The Education Maintenance Allowance (EMA) provides financial support for students who remain in post-compulsory further education at a school or further education college in Northern Ireland. You can find more information about age criteria in our important dates and information quick guide for the relevant academic year.

EMA is a means-tested, attendance-based weekly allowance, paid every 2 weeks. Participants may also receive bonuses if they stay on their course and make good progress with their learning.

These guidance notes will:

• give guidance for those directly involved in advising students about applications and eligibility
  
  
• provide guidelines for the main roles and tasks that ensure all students are paid accurately and on time

This includes:

• EMA awareness and promotion
  
  
• setting criteria for EMA Learning Agreements and submitting this information on the Learning Centre Portal
  
  
• recording and submitting attendance data
  
  
• recording and submitting bonus payment data
  
  
• administering students who change course or Learning Centre

These guidance notes logically follow the stages of the EMA scheme, from application to payment. We expect you'll be most involved with the enrolment and attendance stages.

This guide will give you a clear idea of the EMA scheme administration and how your important role fits into the overall processes. 

There are other sources of information about the scheme, including:

• EMA Northern Ireland application forms and guidance notes on nidirect
  
  
• EMA Northern Ireland leaflets and posters
  
  
• EMA information on nidirect

Schools and colleges play a vital role in the promotion of the EMA scheme. They're an important resource for students seeking guidance. This especially applies to year 11 and 12 students, who may need advice about their options after compulsory schooling.

We therefore ask you to promote awareness of the financial support available under the EMA scheme.

We’ll send you publicity material that includes leaflets, posters, guides and application packs. Please distribute these to students and display them in areas where they can be easily seen.

Although the EMA application pack has information and guidance for students, we ask you to offer encouragement and advice about completing and returning the form. This could also apply to parents or guardians.

Please also promote awareness of the EMA scheme at career days, parent evenings and college open days. You can use the EMA publicity materials we provide each year to share with your students.

These are the main features you can highlight to promote the EMA scheme:

• EMA helps students make informed choices at 16, 17, 18 and 19, giving them the opportunity to think about further education with fewer financial worries
  
  
• students must earn their EMA by signing an EMA Learning Agreement and achieving set objectives linked to coursework, attendance and behaviour
  
  
• EMA is a means-tested, attendance-based £30 weekly allowance, paid every 2 weeks, depending on household income
  
  
• EMA is for post-compulsory further education courses in schools or further education colleges
  
  
• it is available to students on a range of academic and vocational courses up to level 3, for example GCSEs, A levels, NVQs, pre-entry level, entry level and basic skills courses
  
  
• EMA payments are made according to the student's attendance at school or college, in line with the terms of their EMA Learning Agreement Part 1
  
  
• the 2 bonus payments of £100 may be made if the student achieves certain agreed performance-related objectives
  
  
• EMA Learning Agreement Part 2 contains the bonus goals set down by schools and colleges
  
  
• the first bonus payment is made in January and the second in June
  
  
• EMA is normally available for up to 3 years
  
  
• students are entitled to up to 117 positive or negative attendance confirmations for EMA
  
  
• any money students earn from part-time jobs does not affect EMA
  
  
• EMA does not affect any benefits paid to families, such as Child Benefit, tax credits or Universal Credit
  
  
• before applying for EMA, students should have, or have applied to open, a bank, building society or credit union account that accepts direct credits

EMA is a means-tested allowance. You can find more information about household income thresholds in our important dates and information quick guide for the relevant academic year.

Students must provide evidence of their household income for the previous tax year.

If their household income has permanently dropped since the previous tax year, students can be assessed using the current household income. They'll still need to complete the application form providing previous tax year information and evidence. With the completed form, they should send a letter asking to be assessed on current year income. They should also submit evidence of the current year income and details of when the change took place.

To receive EMA, students must be studying an eligible course. This must be provided in a school or further education college in Northern Ireland.

The school or college is responsible for confirming that the student’s course is valid. You can do this through the Learning Centre Portal, as part of the process to confirm the student’s EMA Learning Agreement.

