Scrapping EMA

[TrollinaTrollpants]

will poor people really miss it?

Rats yes I thought it had changed in Scotland. We would still qualify if we lived North of the Border, that's how bad it is .

There is no need for it usualsuspect

come pay my ds's bus fare then

There is no need for it, because you didn't get it you mean

My dd in Y12 at an academic school needs to pay £3.25 each way on the bus (plus get to the bus stop which is 1.5m away). £32.50 a week is a deciding factor for some people. Yes I know of people on EMA who spend it at Jack Wills - usually have a rich dad and separated parents - BUT they are the odd ones. Dd has friends who need it for transport and food.

In rural areas transport is often appalling and opportunities for local work beyond a bit of babysitting non-existent. If dd works in the nearest town after school, there are no buses back after 5.30 so I need to do a 20m round trip to collect her. OK, we're lucky enough to be able to afford it, but so so many families (working or not) find it a huge struggle.

Isn't that your job usual suspect, I'd say shall we buy his fags and beer too but I bet we already do.

an asumption there mama....is that the best you can come up with?

how are kids supposed to get jobs? all the adults have taken the paper rounds and part time jobs

An assumption based on other posts, of course it'll be denied no doubt but what ever.
Back to the point parents should be providing the £30 a week, if anyone has to go without to keep your child in education it's you.

We find £18k a year that we could spend on other things but education is important so we don't. If I can magic that up then really bus fare is impossible ?

Mama

but it's not just finding the £30 a week many of us have already pointed out that just covers the bus fares

then there's lunch, equipment costs ,book costs ,Ds is doing a catering course the knifes alone was £350.

Ds1 wants a job, had one over the summer.He never asks for money to do things because he knows it's not there.Or would you rather he takes my nieces attitude and go on the dole because he can then get £60 a week for doing nothing just sitting on his arse instead of improving his job prospects

I'm ds3 carer so yes finding the extra money is hard and going to hurt and as I pointed out as school compulsary age rises they will have to provide free transport for those that are more than 3 miles anyway.and free school dinners which is going to work out more than the £30 a week ema that ds1 gets

free school dinners £20 a week plus bus fares.Goverment can't seem to do the sums because bet they won't publish just how much will cost to keep kids in education compulsary

So there not really goningto be saving.here in herts used to be able to get a saver card so half fares from 11-16 as of next year there scrapping it so from age 11 be adult fares

which is not so bad you live in a town but hurts when your rural

-You have to be cruel to be kind
-We can't have young mothers in canteens
-I never needed it, so I don't see why anyone else needs it
-According to the OECD , kids fit into 7 categories of competence. Academic ability can be categorized thus:
NOne
LImited
Barely
Simple
Effective
Developed
Advanced
[Data given in OECD (2007) The Programme for INternational Student Assesment (PISA) ]

I reckon poor people fit into the "None, Limited, Barely and Simple" categories, so there's no point wasting money on them

We live rural, going. We live really, really rural. It's a major barrier to a lot of things. We chose this way, for it is always a choice, as are most things in life.

So what are you going to do? Because everything's frozen now, tax credits, child benefits, etc. They will be cut to pay the debts the few down in London left us with. I don't know them from Adam, but if there is a hell I wish them all eternity there. Still, there's nowt I can do about it the now. It doesn't feed me or mine or put clothes on their backs or shoes on their feet.

It's time to start thinking and fuck them. Fuck all them down in London who care nothing about us, we are nothing but Jocks who don't vote Tory. We're useless to them. Anyone who thinks otherwise is a fool kidding himself. There is only one Tory constituency in the entire country and it is in the Borders.

I'm past being angry or bitter about it. This is how it has always been here.

'It's going to happen, whoever begrudges it.' - Ann Bolelyn

There is surely a way, because I've spent so many a cold, dark night reading the books my old landlord left on his shelves, of those who lived here before.

Where there is a will, there must be a way and if not, then there is another way.

This area is suspicious of government. It is well so, our services have always been limited at best.

Things have changed so very much, but you know, there's no way I'm going to be driven out of here.

My own daughter put it best. 'This isn't just a place to live to me. This is my home. I am a Highland girl now, though I was born in the Lowlands. I am Scottish.'

