AROUND 9,000 Mersey students were thrown a lifeline yesterday, just months before they were due to lose vital £30-a-week grants to help them stay on in college.

In a major U-turn, the Government announced that most teenagers already claiming education maintenance allowance (EMA) will continue to receive payments until they finish their studies.

The climbdown will help around 40% of EMA claimants in Merseyside and Cheshire – around 13,500 students who began two-year courses last autumn.

However, their £30 weekly payments will be slashed to £20. And first-year students currently receiving under £30-a-week must rely on “discretionary” awards from their school or college.

Long term, around 12,000 of the poorest students will receive slightly more from the long-awaited replacement to the EMA, announced by Education Secretary Michael Gove.

But the new scheme was quickly condemned as a “betrayal” by Labour, which pointed out that the majority of students will lose all cash help for travel, books, food and equipment.

Only the poorest students, in care and on income support, are guaranteed grants. School and college principals will decide who else receives help – and on what to spend much-reduced funds.