Bulletin for March 2026

Last Updated: 31 Mar 2026

Service Review Forums 2025/26

There is still time to register for our academic year (AY) 2025/26 EMA/WGLG service review forums. We're running face-to-face and virtual sessions.

Face-to-face forums

  • 22 April: Cardiff – Clayton Hotel, St Mary St, Cardiff CF10 1GD
  • 23 April: Llandudno Junction – Welsh Government Office, Sarn Mynach, Llandudno Junction LL31 9RZ

Registration for face-to-face forums will run from 9am to 9:30am. There will be a working lunch from 12pm to 12:30pm. We'll provide tea and coffee and a light lunch.

Virtual sessions

Virtual forums will take place on Microsoft Teams from 14 to 16 April. The forums will run from 9:15am to 11:30am. Registration for the virtual forums will run from 9:15am to 9:30am.

You can book a place at a forum by emailing emainfo@slc.co.uk.

EMA household income threshold changes for AY 2026/27

The Welsh Government is increasing the household income thresholds for EMA for AY 2026/27.
  • £24,570 if the student is the only child in the household (previously £23,400)
  • £27,273 if there is at least one other dependent child eligible for Child Benefit in the household (previously £25,974)

LC Portal opening early for Spring holidays

We're opening the LC Portal early for entries for the week ending 27 March. This means you can submit attendances from Thursday 26 March. This will mean allocations are in place before you break for the holidays. 

Please make sure to mark the following weeks as holidays:
  • all weeks your Learning Centre is closed for holidays
  • all weeks your Learning Centre is only open for one day
This will mark all students as on holiday, meaning the portal is up to date. Please also check the unconfirmed weeks section of the portal for any outstanding student payments.

WGLG term 2 payments

Please check that you have marked all term 2 attendance confirmations before finishing for the holidays. This is so we can make any payments to students that are due before the end of term.

EMA/WGLG service launch and application form deliveries for AY 2026/27

The LC portal and EMA/WGLG online application service will be available for AY 2026/27 from Friday 27 April.  

Please encourage your students to apply online where possible. This helps us process forms quickly. To promote the online service for AY 2026/27, we’ve provided ‘coming soon’ posters for you to display in areas where students will see them. You can download and print them from the LC Services website.

We'll start sending out allocations of EMA and WGLG FE application packs for AY 2026/27 on week commencing Monday 23 March.

The criteria for paper applications is:

  • any schools or colleges where less than 10 students applied on paper in AY 2025/26 will not receive any paper forms. You can print them off from the Student Finance Wales website.
  • larger schools will receive a small delivery of forms
  • larger colleges will receive a supply based on feedback and analysis that we carried out
  • special schools will receive the same number of application forms as in AY 2025/26

EMA/WGLG FE support desk

Our support desk team is available from 9am to 5pm Monday to Friday to answer any day to day operational questions about individual students, application processing, payments and system issues.

You can contact the support desk on 0300 200 4050 (option 6 for EMA queries, option 5 for WGLG FE) or email emainfo@slc.co.uk.