Nearly three-quarters of young people eligible for weekly payments designed to keep them in education have taken them up, government figures revealed last month.
Department for Education and Skills (DfES) statistics show that more than 250,000 young people received education maintenance allowances of up to 30 a week for regularly attending college. The uptake is in line with government projections for the scheme (YPN, 1-7 September 2004, p2).
Trials of the allowances in 56 local authority areas showed a 5.9 per cent increase in full-time education attendance among eligible Year 12 students and a 10 per cent rise among 16-year-olds from the lowest socioeconomic group, according to the Centre for Research into Social Policy and the Institute for Fiscal Studies.
The DfES hopes the trials' success can be repeated nationally. A full evaluation is planned for this summer.
www.ema.dfes.gov.uk.
