Many allowance calls unanswered

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Thousands of students who called a helpline for advice about unpaid education maintenance allowances were unable to get through, figures show.

More than 174,000 - or 45% - of calls to the learner support helpline went unanswered in September, as the EMAs fiasco in England reached its height.

The Tories found more than 90,000 calls (35%) were also unanswered in October.

Thousands of students did not receive their EMAs at the start of term after the company Liberata failed to deliver.

In November, the company was stripped of its contract to administer EMAs. CALLS UNANSWERED September: 174,685 (45% of calls)October: 91,928 (35% of calls)November: 45,608 (43% of calls)

The allowances are now in the hands of Capita, the company which had formerly administered EMAs on behalf of the Learning and Skills Council (LSE).

Figures obtained by the Conservatives show calls to the helpline this September (389,196) were more than double the number received the previous September (180,215), when Capita was in charge.

Shadow schools minister Nick Gibb said: "This underlines the scale of the government's EMAs fiasco.

"Tens of thousands of teenagers were desperately chasing their applications but nearly half of them weren't even able to get through.

"We need an independent inquiry to establish how the government failed to deliver this year's payments successfully so we can avoid the same situation next year.

"In the meantime, we need to make sure every eligible teenager who is still waiting for an EMA starts receiving payments before financial hardship forces them out of college."

In response to a parliamentary question about the helpline from Tory MP Justine Greening, the chief executive of the LSC, Mark Haysom, said Capita was now handling enquiries.

He told Ms Greening in a letter: "Although the transfer will not immediately fix all the helpline and processing problems, it will help us to improve the future service for young people, colleges and learning providers."

EMAs are paid to about 600,000 teenagers from low-income families as an incentive to stop them dropping out of education.

Although the scheme is UK-wide, only England has been affected by the delays in payment.

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