Scottish teenagers who would qualify for £10 or £20 weekly grants could lose out under proposals to spread funding to more of the most needy.
The Scottish Government plans to extend £30 education maintenance allowances to more training and community projects including those involving volunteering.
In a consultation on post-16 choices, the move is seen as an alternative to England's compulsory learning to 18.
Four fifths of Scots EMA recipients get the higher £30-a-week grant.
It is estimated that axing the lower value means-tested payments would free up £7.5m by 2011-12.
"The rationale behind this is supported by recent English research which found that lower payments (particularly the £10) have little impact on participation rates," the consultation document says.
It aims to improve support for the most vulnerable young people - those not learning in schools and colleges.
It says: "There are already many good examples of non-formal learning opportunities which help young people to re-engage and ultimately progress into more formal learning or employment.
"Our challenge is to make this more coherent, with pathways which are as clear for those young people as the existing pathways for young people in school or college."
Support
Launching the package in North Lanarkshire, which has been piloting some of the ideas, Education Secretary Fiona Hyslop said: "It is crucial we equip our young people with the right skills to reach their potential and so they can play their part in Scotland's future economic success, including helping it recover from the current downturn.
"Our new model for post-16 learning will support that by ensuring all young people of this age have a suitable offer of learning but with a particular focus on improving the skills and life opportunities of those who leave school at the earliest opportunity, often with no - or minimal - qualifications."
The voluntary sector is being included because, the consultation says, "It is widely recognised that volunteering can provide skills and build confidence and therefore act as a stepping stone into further education, training or employment."
This is one way such schemes are "engaging directly with young people and working with them on what they want to change in their lives, in order to be less threatening to young people who have had negative experiences in school, and more responsive to the young person's needs".
The consultation, 16+ Learning Choices: First Step Activity and Financial Support, comes as the Education and Skills Act has passed into law in England.
A key part of this is that everyone must be in some form of recognised education and training until they are 17, by the year 2013, and 18 by 2015.
But England's Children's Secretary Ed Balls stressed: "We do not expect every 16 and 17-year-old to remain in school - young people will be free to work as long as they are learning too.
"This system is about creating real opportunity so there is something for everyone."
Payment problems
Another part of the Scottish proposals involves replacing the existing allowance for those aged 16 to 19 on the Get Ready for Work programme with EMAs "to enable parity between work-based training and school and college learning".
This was done in England in 2006.
Scotland's EMA system has not been blighted by the chaos resulting from the outsourcing of the scheme in England, which most recently saw the Liberata company replaced by Capita - but with many youngsters still awaiting their payments.
Scotland's scheme is also more generous: although the payments are currently the same - either £10, £20 or £30 a week - the family income thresholds triggering these are higher in Scotland.
This might also change. The consultation says "it would make sense" to align the income threshold for the EMA, currently £21,835, with that for the full further education bursary - currently £19,835.
Labour's further and higher education spokeswoman in Scotland, Claire Baker, said: "Labour introduced educational maintenance allowances to encourage pupils and students from deprived backgrounds to stay in education after turning 16.
"Last year the SNP made a 20% cut to the budget for EMAs - totalling nearly £8m. Any further cuts could therefore have very serious implications indeed."
She said the consultation would be examined closely to ensure any proposed changes were fair and in the best interests of the poorest.
EMAs in Wales and Northern Ireland are not affected by the latest proposals.
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