THE ACCESS to Justice Foundation (ATJF) has today announced the ‘Improving Lives Through Advice 2026’ programme, a new three-year unrestricted grants programme designed to support the delivery of free legal advice to communities most in need.
The grants will primarily be made using £3.7 million in unclaimed settlement funds from the ‘Gutmann v SW Trains’ case (Boundary Fare class action). The Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) decided to award these funds to the ATJF last year, commenting in its ruling that the money “could make a huge difference in facilitating access to justice for the needy and vulnerable”.
Applications for grants will open at 12pm on February 16, 2026 and close at 12pm on March 16, 2026, with grants due to commence in June 2026.
CEO of Access to Justice Foundation, Clare Carter, commented: “Unclaimed damages from collective actions represent a significant opportunity to strengthen access to justice.
“This programme allows us to channel unclaimed funds into frontline advice organisations, helping to ensure that the outcomes of collective redress are felt by the communities most in need.
“As this programme is distributing funds from collective actions, we will be expecting funded partners to work with us to demonstrate the impact of this funding.”
Funding will target organisations delivering services in London, the Southeast of England, Scotland and Wales. These regions have been selected according to where class members from the Boundary Fare case are based, areas that face the most persistent gaps in access to free legal advice, and where ATJF have no, or very few, grants currently distributed.
The programme is based on a strategy designed to maximise the impact of unclaimed damages from collective actions, developed in collaboration with consumer and funding experts from Advice UK; Age UK; Citizens Advice; Consumer Voice; the Law Centres Network; and Which? The strategy also outlines considerations for monitoring, evaluation and learning to ensure that impact is demonstrated.
The programme has been designed to provide longer-term, unrestricted funding in recognition of the financial pressures facing advice organisations and the importance of stability in sustaining frontline services.
Every year, over 66% of adults in England and Wales face a legal problem and more than 11 million people did not get help to resolve their legal issues. Meanwhile, there has been a £728m real-term reduction in legal aid over 10 years. In some parts of the country, there are now no legal aid providers at all.
