A MAN earning less than £10,000 a year was turned down for a self-isolating grant from Bolton Council ­— because he earned too much.

Bolton MP Yasmin Qureshi highlighted the case as she hit out at how the local authority was administering the grants.

The MP for Bolton South East said she had been “inundated with calls” from people on low incomes who have been unable to claim support for self-isolation.

Self-isolation is key to controlling the spread of Covid-19.

Bolton is the toughest place in Greater Manchester to secure self-isolation payments, awarding the £500 payments to 28 per cent of applicants ­— rejecting 1,953 people in total.

The £500 self-isolation payments were introduced by the UK Government but are administered by local authorities.

According to Ms Qureshi one constituent who earns less than £10,000 a year, and claims no benefits or child benefit, was unable to claim the grant – after providing evidence of bank statements.

The constituent was rejected because his income was ‘above the threshold’, she says.

Bolton Council say the threshold, which had been agreed across Greater Manchester, has now been raised and further review is taking place.

She said: “Bolton Council don’t actually provide a definition for what the threshold to receive the £500 payment is.I think by anyone’s standard, in modern Britain, £10,000 can be considered a low income, bearing in mind in Bolton the median wage is between £16,000 - £24,000 and many other councils are considering ‘low income’ as under £17,000 a year.

“It is incredibly worrying that the regime in Bolton for self-isolation payment is so strict. Since the start of the pandemic Bolton has had above average case rates and it has at times felt like an uphill battle.

”People need the support to self-isolate otherwise they will have no choice but to go to work and potentially spread the virus to colleagues and the public. The fact that the council haven’t defined the threshold for payment, is very worrying.”

Bolton Council have so far awarded 1,033 self-isolation support payments totalling £516,500, as of April 8.

A Bolton Council spokesperson said: “Of these, 102 payments came via our discretionary payment scheme where the qualifying criteria was originally agreed by all boroughs across Greater Manchester based on the national benefit cap.”Following a review in January, the income threshold to qualify for a discretionary payment was raised from £20k to £24k for a couple and from £13.5k to £16.5k for an individual.”An earlier stipulation, requiring claimants to have housing costs such as rent or mortgage, was also removed following this review.

“Proposals are under review to raise the threshold further.”