Teenagers shun free money

This Is Money13 April 2012

MORE than one in three teenagers eligible for a Government grant to help them with their studies have shunned the scheme, according to figures published today.

When ministers first announced the Education Maintenance Allowance (EMA) worth up to £30 a week, they said 353,000 16-year-olds would be eligible this year.

But since the scheme began in September 2004, only 227,000 have been paid the money, which students claim in exchange for continuing in sixth-form study or training.

Education Secretary Ruth Kelly urged more students to consider it for next year. 'We are extremely pleased with the hundreds of thousands of students who signed up to the scheme in its first year, many of whom wouldn't have had the chance to continue studying after their GCSEs,' she said.

'But we are not just giving this money away without expecting anything in return - students only qualify for their weekly payment if they turn up to all their lessons and hand in their course-work on time.'

Official figures showed 295,000 young people were receiving the EMA payments - including about 70,000 who were in the pilot schemes that began last year. In total, 227,000 eligible 16-year-olds were taking the payments in the first year of the programme.

Officials estimated that the allowance had encouraged another 9,000 young people, who would otherwise not be studying or working at all, to go to college or start training.

And 35,000 young people chose further education or training over doing nothing or starting jobs thanks to the EMA, the Government said. The EMA was set up as a financial incentive to continue to study after the age of 16 in an effort to reverse the UK's high drop-out rates from education.

See all the latest news and advice on student finance at www.thisismoney.co.uk/student

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