Course length

All eligible courses must be a programme of full-time academic or vocational education with:

• at least 10 weeks’ duration
• at least 15 guided contact hours per week

For schools, all courses are considered full-time.

However, for any course where the weekly hours are higher, students must attend all allocated hours. For example, students enrolled on a course with 20 guided contact hours must attend all 20 hours to be considered in attendance for EMA purposes.

Students on the NI Traineeship Programme will qualify for EMA support if:

• the combined total guided learning hours of all programme components meet the minimum requirement
• they meet all other eligibility criteria of the scheme.

Course type

The course criteria for the EMA scheme are wide-ranging and highly flexible. These must relate to qualifications up to and including National Qualification Framework level 3 and A levels.

The most important qualification for the course is that it must show some measure of progression for the student from beginning to the end. Both academic and vocational courses are included. Examples include:

• GCSE
• NVQ1
• NVQ2
• NVQ3
• GNVQ
• AS level
• A level
• AVCE
• Basic Skills levels 1–3
• BTEC
• Entry Level

Only further education courses are valid for EMA, higher education courses do not qualify.

If you are not sure if a course is valid or not, please contact our Partners Support Desk for help.

Work-related study

Students who attend a school or college as part of an apprenticeship or work-related study are not eligible for EMA.

Students who complete a work placement as part of their course are eligible for EMA, even if the placement is paid. They must satisfy the attendance criteria in their EMA Learning Agreement during the placement. You must have procedures in place to collect attendance data from the work placement.

Normally, we would not consider hours completed during the work placement as part of the minimum 15 guided contact hours required to be eligible for EMA.

Prince’s Trust

Students receiving support from the Prince’s Trust can receive EMA if they meet their Learning Centre’s EMA criteria.

Students cannot be registered to receive EMA at more than one school or college.

If eligible students are attending more than one Learning Centre, EMA is payable through the Learning Centre where they spend most of the week.

If you are the student's main Learning Centre, you must have processes in place to confirm they're meeting the terms of their EMA Learning Agreement. These processes must be both adequate and auditable.

If you're not the student’s main Learning Centre, you must have procedures in place to send attendance data to the main Learning Centre.

The normal course eligibility rules still apply. The course or programme of study at a single school or college must still be at least 15 guided contact hours per week.

Examples

Not eligible

The student is attending Course A at School A for 8 hours.

The student is also attending Course B at School B for 4 hours.

The student is attending for a total of 12 hours over 2 courses. As neither of the courses carries 15 guided contact hours per week, the student is not eligible for EMA.

Eligible

The student is attending Course A at College A for 15 hours.

The student is also attending Course A at College B for 10 hours.

The student is attending a total of 25 hours of the same course, but at different colleges. They have 15 guided contact hours at College A and 10 guided contact hours at College B.

The student is eligible for EMA and this is payable through College A where they spend most of the week.

Eligible

The student is attending Course A at School A for 14 hours.

The student is also attending Course A at School B for 2 hours.

The student is attending a total of 16 hours of the same course, but at different schools. They have 14 guided contact hours at School A and 2 guided contact hours at School B.

The student is eligible for EMA and this is payable through School A where they spend most of the week.

We no longer perform a sample check of auto-renewal students in the summer before the start of the academic year.   The income check process for returners will now work the same as for new students.

As part of the ‘auto-rollover’ process for returners from academic year 2025/26, we'll send them for an income check as part of their assessment process.  This will be a system generated process.

When we've carried out the income check, the student’s application will fall into one of two scenarios:

• The income check keeps the household income below the required threshold and the application will automatically progress to 'approved'
• The income check moves the household income above the required threshold, and the application will automatically progress to 'missing evidence'. We'll then send a request for physical income documentation.  This follows the current exception route for new students.  No students are automatically rejected without us requesting evidence first

We’ll also ask a sample of new students to provide evidence that they’re dependent on the parents or guardians they listed in their original application.

We’ll remind you when the sample check happens each year.

If students do not supply evidence or fail the sample check, we'll stop future payments and attempt to recover any payments we’ve already made.

You should continue to make attendance confirmations on the Learning Centre Portal throughout the sample check process. This will let us quickly backdate any payments once the students have proven their eligibility.

