More than a million pounds was spent running a student grant scheme which left Pembrokeshire students waiting months for their rant cheques, says local AM Paul Davies.

The Welsh Assembly Government paid £1.3mn to the Student Loans Company to coordinate the Education Maintenance Allowance (EMA) system in the 2008/9 academic year. But the scheme, designed to help students from lower‐income families to continue and remain in full‐time education, saw 4,500 sixth formers across Wales without their grants four months into the school year.

"The backlog caused enormous distress and difficulty for students who relied on the money for their education," said Preseli Pembrokeshire AM Mr Davies who is also Shadow Welsh Education Minister.

Figures show that in the 2008/9 academic year 35,780 applications for EMAs were received of which 32,610 were approved and 710 rejected. This left a further 2,460 awaiting processing. Some 10,010 applications for EMAs have so far been received for the 2009/10 academic year.

Mr Davies added: "The Assembly Government has some serious questions to answer about the administration of the Education Maintenance Allowance scheme.

"The education of thousands of students was put at risk earlier this year because they did not receive the support they were promised in time.

"Ministers need to tell us whether they think the £1.3mn paid last year to administer the scheme delivered value for money. "We need to know what safeguards they have put in place to prevent a repeat of this year's debacle."