SOME disabled people in the town are losing out on benefits — because Bolton Council is classing their disability living allowance as income.

The allowance, which the government says should not affect other benefits, is intended to help recipients pay for the extra costs of having a disability.

But the council is refusing some disabled applicants discretionary housing payments — because they believe they already have money.

Bolton North East MP David Crausby said: “The council shouldn’t count disability living allowance against applications, but unfortunately the council is constrained.”

Tory spokesman for economic regeneration Cllr Martyn Cox said: “Labour says it is committed to reducing the deficit in a fair way, but it is saying one thing nationally and one thing locally."

One Halliwell resident, who suffers from epilepsy and chronic pancreatitis, applied to the council for discretionary housing payment two weeks ago — but last week he received a response informing him he had been unsuccessful.

The 47-year-old, who asked not to be named, said: "When you’ve worked all your life from the age of 16 and paid your taxes, you expect to be looked after.

“The council are basically discriminating against disabled people."

A council spokesman said: “All discretionary housing payment claims are decided on a case by case basis taking into account a resident’s income and expenditure.

"In this case, the resident had sufficient excess income to be able to cover the shortfall between his housing benefit and his rent.

“It is absolutely not the case that if you receive disability living allowance then you will not receive discretionary housing payment."

A spokesman for the Department for Work and Pensions said: “Local councils are the best judge of needs and priorities within their areas, so it is right for them to choose how to provide support and allocate discretionary housing payments.

“Disability benefits are disregarded when calculating housing benefit entitlement, and where that income is clearly earmarked for care and mobility costs, local authorities should disregard it in discretionary housing payment applications.”