Household income thresholds

EMA is a means-tested allowance. The following household income thresholds apply in academic year 2025/26:

• £23,400 if the student is the only child in the household
  
  
• £25,974 if there is at least one other dependent child eligible for Child Benefit in the household

Important dates

You can download a copy of the EMA Learning Agreement from the Learning Centre Portal. This is in PDF format, so you can complete or partially complete it and save it for later. You can complete the agreement in hard copy or electronically. We hope this helps to save you time when you’re going through the process with your students.

You must not alter the wording or format of the EMA Learning Agreement to suit your Learning Centre. Please contact us if you have any questions.

Language preference

Both the EMA application form and the EMA Learning Agreement form ask the student to confirm which language they’d like us to contact them in. We’ll continue to send out all letters and documents in both English and Welsh to every student. The language preference will dictate the language of any text messages we send them.

Once this preference has been captured on the EMA Learning Agreement, you should also enter it on the Maintain Learning Agreement tab of the Learning Centre Portal.

How to update an EMA Learning Agreement

The quickest way to find any students who need to complete their EMA Learning Agreements is by using the New approved applications indicator on the portal Home page.

1. Sign into the Learning Centre Portal. The New approved applications indicator is at the top of the Home page.
   
   
2. Select the number of applications the indicator shows. This is a hyperlink that will take you to the list of students who need to sign their EMA Learning Agreements to begin receiving payments.
   
   
3. Find the student you're looking for and select their surname. This is a hyperlink that will take you to the Maintain Learning Agreement tab for that student.
   
   
4. Fill in the student's EMA Learning Agreement details, then select Save.

The details you need to enter are:

• course start date
• course type
• Part 1 confirmation
• language preference
• consent to share
• extenuating circumstances if relevant

Once you’ve entered this information, the system will allow you to confirm the student’s attendance.

You can also update EMA Learning Agreements through the Worklists area of the Learning Centre Portal.

1. Sign into the Learning Centre Portal.
   
   
2. Go to Worklists and open the Application Worklist.
   
   
3. Select the relevant year from the Academic Year dropdown.
   
   
4. Go to the Application Status dropdown and select Approved – outstanding LA.
   
   
5. Select Search. This will bring up a list of students who need to sign their EMA Learning Agreements to begin receiving payments.
   
   The Days since approval column shows how many days it has been since we approved the student’s application. The student should sign their EMA Learning Agreement within 10 working days from approval or the academic year start date we’ve told you, whichever is later.
   
   
6. Find the student you're looking for and select their surname. This is a hyperlink that will take you to the Maintain Learning Agreement tab for that student.
   
   
7. Fill in the student's EMA Learning Agreement details, then select Save.

Learning agreements should be signed before you break for the summer holidays. The deadline to sign them is the end of the academic year. If the student cannot do this due to compelling personal reasons, they must sign no later than the end of the first month (September) of the next academic year.

You can enter weekly attendance confirmations between the Friday of that week and 5pm on the Wednesday of the following week.

Students must complete and sign their EMA Learning Agreements before you can confirm their attendance.

You should apply your Learning Centre’s general attendance and absence policy to any EMA students who have not been in attendance. Use this policy to decide if the absence was authorised or unauthorised.

If a student has an authorised absence, you should mark them as in attendance for that school week.

An authorised absence could be, but is not limited to, one of the following:

• university or college visit
• school sports day or match
• work placement
• study leave
• family emergency
• medical appointment
• school closure

When you’re confirming attendance, be aware of any students who have said they’re experiencing extenuating circumstances on their EMA Learning Agreement. You should consider these circumstances to ensure no student is disadvantaged.

When you look at the Confirm Attendance tab of the Learning Centre Portal, these students will have a tick in the Extenuating Circumstance column.

How to confirm attendance

1. Sign into the Learning Centre Portal.
   
   
2. Go to the Worklists area.
   
   
3. Select Attendance Worklist.
   
   
4. Select the week you want to confirm attendance for.
   
   
5. Select Search to bring up your list of students.
   
   
6. To confirm attendances individually, select the In Attendance, Not In Attendance or On Holiday radio button for each student.
   
   
7. To confirm all students as in attendance, select Confirm All. If you select this option, you do not need to overwrite any Not In Attendance radio buttons you’ve already selected.
   
   
8. Once you’ve selected all the options you need, select Save.
   
   

If you’ve missed a holiday week, you can update it on this page. To do this, select the Holiday button and then Save.

