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'Ropey' IT puts student funding at risk

The students’ union has criticised poor procedures and IT for late allowance payments that are putting the education of thousands at risk.

By Miya Knights, 20 Oct 2008 at 12:57

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"Ropey technology" causing processing delays to education payments could put some teenagers at risk of not being able to continue their studies, a new report from the National Union of Students (NUS) has found.

A reported 90,000 learners are still waiting for their EMA applications to be processed, more than a month after the start of the academic year. As the NUS study found that 60 per cent of 16-19 year olds receiving EMA could no longer study if they did not receive the payment, the union said that left 50,000 learners still at risk of dropping out.

Beth Walker, NUS Further Education vice president, said the current delays to processing education maintenance allowance applications were “totally unacceptable” and called for a full investigation into their cause.

“Students should not be put at risk with bad contracts, shoddy procedures and ropey technology, as has too often been the case in the past,” she added.

The Department of Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) sub-contracted out applications processing to the outsourcer Liberata and revealed in August that it was struggling to keep up with demand due to the level of IT processing and calls to its helpline.

Earlier this month, DCSF Secretary told Parliament the backlog of applications processed had fallen from 155,000 in August. But he did not confirm how many overdue payments had been made.

Balls said: “We regret what has happened but it has fundamentally been a failure of the contractor and its IT systems.”

Both Liberata and the DCSF had not responded to requests for further comment at the time of writing.

Teenagers taking further education courses can receive up to £30 a week under the EMA scheme introduced in 2004. But the NUS survey said a third of students reported struggling with the application process.

Walker said: “Every year, students have to struggle through unwieldy levels of bureaucracy to obtain the EMA. This report shows the challenges they face, while reminding anyone who was in any doubt of how important this form of student support is to keeping young people in education.”