If a student contacts you to say they’ve not received payments, please check that you’ve confirmed their attendance on the Learning Centre Portal. If you have confirmed the attendance, please ask the student to contact the EMA Customer Services team for help.

Once a student has applied for EMA and submitted all the relevant documentation, we'll assess their application. We'll then tell the student the outcome of the assessment. If they’ve been approved for EMA, they will receive an award letter.

Approved students will not receive any payments until they've signed their EMA Learning Agreement at their Learning Centre. We need to receive confirmation of this, along with a submitted attendance confirmation, on the Learning Centre Portal.

You must use the mandatory EMA Learning Agreement template for all returning students. You can download this from the Learning Centre Portal.

For returning students, signing their EMA Learning Agreement acts as a formal application for EMA support under the terms and conditions of that academic year. This replaces the need for them to complete and return a new application form.

The application of an eligible returning student is automatically rolled over to the next academic year. However, you must still confirm that both you and the returning student have signed the EMA Learning Agreement. This will let us know that the application remains valid.

You must use the mandatory EMA Learning Agreement template for all your students. You can download this from the Learning Centre Portal.

New students must apply for EMA support by 30 September to qualify for backdated weekly allowance payments. If they apply by this date, their weekly allowance payments could be backdated to the start of their course.

If they apply after 30 September, their weekly allowance payments will be backdated to when we received the application.

Returning students must sign Part 1 of their EMA Learning Agreement to qualify for backdated weekly allowance payments. If they do, their weekly allowance payments could be backdated to the start of their course.

For new students, we'll measure their eligibility from the date they submit their application form. Eligible returning students must sign their EMA Learning Agreement for payments to begin.

EMA Learning Agreements are a clear and concise way of specifying exactly what students need to do to receive their weekly allowances and bonus payments. They are signed by both the student and the Learning Centre.

All eligible EMA students need a new EMA Learning Agreement for each year, whether they are new or returning.

An EMA Learning Agreement sets out the responsibilities of the student and the Learning Centre. It should clearly define:

• acceptable attendance, performance and behavioural objectives for the course
  
  
• what is expected from the student
  
  
• the role of the Learning Centre

When students sign their EMA Learning Agreements, they commit to the objectives their Learning Centre has set, in return for a weekly EMA payment.

There are 2 parts to an EMA Learning Agreement:

• Part 1 sets out the responsibilities of the student and the Learning Centre around the student’s attendance on their course
  
  
• Part 2 sets out the performance and behavioural objectives that the student must achieve to get bonus payments

Both you and the student need to keep a copy of the EMA Learning Agreement. Both copies must have original signatures. You must keep copies of all EMA records for 7 years for audit purposes.

You must use the EMA Learning Agreement template that is available on the Downloads tab of the Learning Centre Portal.

You can use the Nominated Person EMA Learning Agreement Form if a student is not capable of signing the EMA Learning Agreement. This form lets a nominated third party sign it on their behalf.

The nominated third party could be a parent, guardian or carer responsible for the student’s administrative or financial affairs.

The Nominated Person EMA Learning Agreement Form is available on the Learning Centre Portal.

It is up to your Learning Centre to decide which staff members are best placed to sign EMA Learning Agreements.

All new and returning students must sign an EMA Learning Agreement. For returning students, their EMA Learning Agreement signature is their formal application to the EMA scheme.

Learning agreements can be signed in person on a paper form. You can also email the agreements to your students if meeting in person is difficult. You should request an email from the student as confirmation that they agree to their EMA terms. Please store these return emails in an electronic file for audit purposes.

This part of the EMA Learning Agreement sets out the responsibilities of the student and their Learning Centre around acceptable attendance on the course. The student commits to attending the timetable the Learning Centre has set, in return for a weekly EMA payment.

As a minimum, the EMA Learning Agreement Part 1 should confirm: 

• that the student has enrolled on a valid course
  
  
• that the student has been made fully aware of how their Learning Centre administers the EMA scheme, including attendance and authorised or unauthorised absence
  
  
• the procedure and the student’s responsibility to tell you about authorised or unauthorised absence
  
  
• the appeals system in case of a dispute over unauthorised attendance confirmations and how students can get extra support and advice

Both you and the student need to keep a copy of the EMA Learning Agreement. Both copies must have original signatures.

