London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Monday, Sep 08, 2025

MPs face ‘phenomenal’ rise in constituent casework during pandemic

MPs face ‘phenomenal’ rise in constituent casework during pandemic

Exclusive: Number of cases has doubled in many constituencies – with some reporting 12-fold increase and ‘massive backlog’

MPs and their staff are buckling under the strain of a “phenomenal” rise in appeals for help from constituents, with some reporting a 12-fold increase in casework fuelled in part by an “absolute crisis” in mental health issues.

Parliamentary aides said they were becoming burnt out and struggling to help people in desperate need, because of a “massive backlog” of issues caused by the Covid pandemic.

Data shared with the Guardian by Labour and Conservative MPs shows that some are dealing with an average of 12 times more casework than before 2020, while many have seen the number of cases at least double.

The Afghanistan crisis has deepened the strain on MPs’ staff, with teams of only two or three people processing scores of desperate appeals for help from constituents whose family members have been left stranded under the Taliban.

The Labour MP Yasmin Qureshi, whose Bolton South East constituency has been one of the hardest hit by Covid, said her team had handled 4,286 issues raised by constituents in the first half of this year, compared with 715 in the entirety of 2016.

If Qureshi’s office was to take on the same amount of constituents’ pleas until the end of the year, this would constitute a twelvefold increase – as it currently stands, the workload is already six times higher than five years ago.


“We were struggling before the pandemic, but now it’s just crazy,” said one MP’s office manager. “We’ve got 1,800 emails waiting for a response. In the eyes of constituents, that’s unacceptable. But we’re paddling like mad and doing the best we can.”

MPs said they had started to see a growing number of mental health issues affecting constituents, as well as stubbornly high unemployment and a looming crisis as many pandemic support measures, including the £20 weekly uplift in universal credit, come to an end next month.

The Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (Ipsa), which sets the pay of the UK’s 650 MPs and their staff, is facing calls to increase MPs’ resources to help meet the demand.

The Conservative MP and Commons deputy speaker Nigel Evans said he received almost 1,000 emails about a range of concerns in July, compared with an average of 200 a month before the pandemic.

Selaine Saxby, the Tory MP for North Devon, said there was a “monumental, dramatic and instantaneous” increase in requests for help from constituents at the start of the pandemic. Her constituency is in the grip of a “housing crisis”, she said, worsened by an influx of second homeowners over the past 18 months.

Saxby added: “We’re starting to see a few more quite severe mental health issues and domestic abuse issues coming through now, which is very sad and worrying.”

IPSA allowed MPs to hire another member of staff to help deal with the huge pandemic caseload. However, that extra funding is due to expire in March 2022, leaving many MPs and their aides concerned that they will be unable to deal with the many long-term issues troubling residents.

One MP’s office manager said: “We’re now seeing the long-term effects of the pandemic – mental health is in absolute crisis. I feel absolutely sick to the core that we’re going to lose another member of staff if the staffing uplift comes to an end. It will plunge us back into a nightmare.”

Chloe Mclellan, an MP’s aide, said the toll of the pandemic had “exacerbated serious concerns about the wellbeing of staff”, who she said receive no support and little specialist training despite regularly handling traumatic cases and helping people on the brink of suicide.

“Burnout is a real concern at the moment. Lots of people are really getting to the end of what they can cope with,” said Mclellan, the co-founder of the Wellness Working Group for parliamentary staff.

Concerns have been raised to Ipsa that funding cuts to external agencies, such as the legal aid advice network and Citizens Advice, mean that MPs have become “the first and last port of call” for people needing complex and often urgent help.

MPs have a limited budget to employ only a handful of staff, often on relatively low wages and most with barely a year’s experience in the job.

The GMB Union said the average pay of Westminster caseworkers – between £24,000 and £35,000, far below the average London salary – was an “insult” because they are an “absolute lifeline” to those in the greatest need.

“The fall-out of the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan has placed enormous pressure on caseworkers and their workloads - just as the pandemic did last spring,” the union said. “They deserve full recognition of how essential their role is.”

Max Freedman, chair of the Unite union’s parliamentary staff branch and an MP’s office manager, said his colleagues were “paddling to keep still” rather than addressing the problems of people “in genuine need”.

A spokesperson for Ipsa said it had made extra funding available during the pandemic and that it would review budgets for 2022-23 later this year.

