Students with good attendance records could receive a £100 bonus from the Government
£100 attendance bonus for teenagers
Tuesday, 25 Jan 2005 12:25
The Government is set to give a £100 bonus to thousands of teenagers throughout the UK for continuing in education.
Under a scheme rewarding teenagers for carrying on in education after completing their GCSEs, children who have managed to maintain good attendance records over the past few months are to get a bonus £100 on top of their means-tested Education Maintenance Allowance (EMA).
That programme has seen students receive up to £30 per week since September, and of the 270,000 children across England who have taken advantage of the scheme, around three-quarters have good enough attendance figures to qualify for the bonus award.
The UK has one of the worst continuance rates for 16-year-olds in the industrialised world, but the Government's EMA scheme is designed to combat that by encouraging more teenagers from economically deprived backgrounds to further their education.
It is understood that the total cost of the bonus system will reach around £20 million, prompting criticisms from the Liberal Democrats that the payments are "excessive".
Skills Minister Ivan Lewis defended the scheme, saying: "The bonus is an important part of our overall EMA package and it's extremely encouraging that so many students have qualified for their first payments."
He added that it was a "huge incentive" for teenagers to remain in education after the holiday period.