EMA payments are only made if the student:

• has signed their EMA Learning Agreement
  
  
• has met the attendance criteria you've set out (or has an acceptable authorised absence)
  
  
• has been confirmed on the Learning Centre Portal as having full attendance or authorised absence for all scheduled classes during the given week

When you sign the EMA Learning Agreement Part 1, you also agree to confirm the student’s weekly attendance on the Learning Centre Portal.

This part of the EMA Learning Agreement sets out the performance and behavioural objectives students must achieve to receive bonus payments. It is the incentive for them to work to the best of their ability throughout their course.

The objectives should be realistic, clear, and unambiguous. They should also be adaptable to individual needs.

They should not be linked to specific grades or withheld until exam results are published.

Both you and the student need to keep a copy of the EMA Learning Agreement Part 2. Both copies must have original signatures.

Core elements of the EMA Learning Agreement Part 2 must include:

• the student’s name
• the student's EMA reference number
• the study programme, including coursework requirements

The EMA Learning Agreement should also include a clear statement that EMA payments can be withheld if the student does not meet their EMA Learning Agreement objectives.

It should also include an explanation of the procedure for:

• reviewing the agreement
• monitoring the set objectives
• authorising a payment

You should define the objectives clearly and explicitly. Examples of content can include:

• completion of coursework to a standard you expect from the student
• attendance at public or internal examinations
• behavioural standards in class and on field trips
• participation in class

Above all, the EMA Learning Agreement Part 2 must contain objectives the student can achieve. This is especially important for vulnerable students who have additional or complex needs. You should consider how you can encourage and reward the individual student.

To be considered for the January bonus, students must have submitted their applications and signed EMA Learning Agreement Part 2 by 2 December. This is to allow sufficient time for the students to reach their objectives before the January bonus becomes payable.

We recommend that you ask the students to sign both Part 1 and Part 2 of the EMA Learning Agreement at the same time. They should only sign up to the objectives set, and not the sections for release of the January or June bonus.

You must ensure that the objectives are tailored to the individual students. You need to tailor objectives according to how you expect the student to perform. These expectations can be based on, for example:

• the student’s known capabilities or expectations
• reports from a previous school or previous school year

Students who do not meet the terms of Part 2 of their EMA Learning Agreement will not receive a bonus payment. You must hold a bonus review meeting with each student to explain why their bonus has not been approved.

The students must sign the EMA Learning Agreement Part 2 to confirm they've been told why the bonus has not been approved. An authorised staff member must also sign to confirm the decision and that the student has been told. If you've tried to arrange a bonus review meeting and the student has not attended, you should keep evidence of this.

You do not need to hold bonus review meetings with students who have met the terms of Part 2 of their EMA Learning Agreement. If they have met the terms, their bonus payments will be approved.

Active

This status is automatically set by the system when you confirm that a student has signed their EMA Learning Agreement.

If you need to discontinue an EMA Learning Agreement, the method to use for this depends on the student’s circumstances.

Suspended

If a student is absent from your Learning Centre for a longer period and you're not sure if the absence will be permanent, you should suspend the EMA Learning Agreement. This allows you to reactivate it if the student returns.

Even if it seems that the student will not return, it is sometimes best to suspend them. Avoid using the Stop function, as the suspension can be reversed if you’ve made an error or the student changes their mind.

You will not have to make attendance confirmations for students whose EMA Learning Agreements have been suspended until you reactivate them.

Stopped

If a student leaves your Learning Centre permanently, you must stop their EMA Learning Agreement. This places a stop on the student’s record and you will not need to make any more attendance confirmations.

You should only stop an EMA Learning Agreement if you have confirmation that the student will not return.

You should not use the View applications screen of the Learning Centre Portal to remove students who have had an active EMA Learning Agreement during the academic year. You should stop their EMA Learning Agreement instead.

