Student allowance delays continue

The delivery of EMAs was seriously disrupted this term

It still remains unclear how many students in England have received the education allowances that should have been paid at the start of term.

The private contractor responsible for delivering the educational maintenance allowance has already been removed.

But there are still students e-mailing the BBC claiming that they have not had their EMA support payments.

The Learning and Skills Council (LSC) has been unable to say how many students are still waiting for them.

The means-tested EMAs, worth up to �30 per week, are intended to encourage more students to stay in education beyond the age of 16.

Confusion

But the delivery of this year's payments in England has been dogged by problems with administration - with hundreds of thousands of students caught in a backlog of payments.

Further education colleges expressed their anger at the delays in payments and the apparent lack of progress in resolving the problems.

In November, the private company handling the delivery of the allowances, Liberata, had its contract terminated by the LSC - with Capita taking over responsibility.

In the aftermath of this change of contractor there was confusion over how many students remained caught up in the delays - with revised figures being published.

At the end of November, the government suggested that there were still about 26,000 students waiting for payments.

There have been fears that students will drop out of courses because of the chaos surrounding the EMAs - and the figures from the end of November showed almost 100,000 fewer students had received an EMA payment compared with the previous year.

With the end of term now passed, students have continued to contact the BBC to say they have not had payments - but the LSC has been unable to say how many in total are affected in this way.

To send comments please use the form below.

I am on EMA and it took months to get my first payment and then the payments stopped for another couple of weeks after I had received 3 weeks of payment. I am dependant on EMA and I have had to dip in to money that I do not have just so that I can manage at college and get to college.
matt, Kent

I've not heard a single word since sending my application form almost half a year ago.
Josh, Leicester

I am angry that this has not yet been sorted. If University student grants had been delayed for this length of time there would have been an outcry. Why isn't the press making more of this? Could it be that it doesn't affect the chattering classes?
Mike Farmer, Cheltenham

I am on EMA and only after talking with the EMA administrator at my college did I finally receive my payments. Some payments have been missed which have been no fault of my own and I doubt that I will be paid for them.
Jason, Hereford, Herefordshire

Funny how some of us managed to get through the whole of college without pocket money!
James, Surrey

I've had several letters confirming that i am entitled to payments of either �10, �20 and �30 pounds over the last few months, but still the correct payment of �30 has yet to arrive in my bank account. I'm hoping for a big bonus when i eventually do get it!
Sapphire , Devon

The delay in recieving EMA have been an utter joke! i cannot beleve that it is the end of the first term at college and still i am waiting for payments. When i call the helpline, the staff seem to know even less then me..i am seriously struggling to pay for travel and have been forced to borrow money from friends, when will this end?!
Sabrina, Birmingham

It really grinds my gears the way EMA's distributed in the first place. I don't recieve it because my family earns over �30,000 a year which I don't find fair. It's also incredibally easy for people to cheat the system legally, it's ridiculous and it annoys me how people who shouldn't be entitled to EMA get it because whoever it is who issues EMA doesn't check up on the family's entire financial background. For example, I know someone who's dad just sold his business and is now "officially" unemployed so now his kid's entitled to EMA despite the family being rich as hell. The government should reconsider EMA boundries.
Stu, Richmond North Yorkshire

My son applied at the beginning of September, had a letter enclosing returned documents at the beginning of November then had a further letter last week asking for the documents again as the scanning equipment hadn't worked properly :(
stevie, west bromwich

Both my brother and I are on EMA and we sent our applications off at the same time. He is getting it but I still am not. They sent a letter 3 months ago saying they knew i was on the list, but then when I rang them 2 weeks ago they told me to reapply. I now finally have my confirmation letter, but I won't be getting paid till January, and who knows whether they will make good the �300 I have already missed out on?? Its not good enough at all.
Peter, Worcester

I dont even know the last time I recieved EMA it was frequent for some weeks and then it just went awol...havent recieved anything in weeks and like most students I depend on the money for transport, books e.t.c
juli, liverpool

I sent off my daughters application middle of July and we didn`t hear anything from them until October. She is still waiting for the notice of entitlement and without that she won`t get any money.
Kathryn, , Nottingham

