North Wales MS Mark Isherwood has raised concern that the Education Maintenance Allowance (EMA) is no longer as successful at encouraging young people from lower income households to stay in education.
EMA is a weekly payment of £40 to help 16 to 18-year-olds from lower income households with the costs of studying at a school or further education college.
Responding to today’s Statement by the Minister for Further and Higher Education on EMA, Mr Isherwood said he supported the introduction of the payment 21 years ago, but that he is now concerned that it is not achieving what it set out to do.
He said:
“When, having called for the introduction of EMA in Wales, I spoke for my Party in the Debate and we voted for its introduction 21 years ago, and we voted for and supported that, I did say our long-term support would be conditional on evidence showing that the numbers of students from lower income households increased in consequence.
“However, the number of approved EMA applications has fallen annually from 30,180 in 2013-14 to just 15,510 in 2022-23, the lowest level since 2005-06. So, what evidence do you have to show that this has increased or will increase the numbers of students entering Post-16 Education or remaining in Post-16 Education in consequence, and therefore avoiding the need to use the same money—not to save the money, but use the same money better—to achieve that increase we need to see?”
In her response, the Minister said the drop in numbers is “due to the fact that, as the minimum wage and the real living wage have risen to match, to a certain extent, the cost-of-living crisis, keeping our income threshold static has meant that fewer and fewer families have been able to qualify for that”.
She added:
“There has been a mismatch, really, between where our income threshold had been set, and that's why we've taken the decision to raise that threshold now and bring an extra 3,500 learners into the system.”