Students and trade unionists will demonstrate today against the scrapping of an allowance to encourage poorer children into further education.

The Education Maintenance Allowance (EMA), worth up to £30 a week for students from families on low incomes, was axed by the Government.

It is paid to thousands of teenagers across Sussex and an estimated 2,600 in Brighton and Hove alone.

Campaigners have dubbed it the “most disgraceful cut of all” so far and insist it will lead to course closures and staff redundancies.

Demonstrators will gather outside City College Brighton and Hove in Pelham Street, Brighton, between noon and 2pm.