We created many of the suggestions below during the fight against the proposed PIP 4-point rule in 2025. But there are a large number of other potential changes to the benefits system being considered from 2026 right through to 2030, some of which you may want to challenge.
So we're leaving all the suggestions for things you can do up here, for the next time they are needed.
Contact a member of the House of Lords
Contact an All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG)
Contact organisations you have a connection with
Contact your MP
Whatever party your MP is a member of, it is worth contacting them.
You can email your MP via Write To Them Make sure you include your name and address so that they know you are one of their constituents.
Whatever party your MP is a member of, it is worth contacting them.
You can email your MP via Write To Them Make sure you include your name and address so that they know you are one of their constituents.
Even better, write them a letter or arrange to talk to them in-person at a constituency surgery.
Poor responses from MPs
Many people have told us that they’ve contacted their MP, especially a Labour one, and either received no reply or just a standard response setting out the party line, which doesn’t address their concerns at all. What can you do if you are in that position?
Your details
The first thing is to make sure you include your name and address on all correspondence with your MP. If you don’t, it can be ignored on the grounds that you may not be that MP’s constituent.
Keep it short
It might be better to send several emails spread over a period of days or weeks rather than one very long one which your MP, or their staff, never get to the end of.
Think of one or two important points you want to make and stick to those in your email or letter.
Try different contact methods
If you don’t get a proper response, or any response, consider phoning your MP’s constituency office and trying to arrange a face-to-face meeting or a telephone conversation, where you can put your views across clearly.
Make your MP’s lack of engagement public
If your MP won’t engage with you, consider publicising that fact on social media and in the letters pages of your local papers. Most MPs like to be thought of as good constituency MPs, so this may encourage them to respond.
Keep writing
Very few Labour MPs in particular, are going to be willing to openly criticize their leadership in writing to a constituent. But that doesn’t mean that they aren’t concerned about proposed changes. You have no way of knowing what effect your communications are having, so keep them up because they may be making a difference.
Above all – don’t be discouraged
You have nothing to lose by contacting your MP. It may make a difference. Doing nothing definitely won’t. But even if your efforts don’t achieve tangible results, you will know that you did everything you reasonably could to help yourself and others.
Contact a Lord
You don’t have your own member of the House of Lords, in the way you have an MP. But the House of Lords can do a great deal to challenge, delay and sometimes even change legislation.
If you visit the Lords section of Write To Them there is an option to “Find a Lord interested in my topic”.
You can put in key words like “PIP”, “social security”, “depression” – it’s best if you enclose them in quote marks – and you’ll be given a list of the Lords who have spoken about your chosen subject the most. It will also tell you which party, if any, they belong to. It’s worth checking what they have said on the subject as some may be strongly anti-claimant.
Alternatively, you can select a Lord who has a connection with where you live or work.
At the top of their results page there will be a link saying “I want to write to. . .” which will allow you to email them.
As with MPs above, please aim to be polite and reasonably brief.
Contact your councillors
Local councillors don’t have a say in national policy making, but they are likely to have a close connection with their local party machine and can feed back any objections to benefits changes that they receive.
You can find your local councillors here
Contact an All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG)
As well as contacting your own MP about proposed benefits changes, you may be able to get your message to other MPs of all parties, if there is an All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) which covers your condition.
APPGs consist of members of both Houses of Parliament, from all parties, who share an interest in a particular topic. A number of these groups relate to different health conditions.
We've put together more information and a list of the most relevant APPGs here.
Contact local media
Local newspaper are often fairly desperate for content, including reader’s letters. You can ask for your name and address to be withheld to maintain your privacy. Write about why you are concerned about proposed changes and encourage other readers to contact their MP.
Some claimants are going further and getting stories in the media about their fears, like these:
The Local Media Works website allows you to find the contact details for local papers in your area.
If you have a local BBC Radio station, you can find their contact details here.
Contact organisations you have a connection with
If you have a connection with a major charity, please contact them if you think they could be doing more to publicise benefits changes and encouraging their members/visitors to take action.
Alternatively, if they are doing a great job, let them know that it's appreciated, because there's always an element of worry for a charity when it criticises the government
And you may have a connection with a smaller charity or a local branch that could also be more proactive on this issue, perhaps with some support from you.
Or you may be have contacts with an advice agency, housing association, trades union, housing association, food bank or some other group that could also be encouraged to do their bit.
Offer to be a case study
Disability charities may have difficulty finding people who can help with a campaign.
Could you volunteer to be a case study? This could just involve setting out, on conditions of anonymity, how benefits changes are likely to affect you. Or you might be willing to take a larger role in getting information out.
Either way, it would be worth contacting organisations that cover your condition and offering to be a case study.
Sign a petition
Signing a petition probably doesn’t achieve much on its own, in most cases. But if it’s just one of a range of ways you are trying to make your voice heard then it’s worth doing.
Let us know in the comments section about any petitions you have spotted.
Support a campaign
There may be campaigns being run by different organisations that you can support. One way to find them is to search #WelfareNotWarfare
Take part in a protest
Let us know in the comments section or drop us an email, if you are organising a protest or aware of one.