I haven't had a single payment yet. When I call up the EMA helpline I simply get the same old line "We are doing all we can, it should not be long now" I have heard this poor excuse since the beginning of the academic year. What I would like to know is how they expect us to afford to pay for their mistakes? and how long for? I have a feeling that not all is being done to correct this huge error and if it was any other benifit such as Income support, Child benifit etc. it would have been corrected an AWFUL lot sooner.
Liam, Leeds

My daughter and I filled in her application and sent it off in June, it was November before we got the first payment. I had to make dozens of calls and fill in duplicate forms, then they found the first ones. They also got her date of birth wrong on one set. Each time I called I had to explain everything over and over again and got the impression that they didn't have a clue what they were doing.

What is more worrying is that they still have not returned all the extremely personal financial details we had to send in with the form, bank statements, income details, National Insurance numbers, etc. We have no idea who is in possession of these documents.
Jackie, Guildford, Surrey

I applied for EMA in september and recived a confirmation my application was recived but three months later i havnt recieved a penny. I called EMA today and i was told i must re-apply. I am dependent on EMA to pay school fees otherwise i will be taken off the course.
mohamed, London

Well I'd just like my money really other wise my family will be receiving plastic coal this year.
Suraj, colchester

I have sent my forms to EMA and they haven't even replied back yet. I sent the forms off before September this yeat. Its so annoying
Rahman, London Walthamstow

I do not meet the criteria for the EMA, but many of my college friends do, they have all spoken of non payments, but I get nothing, I have a part time job, some of them do. I have no initiative to keep me in education, unlike those that do.
James, Norfolk

Get a bloody job you moaning students. I go to College to on a full time A2 level course and work four evenings to support myself and my studies.
Part-Time Worker and Full-Time Student, Burnley

I find it hard to sympathise, as we never received payments (bribes!) when we were in further education. This stuff was introduced a few years after I finished college, so some of my slightly younger friends received EMA payments, which seemed unfair to me. So A-levels are getting easier AND kids have to be bribed? Bah, Humbug.
Dave, Birmingham

My girlfriend has now dropped out of college to get a job owing to not receiving her EMA payments since the start of term, plus is having a miserable Christmas because she has not managed to obtain a job yet. She was told she'd receive all the backdated payments by this week and she hasn't - therefore, having relied on any other money she's managed to get all term, she has no money for Christmas presents for her family. Times like these are not times for incompetent financial support for young people trying to get a better future.
Richard, Sheffield

At the college that I work at, the management decided to pay the EMA out of the college's cash reserves, rather than wait for all this mess to be sorted out. Quite a lot of our students rely on EMA to fund bus passes and lunch money.
Sarah, Blackpool

I'm still waiting for my EMA. Now Xmas is nearly hear i havn't bin able to get any Presents at all!! I have already had to fork out �200 on trips with college, in which EMA is suppose to help me with. Im a second year student, and thought it would be easier this time around...obviously not! Thankfully this is my last year at college though, so i won't have to go through it again next year!
Matt, Portsmouth

My daughter ... hasn't had a penny yet and has had to miss days at college because I didn't have enough money to pay her bus fares which are �15 a week. We wrote to our MP over this, but he hasn't replied either.
Angie Johnson, Poole Dorset

In 2009 we will be in a very severe recession - EMA could well be discontinued as urgent cuts in government spending are sought.
John, London, UK

I am still waiting for my ema since 8th sept, after contacting the ema helpline about 10 times i got lots of confusion and my forms sent back to me stating need more information. When i called back they said they didnt need anymore info and promised my entitlement was on its way, another 5 calls later we rang the lsc who sorted it within 2 weeks. However im still waiting for my money as the ema said they still havent received my conformation from the college.
Jason Pownall, warrington, cheshire

I should be on EMA. Confirmation letter has came back, with the documents, however still no EMA ref number or how much I will recieve. Phone contact is pointless as all they can tell you is : "It's in the system". Mine has been in there for over a 2 months! EMA is the only way i can afford essential trips and resources to complete my courses. I now am falling behind as I can't pay so miss out on visits.
Rob, Bristol