AdviceUK Speaks Up for Members: January 2026
Every day, at AdviceUK, we advocate on behalf of you – our members. We work closely with you to understand and cover the issues that affect you and your clients. We work with a wide range of external stakeholders and seek to influence decision-makers so that we can improve the landscape within which advice services operate and the lives of the people you support. We also speak to the media on your behalf about the issues that matter to advice services.
As we step into 2026, here’s a roundup of AdviceUK’s key advocacy work over the past few months, from major campaign milestones to high-profile media coverage and government policy wins.
Advice Saves & Advice Works
October saw the launch of Advice Week 2025 and the release of AdviceUK’s new Advice Works 2025 report. The findings are clear: the average agency needs three more advisers just to meet current demand. We’re calling for a National Advice Workforce Strategy, led by the Government, to ensure that independent advice agencies have the confidence and resources to continue operating. We launched the report in Parliament with Terry Jermy MP hosting the event and Justice Minister Sarah Sackman KC MP giving the keynote speech. 22 MPs and one peer attended the reception hearing directly from AdviceUK members about the important work they do. You can read more about the reception in this blog.
Political Engagement
At the 2025 Labour Party Conference, we met with MPs and ministers to highlight our sector’s role in preventing crises and saving public money. The ministers included Georgia Gould MP, Minister for School Standards, Sarah Sackman KC MP, the minister responsible for the advice sector, and Stephen Kinnock MP, the minister responsible for social care. Our #AdviceSaves messaging gained traction, and several MPs expressed support. Read our conference roundup to find out more.
Separately, in recent months, our Policy and Public Affairs team held meetings with Charlotte Cane MP and Charlotte Nichols MP to discuss advice workforce development and other issues important to the advice sector. Our advocacy work also led to AdviceUK and its members being mentioned in Parliamentary debates by Sian Berry MP, who referenced our Advice Works report, and Clive Lewis MP, who discussed Norfolk Community Law Service. We will continue to engage with parliamentarians this year to highlight the vital work of the independent advice sector.
We also want to give a shoutout to AdviceUK member, Fusion Housing, who hosted Harpreet Uppal MP to discuss the pressures their clients are facing. This is really important and impactful work. To invite your local MP, please contact willem.vandeven@adviceuk.org.uk.
Policy Engagement
AdviceUK has responded to several important government consultations and parliamentary committee inquiries in recent months. Our Justice Committee Access to Justice Inquiry submission highlighted the vital role of advice services in upholding rights and reducing court pressures. In the NHS 10-Year Workforce Plan submission, we called for better integration between health and advice services, emphasising the role of social welfare advice in preventing destitution that might otherwise have required hospital care.
In response to the Ofgem Energy Debt Relief Scheme Statutory Consultation, we reiterated our call for an inclusive scheme that protects all those affected by inflated prices during the energy crises and support for advice agencies that will refer potential participants to Ofgem. Finally, in our response to the Young People and Work Call for Evidence, which will inform the Alan Milburn Review into young people who are not in education, employment or training, we stressed the importance of accessible, independent advice for young people navigating complex welfare, housing, and employment systems.
Policy Wins
Recent government policy developments have included some important wins for the advice sector. In December, the Ministry of Justice announced a new £20 million investment in early legal advice services, aimed at helping people resolve issues like debt, employment and housing problems before they escalate. This is a move AdviceUK welcomes as a vital step toward sector sustainability and reflects that the Government is listening to advice services.
In the Autumn Budget Statement, the Government confirmed the removal of the two-child limit on Universal Credit, a long-standing recommendation of AdviceUK and many other charities. This change will significantly ease pressure on low-income families and, by extension, on the advice services that support them. Read our full analysis looking at the implications of the Autumn Budget for advice services and their clients.
On energy and housing, we welcomed the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero’s (DESNZ) Fuel Poverty Strategy, published in January. The strategy makes a commitment to work with other departments and advice services to “make advice a more interactive experience, able to point people to other types of advice that may be of use to them.” DESNZ notes the crucial work advice services provide in understanding and treating the root causes in why people are in fuel poverty. AdviceUK will be engaging with DESNZ officials to understand how we can work collaboratively to ensure the sustainability of the advice sector.
AdviceUK in the News
Since September, we’ve secured dozens of pieces of broadcast, online and print media coverage on topics including our Advice Saves report and the challenges facing advice services, access to justice, the Chancellor’s Autumn Budget Statement, and much more.
In the past few months, our Advice Saves report was featured in several key sector outlets, including Third Sector, Civil Society, Legal Futures, The Legal Action Magazine, and The Times newspaper’s weekly legal bulletin, the Brief. Our Parliamentary reception was reported in Politico London Playbook. To share our findings and recommendations even more widely, our Chief Executive, Liz Bayram, talked to Radio News Hub, a news provider to hundreds of radio stations. And our Head of Policy, Programmes and Media, Sarah MacFadyen, and Alice Tibbert, Director of Housing Matters (one of the report’s case studies), appeared on BBC Radio 4’s You and Yours programme (listen to the segment from 13:59).
In November, it was great to see our response to the Chancellor’s Autumn Budget Statement featured in Metro, Legal Futures and Rightsnet. We were pleased to see the punishing two-child benefit cap lifted, but urged the Government to go further to tackle poverty by committing to no further damaging cuts to welfare and by funding the advice sector as a key partner in public service delivery.
In January, we secured two significant national media features. The Guardian published our letter in which we highlighted the crisis facing free independent advice charities and urged the Government to act now. And The Independent interviewed our Chief Executive and some of our members about the pressures facing advice services. Liz told them about the importance of early advice and repeated our call to make social welfare advice a statutory duty.
In the same month, our response to the Public Accounts Committee’s report scrutinising the Ministry of Justice was reported in The New Law Journal. We welcomed the report and urged the Ministry of Justice and the Legal Aid Agency to implement the report’s recommendations to fix legal aid gaps and secure the system’s long-term sustainability.
