Education Maintenance Allowance
Education Maintenance Allowance is a weekly payment of £30 to help support a student in education beyond the school leaving age of 16.
Applications for 2024/25 have now closed
How much is EMA?
£30 a week.
How to apply
Applications for 2025/26 will be available in June 2025
After you apply
We'll send you a text message to confirm your application. This will also advise how long we'll take to deal with your application.
How we pay you EMA
We pay EMA every 2 weeks. This is usually on a Friday.
We pay it into your bank account. We can't pay in into anyone else's bank account.
We don't pay EMA during these school holidays:
- Christmas
- Spring term
- October Week
We may stop EMA payments if:
- your attendance falls below 100% in any one week
- you're late
- you don't meet conditions of the learning agreement
Last modified on 7 April 2025
