Education Maintenance Allowance

HC Deb 22 January 2003 vol 398 c370W

Mr. Flook

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills when 16 to 18-year-olds in Somerset will become entitled to Education Maintenance Allowance. [92180]

Mr. Ivan Lewis

The national Education Maintenance Allowance (EMA) scheme will be available from September 2004 across the whole of England.

In non-pilot areas such as Somerset, the first tranche of students who will be eligible to apply from that date will be those students who complete their compulsory education in the 2003–04 academic year. In existing pilot areas, EMA will continue to be available to all students age 16–19 (and in a small number of cases, age 20) in post-compulsory further education.