If a student stays at your Learning Centre but transfers mid-year to a different eligible course, you must review the EMA Learning Agreement Part 2. You might need to agree a new one if appropriate.

This updates the objectives the student must achieve to get bonus payments on the new course. Both the student and an appropriate staff member should sign the new agreement.

You do not need to tell us about any mid-year changes in a student’s programme of study. It is your responsibility to make the changes as part of the process for approving bonus payments.

You must keep old and revised versions of EMA Learning Agreements for audit purposes.

The EMA Customer Services team can only accept notification of a change in school or college from the student. If you are the original school or college and the student has left, you must stop their EMA Learning Agreement. The student’s EMA payments will then stop until they tell us they’ve moved to a new school or college.

Once we have the transfer details from the student and can complete the transfer, the new school or college will see the student’s details on the Learning Centre Portal from the following Monday.

The new school or college must confirm that the student is on an eligible EMA course. They must also set up a new EMA Learning Agreement with the student.

Students changing school or college mid-week

Students who change school or college mid-week will still be eligible for the weekly EMA payment, so long as they have attended all scheduled classes that week. The school or college where the student started the week must confirm attendance on the Learning Centre Portal. They should work with the new school or college to confirm attendance for the week of the move.

For example, if a student leaves your school or college on a Wednesday and starts at another one on Thursday in the same week, they’re eligible to receive EMA. You must find out from the new school or college if they attend that Thursday and Friday. You'll need this information to confirm that week’s attendance on the Learning Centre Portal.

If a student moves to another Learning Centre or significantly changes their programme of study during the academic year, we'll need to confirm if:

• the student is repeating their studies
• there is a reason outside of their control for repeating

In any case, to be eligible for EMA, the student must:

• be studying full time (or at least 15 guided hours per week at a further education college)
• have signed an EMA Learning Agreement
• be attending a valid further education course

Before you can enter any attendance confirmations, you must enter your Learning Centre's annual holidays on the Learning Centre Portal. This ensures that the 'two day rule' for the start of the academic year is met when deciding which weeks qualify as EMA learning weeks.

You can use the Holidays tab of the Learning Centre Portal to enter your holidays. You must add all your holidays, including summer holidays, for the upcoming academic year before it starts in September. You can add holidays from May.

The holidays must be at least 8 weeks in total. You will not be able to confirm any attendance for students until you've entered this.

You can override the 8 week minimum at student level if there are exceptions. For example, this may apply to a student who attends a placement during holidays as part of their course.

The 'two day rule' means that students must have the opportunity to attend the Learning Centre for at least 2 days of any week to be eligible for EMA. 

For example, if the academic year or new term begins on either Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday, students who attend all scheduled classes or have authorised absence are eligible to receive EMA for the first week. However, if the new term begins on a Friday, students are not eligible to receive EMA for the first week.

Students are eligible for EMA payments if the Learning Centre is open for 2 days but they are only timetabled for one of them. EMA will be payable for that week so long as they have attended their timetabled classes.

Students who are not timetabled to be in at all during the shortened week will not be eligible for a payment. The EMA weekly payment is attendance based and they have not been in attendance.

Most students will not attend a Learning Centre or work placement out of term or during holidays. Therefore, they will not be eligible to receive EMA payments during these periods.

However, some students may be eligible to receive EMA payments during holiday periods. This includes students on summer courses or work placements which are an integral part of their programme of study.

These students must still fulfil your attendance criteria and you should deal with them case by case. You should ensure that you have sufficient processes in place to track and record their attendance during the holiday period.

A student who fulfils all the requirements could theoretically be eligible to receive EMA for 50 weeks of any given year. However, this would only happen in very exceptional circumstances.

Over the course of receiving EMA, eligible students are entitled to a total of 117 positive or negative confirmations. Holiday allocations are not counted in this total.

We can only make EMA payments to students if:

• they've signed their EMA Learning Agreement Part 1
  
  
• they've met the attendance criteria you’ve set out (or if they have acceptable authorised absences)
  
  
• you've confirmed their attendance on the Learning Centre Portal

If a student has not signed Part 1 of their EMA Learning Agreement, they will not get a weekly EMA payment. Similarly, if a student has not attended every class or learning session, they will not receive a weekly payment unless you've authorised their absence.