If you want to confirm multiple attendances for a single student, select their surname. This will take you to the student’s record where you can make the changes.

You must confirm attendance every week. Students may rely on their EMA payments for travel or other expenses related to studying.

Attendance status options

In Attendance means the student has met your school or college’s attendance rules, including any authorised absences.

Not In Attendance means the student did not meet your school or college’s attendance rules, including unauthorised absences.

On Holiday means that your Learning Centre is officially closed for an extended period. This includes half term weeks, Easter and Christmas holidays and the summer break. You can set this in advance on the Holidays tab of the Learning Centre Portal.

Changing attendance status

Selecting a student’s surname on the Confirm Attendance tab will take you to their full academic year attendance history. You can update any previously marked attendance here if you need to.

If you change a student’s attendance confirmation from 'not in attendance' or 'on holiday' to 'in attendance', the student will receive a backdated payment.

If you change a student’s attendance confirmation from 'in attendance' to 'not in attendance' or 'on holiday', the student will be in overpayment. This can be stressful for a student to go through. It is therefore very important that you have the evidence, register or authorised absence confirmation before you mark a student as in attendance.

Updating attendance on a holiday week

If you are on the Attendance Worklist tab and try to change a student’s attendance status on a week that’s been marked as a holiday, the system will block the allocation.

To update an individual student’s attendance on a holiday week, follow these steps.

1. On the Attendance Worklist tab, select the week you want to confirm attendance for.
   
   
2. Select Search to bring up the list of students.
   
   
3. Select the student’s surname. This will open their attendance record where you can make the changes.

Alternatively, you can use the Customer Search area to look up the student and open their attendance record from there.

If you’re confirming a student is in attendance during a holiday week, you’ll need to enter an attendance note. This will tell us why the student should receive EMA for that week. The options are:

• summer course
• work experience
• study class
• Prince’s Trust
• other

If you select Other, you’ll need to enter a note to tell us what the specific reason is.

You must enter your school or college’s holidays for the upcoming academic year before it starts in September. This is to ensure that the 'two day rule' for the start of the academic year and returning from holidays is considered. It helps us to decide which weeks qualify as EMA earning weeks and which are holidays.

Start of the academic year and returning from official holidays

To qualify for an EMA payment, students must attend for at least 2 days in the week they return from a holiday or start the new academic year.

If the academic year or new term begins on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday, students are eligible for an EMA payment for the first week. They must attend all timetabled classes during these days.

However, if the academic year or new term begins on a Friday, students are not eligible for an EMA payment for the first week.

Example 1

Your school or college opens on a Thursday to staff and on a Friday to students.

This is not a week where students can attend for 2 or more days. It is, therefore, a holiday week.

Example 2

Your school or college opens on a Thursday to students. For administration reasons, you ask some year groups to return on the Thursday and others on the Friday.

Students have the opportunity to attend for 2 days. It is, therefore, an EMA earning week.

This is not a holiday week because it is at your request that certain year groups returned on the Friday rather than the Thursday.

Example 3

Before a holiday, your school or college is only open to students on 2 days. A student does not attend as they have no classes on either of those days due to their usual timetable.

As EMA is based on attendance, and the student has not attended during those 2 days, they are not entitled to EMA for that week.

However, if the student is only timetabled to attend on one of those days and does attend, they’ll be entitled to EMA for the week.

Holiday rules

You must enter your holidays on the Holidays tab of the Learning Centre Portal. 

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 can overwrite the 8 week minimum at student level if there are exceptions.

You will not be able to confirm attendance for students until you’ve entered your holidays for the academic year.

How to update holidays on the Learning Centre Portal

1. Sign into the Learning Centre Portal.
   
   
2. Select Maintenance from the menu bar, then select the Holidays tab.
   
   
3. Go to the Academic year dropdown and select the current academic year. You can update holidays before the new academic year starts.
   
   
4. Select the Holiday checkbox for each week that is a holiday week. Keep in mind that a holiday week is when your school or college is closed to students for 4 or more days.
   
   
5. Once you’ve selected all your holidays for the academic year, select Save.

If you mark a week as a holiday, the system will automatically mark all student attendances for that week as On holiday. Students do not receive EMA payments for the time they’re on holiday.

