Education Maintenance Allowances: 2021-22

Statistics on Education Maintenance Allowance (EMA) recipients and payments made in 2021-2022.


1. Background information

The EMA programme aims to provide support for young people aged 16 to 19 from low income families to overcome financial barriers to stay on in post-16 education; either in school or on a college course, or to take up a Learning Agreement.

The programme is an entitlement and demand-led programme which is administered by local authorities and colleges on behalf of Scottish Ministers. A weekly payment of £30 is made to a young person and is subject to attendance and agreement of a learning plan.

For a young person to receive EMA support they must first meet all the eligibility criteria. This includes meeting residency criteria; having a household income under the EMA income threshold; be of an eligible age, and be taking part in an eligible course of learning.

Additional information can be found at www.mygov.scot/ema. This release is accompanied by online tables that cover more detailed analysis.

Contact

Email: FHEstatistics@gov.scot

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