A new scheme could use money councillors failed to spend to create a fund to support pensioners hit by winter fuel payment cuts.

The controversial cuts have sparked a widespread backlash in Bolton, with opposition figures from the Conservatives to the Greens condemning the move.

But a motion set to go before Bolton Council aims to create a fund of around £200,000 from “area working” budgets that have not been spent across the borough.

The motion, put by Cllr Sean Fielding of Breightmet, said: “This council supports our pensioners and, to mitigate the impact of the winter fuel cuts, proposes creating a local fund to provide targeted support to the most vulnerable of those affected who sit just above the payment threshold in Bolton.

The motion will be debated at Bolton Town HallThe motion will be debated at Bolton Town Hall (Image: Newsquest)

“Noting the significant underspends in area working budgets across the borough, and the allocation of a further £52,500 to each ward for the financial year 2024/25 which is mostly yet to be committed, this council agrees to reduce this allocation by £10,000 per ward to create a fund of £200,000 to support local pensioners this winter and ask officers to work up a scheme to allocate these funds.”

In August Bolton Council’s own figures showed that a combined total of around £1.7M had not been spent from its 20 area working budgets.

These are meant to fund various community projects in each of their areas.

Cllr Fielding’s proposal will see part of this funding used instead to finance the scheme to support pensioners about to be hit by the winter fuel payments cut.

He said that the Labour government’s “difficult decision” to end universal winter fuel payment was taken because of the “mismanagement” of its Conservative predecessor.

But Conservative politicians, including Cllr John Walsh of Astley Bridge who described the cut as “unnecessary and vindictive”, have condemned the move.

So too have the Bolton Green Party, who’s chair Alan Johnson described the cut as a “cruel and savage attack on pensioners.”

A campaign has also been staged by the Bolton and District Pensioners Association in opposition to the cuts. 

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Winter fuel payments had originally been introduced to give older people a one-off tax-free payment of either £200 or £300 to help them pay energy bills in the winter.

But in September this year MPs voted by 348 to 228 to restrict payments to only those pensioners who receive pension credit or other means-tested benefits.

This is expected to save the government around £1.4billion every year and cut the number of people receiving the payments from 11.4M to just 1.5M.

The motion is expected to be debated at a full meeting of Bolton Council on Wednesday October 9.