BLACKBURN with Darwen Council's Tory group have accused its Labour bosses of 'watering down' their call on the government to reverse its controversial decision to scrap the winter fuel payments for most pensioners.

On Thursday night the authority's full Council Forum passed an amended motion on the issue proposed by its leader Cllr Phil Riley.

The revised draft, approved by 28 votes to nine, said: "We believe that there is no longer any justification for this benefit to be paid to all pensioners, including the 25 per cent of pensioners with assets of £1million or more.

"The decision to introduce measures that will ensure that those in need of financial support for fuel costs will continue to receive it is welcomed.

"We ask the Chancellor to review the eligibility threshold and consider a sliding scale of support."

The amended motion removed references in the original proposed by Darwen South ward's Cllr Kevin Conner describing Chancellor Rachel Reeves decision to restrict the winter fuel payment to those receiving Pension Credit being 'ill conceived' and the timing of the announcement being 'appalling' shortly before the winter.

After the meeting Cllr Connor said: "We voted against the amended motion as it watered down the original one and made no reference to compensatory measures to support those pensioners affected."

Cllr Riley told the meeting: "We obviously understand the issue of fuel poverty for some pensioners.

"We obviously understand there is a cliff edge between being able to claim Pension Credit and not and we obviously understand that there are large numbers of pensioners who are eligible for Pension Credit and are not claiming it.

"Our fundamental disagreement with the original motion is that it suggests a return to universality of the winter heating payments.

"Something like 25 per cent of pensioners live in households with assets of more than £1millon.

"The previous government has been incredibly generous to pensioners.

"There is a significant tranche of pensioners who do not need this payment..

"If the government has got additional money to spend on benefits I think we would certainly want them to find money to pay for child benefit or more children than the second one for poor people. There are plenty of other things the government could be doing that are more equitable."

Cllr Connors told the meeting: "Unfortunately there has been a misconception that we are calling for the Winter Fuel Payment to be paid universally and thus the wealthy would also benefit.

"This is definitely not the case.

"The final request calls for the policy on linking winter fuel payments to pension credit receipt to be immediately reversed and to seek alternative options where economies can be made without incurring unnecessary financial hardship on those least able to afford it."