A BOLTON MP has urgently called on the government to cancel cuts to Universal Credit - which could cost residents an estimated £327m a year. Yasmin Qureshi, Bolton South East MP, has written to Chancellor Rishi Sunak, asking him to reconsider the cancellation of the £20 Universal Credit uplift, due to be cancelled in March. Those on Universal Credit are due to lose out on £1,000 a year if this is cut. Ms Qureshi estimates in her constituency alone people would lose an estimated £12.6m a year to this cut, according to figures from the Citizen’s Advice Bureau Bolton and Bury.
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BOLTON has finally achieved its goal to be named as a city - well, thanks to a quirk in technology. Eagled-eyed users of Apple Maps have spotted that Bolton has been designated as a city and not a town. In the latest version of the app it shows up as ‘Bolton City Centre’, leaving app users baffled. Bolton, the UK’s biggest town with over 260,000 residents, has applied for city status on numerous occasions. The town lost out to Preston in 2000 and then again to Chelmsford in 2012. A new bid seems unlikely in the near future due to the pandemic.
SIXTH-form college bosses in Bolton say they have had to cut bursaries for over half of its students. Bolton Sixth Form principal Stuart Merrills says the college’s bursary funding has dried up due to a number of factors, including taking on more students with its recent expansion and the pandemic, meaning students need more support for remote learning. The college’s bursary funding, between £9 and £20 a week per student, for this year is based on the previous year (2019) before the college took on more students and before the long-term effects of coronavirus were known. Mr Merrills, along with Bolton South East MP Yasmin Qureshi, is calling on the government to lift their funding to make sure students on bursaries are not negatively affected.
A Bolton MP has called for front line public sector workers to receive a pay rise due to their efforts during the coronavirus. Yasmin Qureshi, MP for Bolton South East, has backed this call by UNISON for an immediate pay rise of £2,000 for all NHS staff, after receiving letters from her constituents asking for her backing. Ms Qureshi said: I believe that front line public sector workers should receive a pay rise, not least because of their essential work during the coronavirus pandemic. Since March, they have been in harm s way, protecting and serving the country. I don’t think that the Government is properly compensating frontline public sector workers, whose vital work has kept the country going and saved lives.