\n The push came after the Government cut winter fuel payments for all except the poorest pensioners, and helped\u00a0older people in need receive more than \u00a31.2 million in extra income.\n<\/p>\n
\n The drive to find eligible residents was launched in October after the government\u2019s decision, which has since been reversed with the threshold raised to almost the national average wage.\n<\/p>\n
\n The council believed at the time there could be as many as 600 borough residents eligible but not claiming the age and income benefit.\n<\/p>\n
\n The figures are given in a report by the authority\u2019s leader, Cllr Phil Riley, to its full Council Forum meeting on Thursday.\n<\/p>\n
\n It says: \u201cOur Pension Credit campaign is still making a difference to our residents, making sure people in need receive what they are entitled to.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cLed by Age UK Blackburn with Darwen in partnership with the council, it has helped hundreds of older residents secure more than \u00a31 million altogether.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cSince the start of the campaign, there have been 66 new claims for Pension Credit, a total of \u00a3439,669 in annual income through Pension Credit and related benefits, and claims for Attendance Allowance, Housing Benefit, Council Tax Support and other entitlements resulted in an additional \u00a3840,593 for residents.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cThe Household Support Fund, which supports people who are struggling with the cost of living, is now in its seventh allocation.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cWe want to reach as many people as possible and will be trying to extend the reach as much as we can – we\u2019re keen to remind people that the HSF is also open to people who are in work.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cIn addition to funding for vital household items, residents can also access financial advice to help them reduce their household outgoings and improve their income.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cThis extra income, from Pension Credit and HSF, is also spent in local shops, on local tradespeople, taxi services, and more, bringing a wider significant economic impact to our borough.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The push came after the Government cut winter fuel payments for all except the poorest pensioners, and helped\u00a0older…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":15600,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[84,4176,4174,4175,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-15599","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-personal-finance","tag-business","tag-finance","tag-personal-finance","tag-personalfinance","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15599","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15599"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15599\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15600"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15599"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15599"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15599"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}