Tens of thousands of teenagers, college lecturers and teachers will take to the streets tomorrow to protest against the abolition of a grant that helps young people from low-income households stay in education after the age of 16.

Demonstrators have organised lunchtime marches across the country – from Hackney in north-east London to Gateshead – in a last-ditch effort to reverse the government's decision to scrap the Education Maintenance Allowance.

Almost 647,000 of England's 16- to 18-year-olds receive the allowance, which was introduced in 2004, in return for agreeing to remain in education: £30 a week when household income falls below £20,817; £20 a week if household income is between £20,818 and £25,521; and £10 a week if it is between and £25,522 and £30,810.

The money is paid into the teenagers' bank accounts to use on books, course equipment and travelling to school or college. The allowance is stopped if students do not work hard or attend classes regularly.

In some parts of the country, such as Birmingham and Leicester, four-fifths of 16-year-olds receive the allowance. Campaigners say black and minority ethnic students will be particularly affected by its abolition because a high proportion claim the grant. David Cameron announced in October the allowance would be stopped at the end of the academic year, and it closes to new applicants next month. Before the general election, Michael Gove, now education secretary, denied that his party intended to end the benefit.

Ed Miliband described its abolition as "another hammer blow for young people and social mobility". He said the scrapping of the grant "reflected a government that is totally out of touch with ordinary family life". Campaigners to reinstate EMA cited research conducted last year by the Institute for Fiscal Studies and Loughborough University, which found that the allowance had led to a 6.7% rise in the proportion of teenagers who stay on in education after 16. A National Union of Students survey two years ago of 1,205 EMA recipients in England's schools and colleges suggests 61% would not have been able to continue in education without it.

Martin Doel, chief executive of the Association of Colleges, which represents 350 colleges in England, said the grant's withdrawal could reduce spending on teenagers from low-income homes to £75m from £574m and, with the colleges, he is lobbying MPs to reinstate it.

The government said the cost was "hugely expensive". A Department for Education spokesman said £26m was available each year for schools and colleges to make small payments to pupils from low-income homes who were at risk of dropping out. After EMA is abolished, this fund will be increased, he said.

The campaign group Save EMA is co-ordinating tomorrow's protests and has enlisted eight trade unions, including the National Union of Students, the National Union of Teachers and the lecturers' trade union University and College Union.

Organisers are confident the demonstrations in support of teenagers' education allowances will be peaceful; they said those affiliated to anarchist groups were not contacted. On Thursday, student protests in London became violent, and the car carrying Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall was attacked, after MPs voted to almost treble university tuition fees to £9,000 a year. A small minority destroyed property but student leaders complained about police tactics: 34 protesters were arrested while dozens of demonstrators and police officers were injured.

James Mills, 26, a graduate who is running the Save EMA campaign, said that removing the grant would "cut at the heart of people's attempts to better themselves … For people like me who grew up on a council estate and in a single-parent home, EMA was the difference between going to college and dropping out of education."

In Newham, east London, 41% of 16- to 18-year-olds claim EMA - one of the highest rates in the country. More than half of Newham's young people on EMA told council researchers the grant had helped to keep them in education.

Eddie Playfair, the principal of Newham sixth form college, said young people and their families would "suffer greatly" from the decision to axe EMA.