General Chat

Catherine

its Educational maintenance allowance

its given to teens who stay on in school or attend college to help them with transport, books etc

sorry but what does ema stand for?
catherine
xx

let me give you an example.

my dad worked but mum didn't as there were six of us kids to look after all at school age.

when i left school i went on to college to train as a teacher.

because the amount my dad earnt and the kids he had to support i got ema.

without the ema i would not of been able to go college and would of ended up in a dead end job.

the ema gave me a bit of freedom to beable to pay my own fare buy my own school books and have a bit of pocket money without it i might of gave up the course to get a job instead as my parent's would not of been able to fully support me money wise.

I'm on annual leave today - didn't want to be, but had an unexpected 2 weeks off after an op, and they won't let me take it over to next year (starts April 1)

Phone rang when I was in the garden - did 1471 - it was work!!

Blubby cheek!!

Rhoda....i do understand what the Ema is,,,but i dont understand why a child gets paid to go to school,,,Rachel..xx

I am a single parent, but got minimum benefit when they were small, because I worked during term time.
Once they left school I did full time temp work (office) but the wages were so low, I was entitled to Workers Tax Credit!!
Been working for the council for past 2 years, the council has finally evened up men's & women's pay. They have very cleverly changed my job title so the word 'finance' has been removed (80% of my job is finance), declared I am on too much money and frozen my pay for 2 years!! Guess who will be entitled to Workers Tax Credit next year!!

maggie

My husband works very long hours and long shift patterns and if those figures are correct we would be better off on benefits, not that we would ever consider that.

There is a percentage of people too ill to work which I totally understand but if they have a partner why cant they go out to work and provide for their families and just claim DLA to help them out a bit more.

Dawnie shame more people dont have the same principles as you and your OH xxxx

I know of families where generations have never had a proper job - it seems to be a culture that's developed in some families

I do not work my husband is self employed. We recieve carers allowance & DLA for my daughter and the costs on a yearly basis are a lot more than what we recieve in benefits. Any thing classed as 'special needs' is so much more expensive that what other items cost. We also would be better off if my husabnd worked for some one rather than being self employed, but this would not give him the flexiable hours he can have now. I try not to relie on him if he isnt working he isnt earning. But when the long summer holidays come some days I do need a break. This works well for us and although I recieve these benefits my husband pays TAX's + 6 months up front

skeggy

the ema is only £30 a week and it's so the student can buy relivent matrials for the course and to cover travel expense.
but you only get the money if you turn up to every lesson and complete all the work that is needed for that week.

the parents don't have to be on benifits to get ema you can also get it if your parents earning are below a certain amount.

i am now getting my pension, but up until 2 years ago iwas bringing my youngest child up on my own and i received abt £85 per week for the two of us. life was not easy i can tell you, how on earth people get these huge amounts of money i will never know

Hi Harry,
I have very mixed feelings about it.
I think anyone In genuine need should get all the help they need to get back on their feet,unfortunatly there are always the few that spoil it for genuine cases.

I do think that there are cases where they are not genuine and milk the system.

Oh and - in the past 7 years I have had to work a day job and a weekend job ............. and then I even worked an evening job as well - so was doing 3 jobs at once just to make ends meet!!

Good for you Dawnie:))

You are so right about your husband working too, it gives a good example to the children and means he can be proud of himself....................but self-employment is no easy ride is it!

xx

Well Im on benefit (incapacity and DLA) and dont get that much.

Hubby is self employed and would rather work for very little than claim more benefit but am sure that if he wound his business up we would be better off but then we would be at each others throats all day and he would feel useless.

Because of the money we get I have already bought birthday presents for laddo as they were in sale and baby gifts for my cousin even though its not born yet, cant do it any other way.

Kitty- I sometimes wonder hun .................... xx

Both myself and Hubby work full time always have..with the exception of the few weeks after havein our girls...............we dont recive a penny except from the obvious child benifit........the one thing i am really not sure on is this EMA.........my eldest is in her final yr at school she is stayin on an wen she asked why she wasnt given an application form she was told that it was cause both parents worked full time,,,,how wrong.,,,i dont think any child should be paid to attend school.......dont get me wrong both myself an hubby are both on good wages....an i do not belive any one should live in povety...far from it...Rachel..xx

Anita.............Hmmmmm..................you seem to be like us then!

Where did we go wrong?? lol

xx

I think the genuine families that have hardship that are claiming well fine-but the one's that are milking the system for what they can get-well that's a different story altogether.

It's like you see on the news some random bloke on video caught lifting heavy stuff and being paid whilst claiming disability allowance-not on at all.

catherine
xx

Hmmm

I'm single - childless - have a mortgage and have worked full time since i was 17 years old - oh and I'm poor !!!