Grant Assistance - Students

EMA: Education Maintenance Allowance

Available to those in Further Education, including sixth form, EMA is a weekly payment of £10, £20 or £30 a week depending on your household income. You must be at least 16 years old. The money is intended to help with the day-to-day costs when you stay on at school or college, such as travel, books and equipment for your course. You must be a student on a course (up to level 3) for a duration of 12 months in order to claim.

Further information on entitlement, including income thresholds, is available from Directgov link will open in new window or the EMA Helpline on 0800 121 8989, where you can also request an Education Maintenance Allowance application pack.

Details of 16+ Education Transport Funding link will open in new window are also available.

School Meals - Free

Free midday meals are available at school for children whose parents receive:

Income Support
Job Seekers Allowance (Income-based)
Income-related Employment and Support Allowance
Child Tax Credit, but are not entitled to Working Tax Credit and your annual income (as assessed by HM Revenue and Customs) does not exceed £16,190
The Guarantee Element of State Pension Credit
Support under part IV of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999

Free school meals are not available to families receiving Working Tax Credit, children in the care of a local authority (e.g. foster children) or children in the care of a voluntary organisation.

Children who receive Income Support or income-based Job Seeker's Allowance in their own right qualify as well. All pupils who do not qualify for free school lunches must be charged the same amount for the same quantity of the same item. Neither the local authority nor the school’s governors can provide free meals to any other pupils.

Free school meals are not granted to children who attend independent schools.

To apply, please complete the free school meals application form link will open in new window . Application forms can also be obtained from Schools or when parents apply for Housing Benefit or Council Tax Benefit.

Student Finance for Higher Education Students

If you are considering to enter Higher Education in 2010/11, information, advice and guidance is available from Student Finance England link will open in new window .

You can find out about the following:

Tuition Fees Loans.
Maintenance Grants.
Student Loans for Maintenance.

Certain groups of potential students may be eligible for further assistance, in the form of:

The Parents Learning Allowance.
Childcare Grant.
Special Support Grant.
Adult Dependents' Grant.
Disabled Students' Allowance.

New Students

All applications from new students link will open in new window for the 2010/11 academic year will be processed by the Student Loans Company (under the name Student Finance England) in Darlington, County Durham.

As the service has been centralised the Education Awards Team cannot offer advice and guidance to new students. We will not have any authority to make decisions on eligibility and entitlement and have not been supplied with application forms for new students.

If you require any guidance or a form, you can contact Student Finance England link will open in new window via telephone on 0845 300 50 90.

Continuing Students

The Education Awards Team can only accept application forms from students who are already registered with us:

in their third year or above
repeating their second year of study

If you are a student on the same course as 2008/09 and 2009/10 you can contact the Education Awards Team for an application form link will open in new window . You must return the form to the Education Awards Team at the address above. Further information is available for continuing students .

If you wish to undertake a non-advanced or further education course at a College of Further Education you should contact your college for information about Access to Learning Funds link will open in new window .