Clarification from Skills Funding Agency that ESOL students on inactive benefits eligible for full funding

23 August 2011 Important Clarification from the Skills Funding Agency as to whether ESOL students on inactive benefits will be required to pay fees: " The Agency has received a number of requests for clarification following the announcement of increased flexibility for state benefit claimants, who are unemployed and need skills training to help them enter work. The Agency confirms that ALL learners in this group will be eligible for full funding, at the discretion of the provider. This provides the flexibility for the same range of learning aims available to those in receipt of Job Seeker's Allowance and Employment and Support Allowance (Work Related Activity Group), including ESOL. The exact references for this change of policy are contained in A SFA publication 'Learner eligibility' version 2.1. The relevant paragraphs are 102 103 and 106." The move to exempt those on inactive benefits but 'seeking work' and making a declaration that they are is left to the local college management and there is no additional funds to support such a move so the college will have to find the money. AoC and the Action for ESOL Campaign are waiting for clarification on whether this applies to the dependents of those on inactive benefit as it did last year and whether asylum seekers and refugees are also covered. You should ask your college if they are going to use this new flexibility, for whom and how they are going to contact last year's students on inactive benefit who weren't coming back because they wouldn't have been able to pay a fee. You should also be asking the college to rescind redundancy notices in the light of this new policy development.