student E.M.A bit of a rant !

Simple question. How much do you and your husband earn altogether annually? Okay in other words is your household income more than £30,810 a year?

i never got it cos my mums a doctor dads a teacher, but that didnt make us wealthy, i kne people who were getting the full 30 quid a week cos their parents were self employed (and raking it in) one of my mates who claimed the full amount with all th bonuses also had a successfull business himself

My bro gets the full £30 a week, single parent family though.

I kind of agree that everyone should get it but if you are earning over a certain amount then i dont think your kids should get extra.

lol at that, fair play to him

they have also just changed the rules, dunno if its just in scotland, but from this term there is only one amount and thats the full £30 if ur parents earn less than £24,000 roughly....there is no £10 & 20 amounts any more for new claimants

Unfortunately like the benefits systems as a whole people will abuse it. I had a guy at my school who had a dad who owned a restaurant, raking it in but because he was self employed managed to get the full £30per week.

Great idea to support kids that actually need it but unfortunately abused too much

since we do not qualify for EMA then your question is answered, but it dosnt mean the money tree at the bottom of the garden is always full !

like any type of government financial help if you earn then you are means tested ok fair enough, but when you can still get the £30 & then still be able to earn from a part time job without your initial £30 a week being touched, seems a bit unfair.

the presumption is that parents are going to support the kids through college etc and give them money etc which often isnt true!

Your parents may earn X amount but that doesnt mean they can afford to give you £30 a week!

Another thing that annoyed me about it was that if they are going to give it to people according to household income, they should also take in to consideration size of family. E.g. single child where household income is less than 30k a year gets it, whereas household with 6 kids and income of 35k a year doesnt.

When I was doing my A-levels 90% of the people who got EMA basically sat around in the common room all day, didnt do homework, late with coursework, some of them failed all (or most) of their exams. Obviously there were also people who would of gone back to school anyway and the ema was just a bonus. Should be more strictly monitored, those things you have to get signed are rubbish because the students just get other teachers to sign them etc

i always said to my son i would pay for him through college (which i did - he finished his 3rd year this year) - yes it does annoy me that people who don't work and have not paid into the system get everything out of it but i do not begrudge those that have contributed by paying their tax. I do not think that any of them though should get the 'bonus' for turning up - only the weekly assistance of the maximum £ 30 - kids are an expensive business

very much so, my lad has some "field trip" studies coming up & these are not cheap at £300 each.

something is fundamentaly wrong with the way the EMA is set up

NO there is nothing wrong. You're in the wrong!!!!

Get your finances sorted out and claim it.

My mates dad is an accountant and he gets the full whack. and his mums a teacher

His dad sorted me out too