Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what comparative assessment her Department has made of the impact of the 16 to 19 Bursary Fund with the Educational Maintenance Allowance on social mobility.

The Education Maintenance Allowance (EMA) ceased in England a number of years ago. The government made the decision to discontinue the EMA as evidence showed that it was poorly targeted and wasteful in supporting financially disadvantaged young people to stay in education beyond the age of 16. The EMA was paid to 45 per cent of all 16 to 18-year-olds in further education, but survey evidence found that only around one in ten of those who received EMA said that they would not be able to participate without it.

The 16 to 19 Bursary Fund targets those young people most in need of financial support to stay on in further education and training. The bulk of the funding is allocated to institutions who are responsible for ensuring that these funds go to those who need them. Bursaries of up to £1,200 per year are also available to specific vulnerable groups.

An independent impact evaluation looking at the change from the EMA to the 16-19 Bursary Fund was commissioned by the government and published in 2015. This can be found at:: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/evaluation-of-the-16-to-19-bursary-fund-year-1-report.

For the 2022/23 academic year the department has increased the Bursary Fund by over £9 million from £134,352,473 to £143,691,863. This will help with the increasing costs of attending education, and we are keeping this situation under review.