STRUGGLING students say they still have not been paid hundreds of pounds intended to help them stay in education.

Many teenagers studying at Colchester Institute have yet to get any of the Education Maintenance Allowance (EMA) they are entitled to, even though it has been due for three months.

Donald Cane, whose 17-year-old daughter Chernade Jones is studying accountancy at the college, said she had filled in her form correctly in September but, despite constant calls, the Government grant had not been paid into her account.

He said: “They can’t tell me the reason why she is not going to get paid.

“This is just not good enough.

“My daughter was in full-time employment and then she said ‘right, I’ll go back to college’.

“She was relying on that money for her Christmas presents.”

A spokesman for the Learning & Skills Council said the organisation would deal with Miss Jones’s payments if she got in touch again.

Students, aged between 16 or 18, who are about to leave full-time education and whose parents earn less than £30,810 a year are eligible for up to £30 a week during term-time if they sign up to some further education courses.

Mr Cane, of Haddon Park, the Hythe, added: “Chernade is not the only one who has been affected here.”

A Colchester Institute spokesman said advisers were doing everything they could to help worried students.