To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families (1) how many pupils within Copeland have been eligible to receive education maintenance allowance over the last three years; (175942)

These are matters for the Learning and Skills Council (LSC) which operates the education maintenance allowance (EMA) for the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) and holds the information about take-up and payments made under the scheme. Mark Haysom, the council's chief executive, will write to the hon. Gentleman with the information requested and a copy of his reply will be placed in the House Library.

Letter from Mark Haysom, dated 8 January 2008:

I am writing in response to your Parliamentary Questions that asked:

“How many pupils within Copeland have been eligible to receive education maintenance allowance over the past three years”; and

“How many pupils were eligible in (a) Cumbria and (b) Copeland to receive education maintenance allowance at (i) £30, (ii) £20 and (iii) £10 over the last three years.”

Information on the number of young people who have applied, enrolled and received Education Maintenance Allowance (EMA) is available at Local Authority Level, but not at constituency level. EMA take-up is defined as young people who have received one or more EMA payments in the academic year.

To be eligible for an EMA a young person must be aged 16-19 and be in full-time learning or following a valid Entry to Employment Programme led Apprenticeship (at least 16 guided learning hours per week). Applications are income assessed, based on the learner’s total household income, with the maximum income to be eligible in 2007-08 of £30,810.

In the first year of national roll out (2004/05) EMA was available to all 16 year olds across England and to 17 and 18 year olds in former pilot areas (as Cumbria was not a pilot area this did not apply to them). In 2005/06 EMA roll out continued and EMA was available to all 16 and 17 year olds nationally. In 2006/07 EMA is available to all 16, 17 and 18 year olds nationally.

The following table shows the percentage of young people receiving EMA in Cumbria Local Authority area during each academic year since national roll out. The reasons why young people did not receive EMA may be that: they were not eligible, they did not apply, or they were in employment, NEET, etc.

The following table shows EMA take-up data split by payment band for Cumbria Local Authority area during each academic year since national roll out.

I hope you find this information useful. EMA take-up data showing the number of young people who have received one or more EMA payments during 2004/05, 2005/06, 2006/07 and to date in 2007/08 is now also available on the LSC website, at the following address:

http://www.lsc.gov.uk/providers/Data/statistics/learner/EMA_take_up.htm