UK benefits cuts – writing to your MP
If you’d like to write to your MP to express your views on proposed cuts to disability benefits, we’ve produced some wording to help you get started.
Later this year, Members of Parliament (MPs) in the UK Government in Westminster will be voting on a series of proposed changes to disability benefits. Some of these changes will have an impact in Scotland, and – we believe – carry a risk of increasing mental health stigma and discrimination.
If you, like us, believe that this isn’t fair, you can write to your MP to share your thoughts on the matter and make sure that they understand their constituents’ wants and needs when the time comes to vote.
Below, you’ll find some text to help you draft a letter to your MP regarding proposed cuts to disability benefits.
You can use this to help you express your thoughts on the issue and ask your MP to take that into consideration in future debates and votes.
Please note, some MPs do not look at or accept letters or emails which are straight copies, so it helps to add in some of your own thoughts and experiences.
Dear [MP name goes here]
I am a constituent in [your town name goes here] and I am writing to you regarding the UK Government’s proposed changes to disability benefits.
As a supporter of See Me, Scotland’s national programme to end mental health stigma and discrimination, I am concerned about what these changes might mean for people with experience of mental health problems, and how they might contribute to the stigma that people continue to face.
I stand by See Me’s belief that these cuts would discriminate against people who experience poor mental health. By removing financial support, those already among the most marginalised in society will become even more disadvantaged – because their mental health problem isn’t considered to be ‘serious’ enough or doesn’t tick enough boxes in an assessment.
Many people with a diagnosed mental illness already face stark inequality in respect of quality of life and life expectancy. People in this population group experience poorer health and economic outcomes overall and can die 20 years earlier than people with no diagnosis.
The language too around mental health and disability is becoming increasingly stigmatising as the conversation around cuts to benefits goes on. We are seeing Westminster politicians speak of welfare benefits as ‘pocket money’. We’ve heard complaints of the ‘overdiagnosis’ of mental health problems. If people in high profile positions are saying these things, demonising people for accessing help and support for struggling with their mental health, it contributes to the public stigma and negative discourse surrounding mental ill health which we already recognise as a problem in Scotland.
[You may wish to include something about your own personal experiences, or add why else you think this is important]
I know that I won’t be the only person in our constituency to feel this way, and I hope that you can take my thoughts and experiences into consideration in any future debates and votes relating to disability benefits cuts in Westminster.
People with mental health problems are already at a disadvantage. Please don’t make things worse.
Yours sincerely
[Your name goes here]