Education maintenance allowances 2011-12

29th January 2013

Statistics on school pupils and college students supported under the Education Maintenance Allowance scheme were published today by Scotland’s Chief Statistician. These statistics relate to the 2011-12 academic year.

Key findings include:

34,390 school pupils and college students received EMA payments in Scotland in the academic year 2011-12, a decrease of 1.1% (390) from 34,780 in 2010-11.

School pupils account for 64% of young people in receipt of EMA payment, with the remaining 36% being college students. Of all the school pupils aged 16-19 years old in Scotland, 33% (22,135) received an EMA payment in 2010-11.

Of the EMA recipients whose deprivation classification was known, 25% (8,540) lived within Scotland’s 15 per cent most deprived areas.

The total spend on EMAs in 2011-12 was £27.6 million, an increase of £0.4 million from £27.2 million in 2010-11. Of this, £18.7 million (68%) was paid out to school pupils, and the remaining £8.9 million (32%) was paid out to young people attending college.