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Nayib Bukele Points Out Belgian Hypocrisy as Brussels Considers Sending Army into the Streets
Elon Musk Poised to Become First Trillionaire Under Ambitious Tesla Pay Plan
France, at an Impasse, Heads Toward Another Government Collapse
Burning the Minister’s House Helped Protesters to Win Justice: Prabowo Fires Finance Minister in Wake of Indonesia Protests
Brazil Braces for Fallout from Bolsonaro Trial by corrupted judge
The Country That Got Too Rich? Public Spending Dominates Norway Election
Nearly 40 Years Later: Nike Changes the Legendary Slogan Just Do It
Generations Born After 1939 Unlikely to Reach Age One Hundred, New Study Finds
End to a four-year manhunt in New Zealand: the father who abducted his children to the forests was killed, the three siblings were found
Germany Suspends Debt Rules, Funnels €500 Billion Toward Military and Proxy War Strategy
EU Prepares for War
BMW Eyes Growth in China with New All‑Electric Neue Klasse Lineup
Trump Threatens Retaliatory Tariffs After EU Imposes €2.95 Billion Fine on Google
Tesla Board Proposes Unprecedented One-Trillion-Dollar Performance Package for Elon Musk
US Justice Department Launches Criminal Mortgage-Fraud Probe into Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook
Escalating Drug Trafficking and Violence in Latin America: A Growing Crisis
US and Taiwanese Defence Officials Held Secret Talks in Alaska
Report: Secret SEAL Team 6 Mission in North Korea Ordered by Trump in 2019 Ended in Failure
Gold Could Reach Nearly $5,000 if Fed Independence Is Undermined, Goldman Sachs Warns
Uruguay, Colombia and Paraguay Secure Places at 2026 World Cup
Florida Murder Case: The Adelson Family, the Killing of Dan Markel, and the Trial of Donna Adelson
Trump Administration Advances Plans to Rebrand Pentagon as Department of War Instead of the Fake Term Department of Defense
Big Tech Executives Laud Trump at White House Dinner, Unveil Massive U.S. Investments
Tether Expands into Gold Sector with Profit-Driven Diversification
‘Looks Like a Wig’: Online Users Express Concern Over Kate Middleton
Brand-New $1 Million Yacht Sinks Just Fifteen Minutes After Maiden Launch in Turkey
Here’s What the FBI Seized in John Bolton Raid — and the Legal Risks He Faces
Florida’s Vaccine Revolution: DeSantis Declares War on Mandates
Trump’s New War – and the ‘Drug Tyrant’ Fearing Invasion: ‘1,200 Missiles Aimed at Us’
"The Situation Has Never Been This Bad": The Fall of PepsiCo
At the Parade in China: Laser Weapons, 'Eagle Strike,' and a Missile Capable of 'Striking Anywhere in the World'
The Fashion Designer Who Became an Italian Symbol: Giorgio Armani Has Died at 91
Putin Celebrates ‘Unprecedentedly High’ Ties with China as Gazprom Seals Power of Siberia-2 Deal
China Unveils New Weapons in Grand Military Parade as Xi Hosts Putin and Kim
Queen Camilla’s Teenage Courage: Fended Off Attempted Assault on London Train, New Biography Reveals
Scottish Brothers Set Record in Historic Pacific Row
Rapper Cardi B Cleared of Liability in Los Angeles Civil Assault Trial
Google Avoids Break-Up in U.S. Antitrust Case as Stocks Rise
Couple celebrates 80th wedding anniversary at assisted living facility in Lancaster
Information Warfare in the Age of AI: How Language Models Become Targets and Tools
The White House on LinkedIn Has Changed Their Profile Picture to Donald Trump
"Insulted the Prophet Muhammad": Woman Burned Alive by Angry Mob in Niger State, Nigeria
Trump Responds to Death Rumors – Announces 'Missile City'
Court of Appeal Allows Asylum Seekers to Remain at Essex Hotel Amid Local Tax Boycott Threats
Germany in Turmoil: Ukrainian Teenage Girl Pushed to Death by Illegal Iraqi Migrant
United Krack down on human rights: Graham Linehan Arrested at Heathrow Over Three X Posts, Hospitalised, Released on Bail with Posting Ban
Asian and Middle Eastern Investors Avoid US Markets
Ray Dalio Warns of US Shift to Autocracy
Eurozone Inflation Rises to 2.1% in August
Russia and China Sign New Gas Pipeline Deal
×