West Lancashire College Maintenance Allowance (WLMA)
What is WLMA?
Due to the Government’s withdrawal of Education Maintenance Allowance (EMA), West Lancashire College has created a new fund, West Lancashire Maintenance Allowance (WLMA), that will help you with the costs associated with studying.
WLMA is available to new 16-18 year-old full-time FE students, who would have previously been eligible for the full Education Maintenance Allowance (EMA), which equalled £30 per week.
Up to £1200 over two years.
Students who meet the eligibility criteria will receive £1200 over two years for the duration of their two year course.
If you are eligible, you will be able to spend this money to help you with travel, books, equipment and materials, or anything else that you need along the way. This will ensure that you receive the financial support needed to assist you with your course.
There may also be some support available for those new students who would have been eligible for part EMA, but this will be announced at a later date.
New Students
If you are looking to start a full-time course with us from September 2011 and you meet the eligibility criteria, you will be entitled to receive £600 for year one of your course and £600 for year two of your course.
Existing Students
Receiving full EMA
If you are an existing student with us and are progressing into your second year of study and previously received full EMA (£30 per week), you will now receive £20 per week over the course of 30 weeks.
Students who have studied elsewhere
If you studied elsewhere, you could also be entitled to receive up to £600 when you start your studies with us. This is subject to you meeting the eligibility criteria.
Find out if you’re eligible
To see if you are entitled to receive WLMA support, take a look and see if you meet the criteria below.
- Be intending to enrol on a full time Further Education course at West Lancashire College. Apprenticeship courses, Higher Education courses or full cost courses are not eligible.
- Be at least 16 but under 19 years of age on 31 August 2011
- Dependant member of a household receiving benefits (except Child Tax Credit) or Independent student on means tested benefit in own right
- Household income of less than £20,817
- Have been resident in England or Wales for the last three years (unless you were here only for study). Residents of Scotland or Northern Ireland are not eligible for this support.
If you're unsure whether you are eligible, simply leave your details at the bottom of the page and we'll tell you when you can begin to fill out the application form.
Some key points
- This fund is not given out on a first-come first-served basis meaning if you are eligible you will receive it (after you have applied)
- As long as you still meet the eligibility criteria you will receive support for two years, meaning you get the support for the duration of your course
- The final decision on eligibility will be made by West Lancashire College.
This fund is based on the Government 16-19 Bursary Fund (EMA replacement) which is currently in consultation. At the end of this consultation the Government are due to decide the ways in which this fund will be allocated. The West Lancashire College offer £1200 over two years is based on the current level of support offered by the Government. If this is to change in any way after the consultation, West Lancashire College will look to revise the offer to give a level of support to our students.
What’s next?
New students
If you’re looking to start a full time FE course with us from September 2011 and think that you may be eligible for WLMA, simply leave your details at the bottom of this page. We’ll soon be adding an application form on this website for WLMA and we’ll notify you when you can start the application process
Existing students
If you are already studying with us and currently receive full EMA then you don’t need to do anything just yet. We’ll keep you up to date through our website with the latest developments.
Useful Frequently Asked Questions
Click here to view our frequently asked questions.
Let us keep in touch with you
Please leave your details below so we can keep you up to date with the latest developments. We’ll be letting you know when you can begin the application process so make sure you give as much information as possible.