So what are you going to do about it?

Foret categorising. It means nothing in pounds and pence.

My children will have to leave this place to even go to college at all. There is only a very small one here, a subjunct of UHI, and their funding has been cut.

And they are lucky.

The council is closing 25 primary schools and amalgamating them, some very far apart. It doesn't matter how much we protest, their budget has been slashed. Only 1 was saved, and only because legally, it was too far from the nearest other school, some 30 miles one way over steep and windy single carriageway road.

What will you do? You are wasting your time to protest, IME.

They will only help you if you are seen to be doing something they consider proactive. That is how they are.

Otherwise, you are a revolutionary, and then, well, you'd better be prepared for what that entails and have Lady Luck on your side.

I know most of the kids I went to college with wouldn't have been able to go without EMA, and so would have had no qualifications and no access to the vocational courses they tended to do.

From what I know of them now, most have gone on to do quite well in life. As the skills they were taught have made them employable, rather than them being unskilled whilst living in poorer areas; where there are more unskilled workers than suitable jobs.

YOu are never wasting your time by pointing out something is wrong.

You gave me an Anne Boleyn quote, I'll give you a Dylan Thomas quote: "Do not go gentle into that good night...Rage, rage against the dying of the light"

Rage away.

Does it pay £30/week?

Because otherwise, they will not hear.

You have to come up with that or do something else.

That is how it is.

I do not like it. I am not happy about it.

But if I am not to the point where I will or cannot abide it, then there are really only two choices left to me: to leave or to become a revolutionary.

And as yet, I am not interested in the latter, for I have studied that option very seriously, and it not without very grave consequence, and it will only suceed with very very great cost and a huge amount of luck.

America, where I am from. Years, years, many years, trying to broker peace, a compromise. May we have full status as British citizens? May we have representatives at Parliament in proportion to population? A difference in tax as we have not full statehood? Real people, with real livelihoods and families at stake. Years before saying, 'That's it. We can't work with you anymore.' And even then, a war in France was what swung it.

Ireland: WWI was their friend.

France, things really bad, starving sort of bad.

Think long and hard.

But in the meantime, you need to think about what you will do to make up the shortfall, because it's gone.

My teen gets £30 weekly. £20 of that goes on railfares & dinner money. Im self-employed and pay my taxes. I get child ben for her, its hardly a fortune.When EMA goes I will have to fund my daughter thru college without any assistance, and no doubt thru Uni at this rate. Never ceases to amaze me how at times there really seems to be an underlying resentment to teens getting any kind of boost in this country. Perhaps they should follow the line of a good many grown adults out there and sign on the dole, doing sweet fa, not studying or paying any taxes .after all, who are young people to expect to receive any financial assistance? Whilst the bankers continue to take the p out of taxpayers, and MPs continue to rake in huge expenses, folk can quibble about EMA payments which amount to the huge fortune of £120 monthly, enabling teens to live in clover..maybe English teens should move to Scotland when Uni time comes, its free there, and very cheap in Wales.No 'United' in our Kingdom when it comes to students..

£18k, might be a push but £30 a week, come on what would you have done before EMA ? You'd have found it.

goingroundthebend4 - he needs to find another route into what he's doing because my best friend is a chef and didn't buy her own knives until she'd been doing the job for 3 years. Colleges have funds for whites or safety boots they always have but to provide pocket money too is a step too far.

There was a pilot for FreeBus last weekend Riven. The intention being that it runs during the week from Temple Meads into town. At least it would be part of the journey and the cycle path is OKish from where you are to Temple Meads.

Get him a bike, 2.5 miles on that wouldn't be too bad and keeps him fit too.
Nobody on IS just gets IS, there's all the other advantages too, one of which being free bus passes, free school meals etc and if the £30 is that bloody important you can earn £20 without losing it and the teen will have to do something, just as we had to do something. I worked in a shoe shop all day and then a bar at night whilst doing A Levels, in the 90's recession.

People will have to be more resourceful because holding your hands up and saying if I don't get a hand out I won't go to college is going to get them nowhere, if they don't go less competition for my children.