EMA was worth more than £560m annually, but the yearly budget of the discretionary learner fund that is to replace it will be just £78m.
Steve Stewart, chief executive of Connexions Coventry and Warwickshire and spokesman for the National Connexions Network, said that the government is struggling to decide whether to target funding at vulnerable groups, or allow learning providers to decide how to allocate the cash.
If the discretionary learner support fund was to be split between every young person who currently receives EMA, they would each get just £2.40 a week Stewart claimed.
"From the Connexions point of view, we want to see the very small amount of money available going to those who are at most risk of not continuing in learning," he said. "The government needs to decide, so we can start to advise young people on how all this will work, because they're trying to make decisions."
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