Hi
Yes ema is stopping completely from June 11, and it will make it really hard for students to eat/buy books/travel to and from college, not to mention to buy a winter coat. Parents struggle with cuts in hours at work, increases in food and living, and taxes from January, and fuel prices. This govt also cutting sure starts ringfencing, and not putting the previous govts amount into building schools for the future. Tens of thousands of jobs being lost, benefits cut to bare minimum, children not being able to have the mums stay at home with them after 7 years (disgraceful) and I believe will get younger, some heart wards (and probably more un benknowned to me) closing down, people who are really poorly being made to go back to claiming jsa, a lot of people are not even able to claim job seekers for one reason or another and are not on the unemployment list even though they may be unemployed. This ema will mainly impact on LOW INCOME families, who now will have to find the cost of transport, cost of dinners (please note not subsidised and college, and even a packed lunch costs), cost of books. It is all just part of this govts way of taking of the poor. Why does he not look at the non domiciles, and self employed who have accountants to pay the minimum tax – they are all to be watched too. In our home there are days when there is no food on the table, unable to get winter shoes/coats. Times are hard. Very rarely we put heating on so we have blankets. And this is – yes – 2010 – sounds like grandparents talking. We seem to be like America more and more, students leaving uni with tens of thousands of debt and money becomes an issue, children left at home as young as 5 (whilst mothers work – and unable to afford childcare) doing housework and seeing themselves in and out to go to school. I have seen many programmes where children who have stayed at home alone in America are injured and even raped. It is so sad. It is about time students/ working classes/etc all formed a tight community and a strong pressure group. GIVE US OUR EMA BACK WE TRULY NEED IT, it is not a luxury it is a payment to help towards cost of actually going to college. There are no jobs to be had – jobs don’t even pay a decent wage. If you work full time on minimum wage you can hardly afford to support yourself with the huge cost of living, rent, council tax, heating, travel, food – what’s left to spend on clothes, leisure, going out to meet a partner, money to save for a home or to get marriage. Things haven’t half changed for the working class since this government has come in. Why should our uni rates be raised to subsidise overseas students?? Can anyone answer this?
