Response to the Independent Review of the EMA Scheme in Wales (February 2025)

In November 2023, OB3 Research was appointed by the Welsh Government to undertake an independent review of the Education Maintenance Allowance (EMA) in Wales.

The final report was published in July 2024.

The review concluded that Welsh Government should continue to administer EMA, targeting it at young people from low-income households and continue to put financial support directly into the pockets of post-16 learners.

The review brought the Welsh Government up to date with what learners and learning centres expected from EMA and provided demonstrable evidence directly from young people of the benefits of EMA.

The review made ten recommendations. A response has been provided against each of the recommendations.

Recommendation 1

We recommend that the Welsh Government continues to administer the EMA in Wales, and that it focuses on supporting learners from low-income households.

Welsh Government response

EMA is a Welsh Government Programme for Government commitment. The policy will remain focussed on those from low-income households.

Recommendation 2

We recommend that the Welsh Government explores extending the EMA exemption groups to include young carers and (previous) FSM (free school meal) recipients.

Welsh Government response

Further analysis of these cohorts is required to establish how an exemption in relation to household income assessments might be evidenced without creating unnecessary or additional burden for the learners and the supporting services.

Recommendation 3

We recommend that the Welsh Government and the Commission for Tertiary Education and Research (CTER), now known as MEDR, consider how to address the wider inequity in access to support across further education in Wales, and specifically explore how it could provide free transport and free meals to learners from low-income households across both school and FE college settings. The Welsh Government and CTER should map out in greater detail what transport provision is currently available and what the cost of addressing these gaps would be.

Welsh Government response

Welsh Government will engage with Medr in relation to the current post-16 transport offer to better understand support gaps. Learners from low-income families in sixth forms across Wales can already access free school meals, Welsh Government will engage with Medr to understand what colleges in Wales offer by way of support for food to their learners from low-income families.

Recommendation 4

Should financial resources allow for it, we would recommend that the Welsh Government increases the household income thresholds for awarding the EMA, retaining the two-tiered threshold model currently in place to accommodate the circumstances of households with different numbers of dependents. We would recommend that the household income threshold be aligned with the real living wage, currently set at an annual salary of £23,400 if working on a full-time basis (37.5 hrs week @ £12).

Welsh Government response

Welsh Government have increased the household income thresholds for EMA for eligible new and continuing learners from academic year 2025 to 2026, setting the one dependent household at the rate recommended.

Recommendation 5

We recommend that no immediate change be made to the value of the allowance. Should financial resources allow for it, we would recommend that the Welsh Government considers increasing future amounts either in line with annual inflationary increases as set out by the Consumer Price Index or in line with higher education statutory student support grant percentage uplifts.

Welsh Government response

Welsh Government will maintain EMA at £40 per week for academic year 2025 to 2026. Further analysis and modelling will be undertaken to understand the financial impact of any future increase to the EMA rate.

Recommendation 6

We recommend that the Welsh Government, CTER and Student Loans Company (SLC) ensure that schools and FE colleges make a greater effort to raise awareness and promote the EMA at an earlier stage amongst potential eligible Year 11 learners, particularly those accessing FSM and vulnerable groups such as those with care-experience.

Welsh Government response

Welsh Government will work with stakeholders and partners to promote and signpost eligible FSM families to EMA. We will also increase the awareness of EMA to learners in Year 11 with consideration of a targeted campaign.

Recommendation 7

We recommend that the Welsh Government and its stakeholder organisations explore how social workers and key workers’ understanding of the EMA can be improved so that they are better equipped to inform care experienced learners and young carers about the EMA, support their application and ensure that the learner has direct access to the funds once received.

Welsh Government response

Welsh Government will work with key partners such as Social Care Wales to provide clear information and factsheets to young people about EMA.

Recommendation 8

We recommend that the Welsh Government and SLC consider how the language and terminology used in the EMA application form could be simplified and made more accessible to young people.

Welsh Government response

Welsh Government has already made progress to simplify the application form with the introduction of the EMA online application since academic year 2023 to 2024. The online form is intuitive to the applicant’s responses providing only relevant questions for answer. We will, however, work with the SLC to improve the EMA application journey for all learners, including language and terminology.

Recommendation 9

We recommend that the Welsh Government and SLC explores how Learning Centres could adopt greater flexibility within their attendance policies and monitoring activity to ensure that EMA recipients do not miss out on EMA payments. 

It may also be worth the Welsh Government exploring whether a daily, rather than weekly, EMA attendance-based payment model would cause less stress and anxiety for learners.

Welsh Government response

Learning centres are responsible for their own attendance policies and for monitoring and reporting on such activity. However, to support learning centres the SLC provides guidance with examples of authorised and unauthorised absences for EMA purposes, including encouraging learning centres to consider individual learner circumstances that may affect their attendance.

Welsh Government will work with the SLC and partners to consider providing information to learners at the point their EMA is awarded, highlighting the importance of discussing their circumstances with their learning centre and the benefits this can bring.

Recommendation 10

We recommend that the Welsh Government consider commissioning a quantitative analysis of secondary data sources in the future, to enhance the evidence about the impact of the EMA in Wales.

Welsh Government response

Welsh Government will give consideration to commissioning a quantitative analysis of secondary data sources in the future.