Holiday error message on the Confirm Attendance tab

If you do not enter at least 8 weeks of holidays, you cannot confirm attendance for any students. If you try to confirm attendance without entering your holidays first, you’ll get this error message:

'You cannot confirm attendance as your school or college has not recorded the minimum (eight weeks) number of holidays for the academic year. Click the link below to see more details or correct the issue on the Maintain Holidays screen.'

Removing an individual student application

We authenticate all incoming calls and emails to our Partners Support Desk. This is part of our ongoing continuous improvement review. It also helps us to ensure we're compliant with data protection requirements.

Authentication requirements

Each time you contact us by phone or email, we'll need 2 of the following:

• the full name of your Learning Centre
• your Learning Centre reference number
• your username for the Learning Centre Portal

What you need to do

Please take a note of your Learning Centre reference number so you can use it for authentication even if you lock yourself out of your account. Please ensure that you and all your colleagues are familiar with the authentication process.

Where to find your Learning Centre reference number

1. Sign into the Learning Centre Portal.
   
   
2. Go to the Home page and select the Profiles tab.
   
   
3. The 7 digit reference number is in the External Reference field.

Unable to authenticate

If we're unable to authenticate any incoming emails, we'll reply to tell you so and ask for the authentication information.

The EMA Learning Agreement form asks if a student is experiencing 'extenuating circumstances that may affect attendance'. This question helps to highlight vulnerable students so you can support them if their circumstances unavoidably affect their attendance.

Extenuating circumstances may include caring responsibilities and disability, but are not limited to these. Students do not need to supply evidence to prove their extenuating circumstances, but you can ask for evidence if you find it necessary.

If you have any discussions with the student about their extenuating circumstances, you can add this information to the Notes field on the Maintain Learning Agreement tab of the Learning Centre Portal. Before you can add a note, you must have the student's consent to do so.

Marking attendance

If the student has said they’re experiencing extenuating circumstances, the Extenuating Circumstances radio button will be selected for them on the Maintain Learning Agreement tab of the Learning Centre Portal.

This will remind you to consider the student’s situation when you mark attendance. You should review individual circumstances to ensure the student is not unnecessarily marked as not in attendance.

However, a student selecting extenuating circumstances does not mean you should always automatically mark them as in attendance. You're responsible for submitting correct attendance confirmations each week.

When you discuss the student’s extenuating circumstances, it is best practice to find out if there are any other resources to support them.

Adding a note to the student’s record may also help you decide how to submit attendance confirmations in the future.

The table shows when students should expect EMA payments for specific periods of attendance.

We'll only make payments once we’ve been told that learners have signed their EMA Agreement and that they’re attending as agreed. Students will not be paid for any period that they’re not attending their course including holidays.

EMA payment quick guide for academic year 2025/26

Academic year 2025/26

There have been changes to some residency eligibility categories from academic year 2024/25.    

Family members of Ukraine Nationals​

• From academic year 2024/25, family members of Ukraine Scheme leave holders will be eligible to apply for FE support.​

Family members of Afghan Citizens​

• From academic year 2024/25, family members of those granted leave under the ARAP (Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy) or ACRS (Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme) will be eligible to apply for FE support without any​ requirement for them to have been granted leave in line.  

Continuation of student support where leave has expired:​

1. Ukraine Scheme Expiry – We will make changes to our guidance to make clear that persons with Ukraine Scheme leave can continueto access support once original leave expires, if they have a new lawful immigration status in the UK.
2. British/Irish Citizenship - We will make changes to ensure that students who acquire British or Irish citizenship during their studies, instead of applying for further leave to remain, are not impacted by the termination provision.​

Settled residency status changes

In academic year (AY) 2024/25, to qualify for funding as a person settled in the UK, we needed a student to have settled status on the first day of the first academic year of their course. This was unless they had settled status under the EU Settlement Scheme (EUSS).​

From AY 2025/26, students who have settled status for any reason, not only under the EUSS, can become eligible for funding during their course. They will qualify for funding from the date they receive settled status.​

Domestic violence or abuse and bereaved partner changes

Previously, only the following individuals were eligible under the protected partners category:

• individuals (and their children) granted indefinite leave to remain as a victim of domestic violence or abuse
• individuals (and their children) granted indefinite leave to remain as a bereaved partner

We've amended this policy to be eligible to the following individuals:

• individuals (and their children) granted leave to enter or remain as a victim of domestic violence or abuse
• individuals (and their children) granted leave to enter or remain as a bereaved partner