You must keep records of attendance monitoring and payment decisions. This includes details of authorised and unauthorised absences for 7 years, in line with standard audit requirements. The records must be in a format suitable for auditing.

You must enter the student’s course start date on the Learning Centre Portal before you can confirm their EMA Learning Agreement or attendance.

The start date determines when the student becomes eligible for EMA payments. For example, did they have an opportunity to attend for 2 or more days during the first week? Once you’ve recorded the start date on the portal, you cannot change it.

If the course starts on a Friday, the student will not have the opportunity to attend on 2 days during the first week. In this case, EMA will not be payable for that week. The attendance confirmations for the student will start on the following Monday. However, the student will be eligible for the EMA payment if the course starts on a Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday. You’ll be able to confirm attendance for that week to authorise the payment.

Recording attendance

As attendance monitoring is such a crucial part of the EMA scheme, you can use or enhance your existing systems to record attendance. This applies if your current system monitors attendance on a morning or afternoon basis, for every period, or every lesson.

Schools must make at least 2 attendance checks per day, generally morning and afternoon. This means 10 checks per week.

Each attendance check needs to be recorded, ready for collation at the end of the week. You can use any method that suits your Learning Centre, including manual or online recording.

You must keep all attendance records for 7 years as part of the EMA audit requirements.

Collating attendance

You need to collate your attendance data each week, as it is used for authorising the weekly EMA payment. This is the evidence that lets you decide if the student is in attendance or not.

You should use the processes your Learning Centre already has for collating the attendance data.

Once you’ve decided if a student was in attendance or not, you must submit the attendance confirmation on the Learning Centre Portal by selecting either In attendance or Not in attendance. You should do this weekly.

If you are not sure if a student has attended, you must submit Not in attendance for that week until you have confirmation of attendance.

Each academic week must have a confirmation of In attendance, Not in attendance or On holiday. You should not leave this blank.

You can submit attendance confirmations for a given week between the Friday of that week and the Wednesday of the following week (before 5pm). This leaves enough time for the payments to reach the students’ accounts by the following Monday.

You may change your original attendance confirmation after submitting it if:

• an absence decision has changed from unauthorised to authorised
• an absence decision has changed from authorised to unauthorised
• an appeal against an unauthorised absence decision is successful
• there were delays in submitting attendance data on the part of your Learning Centre

If you do not have evidence to authorise an absence, you should mark the student as not in attendance until you have sufficient evidence from them.

You should only change an absence from authorised to unauthorised in exceptional circumstances and after you have reviewed sufficient evidence to do so.

If a student has not fulfilled the attendance criteria, they will not receive an EMA payment for that week. You must ensure they understand the reasons for that.

If a student has provided a mobile number, they’ll get a text message every 2 weeks to confirm if they’ve been marked in attendance for EMA purposes and whether they’ll receive a payment. They'll also get a text message to confirm any bonus payments.

If students contact us with any questions about their attendance, we'll tell them to come to you instead. This is because it is at your discretion to decide whether students are in attendance and to authorise payments.

If an administrative problem causes a delay in submitting attendance data, you must ensure that your EMA students know about potential payment delays. You should also contact our Partners Support Desk to let us know.

You should apply your Learning Centre’s general attendance and absence policy to decide if an absence was authorised or unauthorised. Your attendance and absence policy should be the same for EMA and non-EMA students. 

You should submit a positive attendance confirmation for an authorised absence and a negative one for unauthorised absence.

Reasons for authorising or not authorising absences must be clear. You need to apply all rules governing these decisions uniformly to all students at your Learning Centre. This helps to ensure that no students are in doubt about what the criteria are and how they're applied.

