserve" EMA and those who don't.

vincent1989 · 9 Dec 2006 at 12:42

scaramanga182 said:
About time too. Having had to work briefly on the ema helpline, whilst between proper jobs I can say its one massive waste of tax payers money that is openly abused. I remember going to school because I wanted to better myself not because I got paid.

thats not true, i go to college because i want to further myself, i also intend to go to uni, and EMA facilitates me on that life choice

oh, and btw, while you were on the EMA line (between jobs) weren't you stealing tax payers money? as far as i know is govt funded, which means your pay came out of others taxes, i smell hypocrisy.

Hate · 9 Dec 2006 at 12:43

EMA is a waste of time, its only there to tempt chavs and ****** to not be on the dole

Psyk · 9 Dec 2006 at 12:44

bringerofdecay said:
thats not true, i go to college because i want to further myself, i also intend to go to uni, and EMA facilitates me on that life choice

I think there are cases where it is genuinely needed and yours sounds like it is one. But the way it is at the moment, it gets abused more often than it is really needed.

p4radox · 9 Dec 2006 at 12:45

bringerofdecay said:
meh, hope it doesn't stop, as being paid weekly is useful for bus fair and un expected bills, but having said that, even if it does stop before i finish college at the end of the next school/college year my job pays more than enough...still, £120 per month is a bit of a loss.

and for all those whiners who bitch about other people getting benefits, dont be so gay, get used to it, people who are less well of get benefits because people that are better off are usually far better off. i get £30 a week because my dad did the system, went to school/college/university, got his degree, and got **** on by society, and now works in sainsburys, thats why i get £30 a week, heck, i even have to help support my family with my job, it's not all a bed of roses for some people, wish my family had no financial worries, like those bitching about how EMA works

No-one's complaining about the situations where EMA is genuinely useful - only where it's abused. If it's designed to help people who are less fortunate to stay in education, then it should be provided for help with transport costs, textbooks etc. But it's not, it's categorically stated in the EMA blurb that you can spend it on whatever you want.

As such, it can only be considered an incentive to keep people on in education. This is a complete waste of taxpayers' money - not everyone should be staying on, and not everyone should be going to university. Don't think the government are trying to help you out, all they're doing is bribing people to stay in education.

vincent1989 · 9 Dec 2006 at 12:46

Hate said:
EMA is a waste of time, its only there to tempt chavs and ****** to not be on the dole

actually they could do both, and most people still live with their parents whilst going through college, so they would not be eligible to receive dole anyway, and also, there is no such thing as 'dole' anymore, it's called something else

vincent1989 · 9 Dec 2006 at 12:52

Psyk said:
I think there are cases where it is genuinely needed and yours sounds like it is one. But the way it is at the moment, it gets abused more often than it is really needed.

i agree, the system needs to be tightened up, but fundamentally it is a good idea.

i think the rules that are in place are not enforced as well as they should be, eg making improvements along the course, meeting deadlines etc are not enforced at all, maybe if they were the system would work better, guess it just comes down to how well the college you are in enforce the rules

the one i go to had a lot of problems with forged sigs, but they soon caught on, and a lot of people ended up in deep stink.

Arsey · 9 Dec 2006 at 12:54

Psyk said:
That's the parents who live with them. Which means if your parents are divorced and say you live with your mother who has a part time job at sainsburys, while your dad is a high flying business man who gives huge amounts of child support each month, you'd still get your EMA despite the fact you're filthy rich.

4TW!

Berserker · 9 Dec 2006 at 12:55

Well, I would say I supported EMA being stopped, but unfortunately I'd be a hypocrite if I did.

When I was at school in the 80's, I took advantage of a loophole in the disability benefits system to get my mitts on a nice few £££/week. All perfectly above board - they said you couldn't claim the benefit while working, but they didn't say anything about not being able to claim it while at school. Indeed, we were actually advised to claim it.

Psyk · 9 Dec 2006 at 12:56

I also think it would be better if it was not given in the form of money, it should be vouchers to buy text books and transport paid for, etc. Otherwise it'll just be treated as an incentive to stay at school, which is completely useless to society as a whole. If someone is only staying in education because it's easy money, they won't go on to do something productive with what they have learned, hence it was pointless them being in education in the first place.

vincent1989 · 9 Dec 2006 at 12:58

oh, goodie, nothing about it stopping on the EMA site

i think this may have started from a student council type thing, there were some poster round my college, touting "EMA should be banned" think it was a recent discussion for the student debating society or something weird like that

EMA 4TW