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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

Scrapping EMA

342 replies

TrollinaTrollpants · 13/12/2010 12:19

will poor people really miss it?

OP posts:

usualsuspect · 15/12/2010 18:03

Well I will send my ds to college with bread and dripping for his lunch is that ok

KalokiMallow · 15/12/2010 18:10

going it happens with all benefits :(

christmaseve · 15/12/2010 18:22

So dreaming one of you is a higher rate tax payer and you begrudge some teens a means tested benefit, just cos your kids won't get it, jeez, some people should take a long hard look at themselves.

christmaseve · 15/12/2010 18:26

Also no-one will be getting it very soon, they should have scrapped CB with the same urgency as well.

usualsuspect · 15/12/2010 18:41

Agree christmaseve ..the amount of well my kids don't get it so why should yours on here is quite frankly shocking, as I said before its sour grapes really

KalokiMallow · 15/12/2010 18:43

Bearing in mind there was a thread not too long ago about how unfair it was that disabled people got a one of payment of £10, I'm not too surprised christmaseve. Saddened though.

christmaseve · 15/12/2010 18:47

Kaloki .

My boss just got a winter fuel payment of £250 and he is a multi millionaire with several very profitable businesses. I don't even begrudge that because of they take it off wealthy pensioners there is a chance my elderly neighbour on a state pension, only, might not get it.

violethill · 15/12/2010 18:50

The problem with EMA is the fact that the system (like many other aspects of the benefits system) has been so open to abuse.

I am a teacher, so have come across quite a few hundred students in receipt of EMA since it was introduced.

Some students who receive it genuinely need it to be able to stay on in Further Education. Fact.

Some students who receive it, spend it on fags, booze, iphone contracts or petrol money.
Fact.

Some students receive it simply because their parents are split, and they claim main residence with a parent who only works part time or not at all, and therefore remains below the threshold. The other parent may be earning shedloads. I know quite a few 6th formers at fee-paying schools who recieve EMA. Fact.

Some students who receive it use it for bus/train fares to a 6th form which isn't their local one. They are being paid, basically, to have a choice which isn't open to many other students who don't receive it, and whose parents can't afford the luxury of choice about where to go. Fact.

As with so many benefits, if it had been targeted properly to the people who actually need it, it may well have been affordable. Because the system is flawed, and because so many people just take the piss out of a system once they see the loopholes, it's now disappearing so no one can benefit from it.

Crazy world.

usualsuspect · 15/12/2010 18:58

If the parents have split then why should it be based on 2 incomes?

usualsuspect · 15/12/2010 18:59

It wasn't scrapped because it was abused,if you believe that then you will believe anything

violethill · 15/12/2010 19:08

'If the parents have split then why should it be based on 2 incomes?'

Er.... because you divorce your partner, not your children???

I know a number of students with split parents whose fathers earn huge amounts - enough to pay several sets of school fees in some cases. The mother is careful to just work part time, so that she doesn't cross the threshold. The young person just has to 'technically' be living with the mother (even though father lives along the road and they see him several times a week!) and - KER Ching - they get EMA.

It really is bloody ludicrous!

christmaseve · 15/12/2010 19:19

So you really think that someone works part-time on a low wage just to get £30 a week.

I very much doubt that that is the driver tbh.

violethill · 15/12/2010 19:27

I haven't said people work part time on a low wage just so their kids can get £30 per week.

I am talking about people who choose to work part time ANYWAY - ladies who lunch, and maybe do a couple of days behind the counter in the local craft shop, type of thing. Split from their well off husband, nice settlement so they don't NEED a high earning, full time job.... they just need to be careful to stay UNDER the threshold.

If you don't believe it exists, then you're not living in the real world. My teenage kids personally know several of their peers in that exact situation... some of these kids are actually in private schools with daddy paying the fees!

If anyone seriously thinks it's ok that these kids get EMA they must be bonkers!

violethill · 15/12/2010 19:31

Btw, this is not a new topic on MN - we've had these threads many times before, and usually people who point out the facts above get accused of being 'envious', which entirely misses the point.

Many of us have no personal axe to grind, because we'd rather be working full time in a decent career and supporting our own children - it just infuriates us to see money being squandered rather than targeted properly.

usualsuspect · 15/12/2010 19:34

So because of a few kids that live in your very affluent real world get it ..the kids who live in my real world shouldn't

I highly doubt that the ladies that lunch survive on £22000 a year and thats before tax

nobodysbaby · 15/12/2010 19:35

I regularly spend my Child Benefit on gin and cakes - so none of you should get it, is that right?

goingroundthebend4 · 15/12/2010 19:35

Many of us have no personal axe to grind, because we'd rather be working full time in a decent career and supporting our own children

Well yes i much rather be working f/t to but then i did not choose to be divoiced or for ds3 to be disabled and need a carer either .But he is and i am a sp and on benefits .

Thing is if you dont or wont need it for your kids for collage all well and good im pleased for you but dont be so quick to have a go at those that do

usualsuspect · 15/12/2010 19:38

Because obviously the kids who claim EMA have parents that don't work hard ..there you go then.. same old same old sanctimonious bullshit

violethill · 15/12/2010 19:43

Bingo!!

So predictable!

Ah well, I guess some people just like to see public money being squandered!

usualsuspect · 15/12/2010 19:49

Well I guess now its going you can pat yourself on the back and say well done

thesecondcoming · 15/12/2010 19:53

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

violethill · 15/12/2010 20:03

No actually - I didn't say it should be scrapped did I? - just that its been really badly administered and doesn't just go to the people who need it.

I think it's wrong that its going - I teach some intelligent young people who really need it to stay in 6th form Along with some young people who waste it on booze and fags.

So sorry to disappoint!

christmaseve · 15/12/2010 20:05

Yep and from a teacher . I work btw, just don't have a teachers salary but that doesn't mean I don't support my child, just happen to have been entitled to claim EMA.

The help was welcome whilst it lasted.

Violet you are firstly slating rich but separated parents then having a go at the low paid!

violethill · 15/12/2010 20:06

(Awaits a post telling me that I can't possibly mean that, because clearly some posters think they know my views better than I do!!!!)

usualsuspect · 15/12/2010 20:07

Would you like receipts from the ones who need it? would that help ..btw what do you spend your CB on?

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