Education Maintenance Allowance (EMA)

Applications are now open for 2024/25

The Education Maintenance Allowance (EMA) is:

for students from low-income families, who are in full-time education after the statutory school leaving age.
for students attending full time and part time non-advanced college education
a means tested weekly allowance based on school attendance.
£30 per week, paid fortnightly into the student's bank account. Payments are only made when students have 100% of agreed weekly attendance.

Full details are on the EMA Scotland website.

Who can apply

Qualifying students must be:

over 16 on 1 March and stay on at school from August
from households with one dependent child and annual income under £24,421
or from households with more than one dependent child and annual income under £26,884

If you are leaving school to attend a Further Education College, please apply directly to the college.

If you attend a school outside Midlothian, contact the local authority where the school is located.

Important: please follow this advice to reduce the risks of sending personal information by email:

Do not use a shared device to send your email.
Do not use an unsecured or public WiFi network to send your email.
Before sending, double check the email address you are sending to is ema@midlothian.gov.uk
After sending, delete your personal documents from your sent email.