Help & Advice - Afzal Khan

The Role of an MP

The role as an MP is to represent everybody in the Manchester Rusholme constituency in Westminster. An MP can assist with matters for which Parliament or central Government is responsible for, such as:

Benefits, pensions or allowances – please have your National Insurance Number ready when contacting the office.
Immigration and asylum – please have your Full Name/Date of birth/Country of Origin/Home Office reference number ready when contacting the office.
Queries and complaints about the NHS
Tax issues involving HM Revenue and Customs
Education

I do not have any control over Manchester City Council, if your issue relates to the local authority, the first contact should be with your local councillors. If you are not satisfied with their response I may be able to assist you. Please provide proof that you’ve approached the council before contacting my office. You can check who your ward councillors are here.

Manchester City Council has responsibility for matters such as:

Housing – allocations, repairs, problems with landlords
Waste Services – rubbish collection, recycling, street cleaning, fly-tipping
Public highways – potholes, road repairs, street lighting, traffic problems
Finance – Council tax, housing and council tax benefit, rent arrears
Schools – allocation of school places, complaints
Social services – carers, child protection,
Environmental health – noise nuisance, trading standards, public health
Parking and enforcement – tickets and fines, resident parking schemes, blue badges
Planning – planning permission, appeals against decisions, regeneration
Leisure facilities – libraries, parks, sports centres

What People Get In Touch About

People get in touch with me to let me know what they feel about issues in the news or about issues that are on their minds as well as government policies and what they want Labour to do about them. People also get in touch with me because they are having problems with benefits, housing, jobs, consumer services, gas, water and energy suppliers, immigration, anti-social behaviour, street cleanliness, schools and much more besides.

Sometimes, all it takes is for an MP to make contact and service providers can quickly work with you to solve a problem. Sometimes, I am able to use the experience of others to provide you with the information or advice you need to solve the problem yourself. And sometimes, I can put you in touch with councillors, or other organisations that are better placed to support you.

You will always receive a friendly welcome and a quick reply from myself and the staff I work with. We can’t guarantee to solve every problem, but we can promise to do our very best to work with you to find a solution.

What Happens When We Meet

It would be really useful when making an appointment to provide some brief information about what it is that you want to raise with me. It may turn out that we can sort out what you need over the phone or by email. Our phones are answered between 10:00am and 4:00pm.

If we can’t, or you want to meet face-to-face, then please bring with you any recent, relevant letters or information with you so that we can look through it together. If we need to keep copies of any correspondence, we will return originals to you.

We will then sit down and talk through what it is you want to raise, what I can do to help and agree our next steps.

Each person’s concerns will be different, and some issues can take longer to sort out than others, but we will agree when we meet when I will come back to you to let you know about progress.

If you need help in another language, please let me know and we will do our best to make sure we can translate for you.

What I Can’t Help With

Members of Parliament work with people who live within their constituency. We will ask you for your postcode when you get in touch. If you live in another MP’s constituency, we will give you the contact details for your MP.

I can’t interfere with the working of the courts, but I can, through the Law Society, help you make contact with a solicitor who may be able to help represent you.

And, of course, it is better to get in touch and ask me if you think I can help. If I can’t I will always let you know why and do my best to put you in contact with the person who can help.

How to Contact Me

The best way to get in touch with me is by email (afzal.khan.mp@parliament.uk), with your name and address including postcode, and my team will do their best to get back to you as soon as possible. Please bear in mind I receive a large amount of correspondance from constituents, so it may take a few days to get back to you depending on the nature of your enquiry.

If you do need to contact me by phone, please make sure you leave a message including your name, address and telephone number, and my team will get back to you as soon as possible.