UC and EMA Scotland

We know that young people on JSA don’t get Education Maintenance Allowance but what if they’re in the All Work Requirements group of UC?

https://www.mygov.scot/ema/can-i-get-ema

Now i’m thinking that someone in full time education wouldn’t be in all work requirements group and I’m not sure how they’d get JSA in FTE either?

None of this is familiar to me, but the regulations appear to just vaguely say:

(2) If the conditions specified in paragraph (1) are not complied with or if the holder receives from any other source any sum which, in the opinion of the Scottish Ministers, makes it unnecessary for the holder to be assisted by means of an education maintenance allowance, the Scottish Ministers may suspend payment of the education maintenance allowance or terminate the education maintenance allowance.

The guidance I could find just says:

Young people in full-time employment, in receipt of Job Seekers Allowance (JSA) or in receipt of a training allowance, such as the Employability Fund will not be eligible for an EMA.

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ssi/2007/156/regulation/5/made
http://www.sfc.ac.uk/web/FILES/guidance_sfcgd162019/EMA_Guidance_and_Processes_2019.pdf

Thanks, Elliot. I found that too and, like you, thought it was pretty vague.

I have since discovered that the issue is not around people in FTE but those getting a minimum of 3 hrs to maximum 3 days activities with 1:1 support through Aberdeenshire employability agreements. Scot Gov agreed back in 2011 that anyone on this programme would be eligible for EMA – so not school or college related as they have to have left school and not be in a positive destination.

My argument might be that if the guidance only refers to JSA being an exclusion, the local authority should proceed until apprehended!