EMA cut could face legal challenge

By Mark Ferguson / @markfergusonuk

Legal action could be launched on behalf of students who believe their two-year contracts for study has been breached by the government’s decision to axe the education maintenance allowance (EMA). The Save EMA campaign is currently taking advice from trade union lawyers – supported by Unison – who are examining whether they can win payments for students who began courses in September expecting two years of financial support.

At the beginning of their studies, students sign an EMA contract which commits them to rules on attendance, punctuality and achievement in return for the payments. Any legal challenge would seek to hold the government to their part of the bargain for around 300,000 students.

The Save EMA campaign have come across literature from the YPLA (Young People’s Learning Agency) – distributed widely in colleges last year – which they believe guaranteed that students who started courses last year could expect funding up to 2013.

James Mills from the Save EMA campaign told LabourList:

“David Cameron went to a few colleges and said, ‘We won’t scrap EMA.’ There was a clear promise that EMA won’t be axed and students joined their courses on that basis and committed themselves for two years.”

“Michael Gove said before the election that he would not scrap EMA, and that anyone who said he would was a liar.”

“These young people have signed a contract and the government should honour it. Ministers like to bang on about taking a 5% pay cut, but these kids are taking a 100% cut in their income.”