The following examples could be acceptable reasons for authorising absences:

• a visit to a university open day or a career-related interview
  
  
• a work placement, which is an integral part of the student’s course
  
  
• attending a funeral, wedding or civil ceremony of a close family member
  
  
• attending a probation meeting
  
  
• severe disruption to a student’s method of transport that leaves the student with no method of travelling to school or college
  
  
• a driving lesson (not during taught classes)
  
  
• a driving test
  
  
• a family emergency, such as the need to look after a family member
  
  
• extracurricular activities that represent a significant personal achievement, such as sports participation at national or county level or voluntary work
  
  
• medical appointments that could not be made outside of school or college hours
  
  
• delayed or cancelled public transport
  
  
• attending accommodation or housing viewing appointments when this is unavailable outside of school hours
  
  
• signing accommodation or housing agreements and contracts when required to do so during school hours

This list is an example and not exhaustive. If in doubt, please check with our Partners Support Desk.

You should assess each absence on its own merits, as you would for non-EMA students. For example, you might consider the following questions:

• Was the absence reasonable?
  
  
• Was it backed up by authentic evidence?
  
  
• Has the student had many absences before this one?
  
  
• Has the student used the same reason before?
  
  
• Has the student told you in advance, or as soon as is practicable?

The following reasons are not acceptable on their own for authorising an absence:

• holidays, as students are expected to take these outside of term time
  
  
• part-time or full-time work that is not part of the study programme
  
  
• leisure activities
  
  
• birthdays or family celebrations (not including weddings or civil ceremonies)
  
  
• babysitting siblings (not including family emergencies)

This list is not exhaustive and is for guidance only.

You can count isolated periods of illness as authorised absence if you're convinced the illness was genuine. Please ensure the students provide appropriate evidence. You have the right to turn down a request for authorisation if you suspect the reason was not genuine.

We recommend that you apply your Learning Centre's current procedures for illness absences for EMA purposes. This is in line with the general rule for authorised absences. For example, a student might self-certify an absence for up to 5 days, but it is at your discretion how many 5-day certifications you accept. Beyond this period, the student must produce evidence such as a medical certificate.

EMA is designed to help with the costs of attending a post-compulsory course at a school or further education college in Northern Ireland. For this reason, long-term illness is not an acceptable reason for authorising absences.

You must review any medical absence of 3 weeks or more and decide whether it should be categorised as long-term illness.

You should use your general attendance and absence policy when dealing with EMA for students not in attendance for pregnancy, maternity or paternity related reasons.

If you deem pregnancy, maternity or paternity related absence to be authorised, then EMA will be payable. You should use your discretion for maternity related absence and assess each case as unique depending on individual circumstances.

You should apply the same approach to students not in attendance for paternity related reasons.

You should apply your absence policy for maternity and paternity consistently to all your students, whether they receive EMA or not.

To be considered for the EMA bonus payments in January and June, students must meet the bonus criteria.

They must have achieved or made satisfactory progress towards the objectives set out in their EMA Learning Agreement Part 2.

For the January bonus, we must have received their application and they must have signed their EMA Learning Agreement Part 2 by 2 December.

You must enter the date they signed Part 2 on the Learning Centre portal, along with the date they signed Part 1.

Students who have not signed Part 2 by 2 December will not be eligible for January bonus.

If you allocate January bonus in February or later, the student must participate in an EMA Learning Agreement review meeting. The meeting should end with:

• an agreement to authorise the payment
• signing the relevant bonus section of their EMA Learning Agreement Part 2

The same applies for June bonuses allocated in July or later.

To receive the January bonus, students must also return to study in January. It is your responsibility to check that the student has returned after the Christmas break. You do not need to record this information on the Learning Centre Portal.

An appropriate staff member at your Learning Centre must authorise bonus payments. For example, this could be the Head of Sixth Form.

Once you’ve authorised the payments, you need to confirm bonuses on the Learning Centre Portal. You can confirm bonus payments up to 6 weeks before the payment date.

The portal will show a list of students who are eligible for the bonus payments. You need to record the bonus entitlement for each student by selecting Bonus allowed or Bonus disallowed.

Once we receive the notifications on the portal, we’ll make the payments to the students on the next available payment date.

You do not need to arrange a meeting with the students who qualify for bonus before you update their allocation. We'll send text messages to all students who’ve been allocated their bonus to confirm they are receiving their payments.

