16-19 Participation in education

Written Evidence Submitted by Mrs Sam Newman-Mckie

Please do not link the replacement of the EMA scheme to the benefits system: working single parents on low incomes do not qualify for income support and therefore free school meals but stuggle to find the money for children to get to college.

(My daughter gets £30 EMA and pays £25 per week for a train pass to college.

Without it she could not have gone to the academically best Sixth Form College in our area but would have had to go to a less suitable institution nearby.)

We would have been satisfied with a free travel pass instead of EMA, based on household income.

25th March 2011