§ Mr. Ralph Howellasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science how many children received educational maintenance allowances during 1976; and what was the maximum and average weekly payment.
§ Miss Margaret JacksonThe powers of local education authorities to grant educational maintenance allowances are discretionary, and regular returns of numbers are not made to my Department. The latest available information relates to 1974, when the total number of allowances awarded in England and -Wales was 6,880 and the average value of these awards was £125 per annum. The maximum payment then being made is not known, but the highest average value of awards made by an individual authority was £204 per annum.