If the student has fulfilled all bonus criteria and you've authorised the bonus payment on the Learning Centre Portal, they'll receive:

• the January bonus with their next attendance payment after the start of the January term
  
  
• the June bonus on the next attendance payment date in June

January bonus

If you've authorised a January bonus payment in error, you can recover this. You should mark the June bonus as Disallowed on the Learning Centre Portal, as the student has received a payment in January which they were not entitled to.

You should also update your existing records to show this for audit purposes. 

June bonus

If you’ve authorised a June bonus payment in error, we will consider and carry out any recovery action. Please contact our Partners Support Desk for help.

Appeals about eligibility for the EMA scheme should first go the EMA Customer Services team.

Any subsequent appeals should be made in writing, with all supporting evidence, to the Department for the Economy. Appeals should be emailed to studentsupport@economy-ni.gov.uk or posted to:

The Head of Student Support
Department for the Economy
4^th Floor
Adelaide House
39-49 Adelaide Street
Belfast BT2 8FD

It is up to your Learning Centre to decide whether a student is entitled to weekly or bonus payments. Appeals about these decisions should therefore come to you first. We expect you to have your own established appeal process which is published and available to your students.

Any subsequent appeals should go to the EMA Customer Services team.

The EMA scheme is paid for by public funds. As such, it is subject to both internal and external auditing.

The Department for the Economy audit team carries out validation inspections in all Learning Centres that participate in the EMA scheme throughout Northern Ireland.

You must keep all school and college records relating to financial data for at least 7 years. This includes:

• student data
  
  
• EMA Learning Agreements Parts 1 and 2
  
  
• payment confirmations
  
  
• correspondence between you and the student or our Partners Support Desk
  
  
• supporting documentation of eligibility, such as course and academic year
  
  
• management information
  
  
• documentary evidence supplied in support of a request to authorise an absence, regardless of the outcome

This includes electronic and paper-based records.

In compliance with the Data Protection Act 2018, you must keep your records in a secure and suitable format and environment.

Our audit team has identified some common errors made each year in the administration of the EMA scheme. This is a summary of their recommendations.

Inconsistent or missing attendance records

It is vital for the effective administration of EMA that your attendance data is coded and entered accurately for each student every week. This includes notifications of absence as well as attendance.

You should only mark a student as in attendance for the week if you have full attendance or properly approved absences for them. Any absences are unauthorised unless proven otherwise. It is the student’s responsibility to provide a reason why their absence should be authorised. 

Out of date or incorrectly completed EMA Learning Agreements, no provision for bonus review

You should always use the most recent version of the EMA Learning Agreement template.

The EMA Learning Agreement must show that the student understands the attendance, objectives and behaviour you expect of them in return for their EMA.

It must also include provision for a bonus review if required, as well as a record that the review has been attempted or has taken place.

The EMA Learning Agreement must show that you’ve told the student about a decision to withhold a bonus payment. Both you and the student must sign and date this at the time of review.

The agreement must also show that the student understands the decision to withhold the bonus payment.

EMA authorised absence policy unclear or insufficient

You should have an authorised absence policy for EMA that is clear and reasonable.

It should be in line with both the guidance provided here and your general attendance and absence policy. The same rules should apply uniformly to all students, whether they receive EMA or not.

However, as EMA helps with the costs incurred while attending an educational course, absence due to long term sickness should not be authorised.

Holiday weeks overpaid

Most students receiving EMA are not due payments over the Christmas, Easter and summer holidays and you should be alert to this. In previous years, most overpayments were a result of students being paid in error while on holiday.

As part of our work to comply with the Data Protection Act 2018, we'll delete some information from our systems that we no longer have a reason to keep.

This includes deleting applications and customer information where:

• no payment has ever been made
• agreed retention triggers and periods have passed

There are some exceptions where we will be keeping the data for longer, such as cases of fraud.

The normal retention triggers are:

• EMA applications that have not been approved – the end of the current academic year (31 August)
  
  
• EMA applications that have been approved – the end of the following academic year (31 August) if no payment has been made

The retention period after the trigger is 6 months for all applications.