Advicenow fact file

Find the best information: 'Top picks'

• Our Advicenow top picks search service brings together the best information on the law and rights from over 450 UK websites.
• This selection isn’t done by computer; we handpick every link, check that it's up-to-date and covers the important issues.
• We summarise it so that you know whether it is what you are looking for or not.

For more details see About top picks search.

Make sense of the law and your rights: Advicenow guides

• We are fed up with dry legal information that informs but doesn’t offer practical help and guidance. We don't just provide information about the law; we tell people what to do to solve their problem, and how to do it.
• Our guides acknowledge the stress readers are experiencing and offer advice on the practical skills and techniques needed to solve their problem.
• We aren't impartial - we are on your side.
• We use a range of learning techniques to get the message across: clear, straightforward language, jargon-busters, case studies, diagrams, films, example letters, and interactive tools.
• We test our guides with a mixture of individuals and experts before publication to ensure that they are as effective and helpful as possible. And we don’t stop there - we design and test new methods all the time so that we increase our understanding of what works, and our guides get better.

See About Advicenow guides for more information.

Personalised legal support tools

Our personalised legal support tools help our users to assert their rights by supporting them to do things like challenge an unfair DWP decision or write a submission for the tribunal in the way an adviser would if they had one.

Our pernalised legal support tools that help you to challenge an unfair PIP decision or unfair DLA decision have been shown to more than double your chance of getting the decision changed at the mandatory reconsideration stage.

Award winning

• Advicenow won the Access to Justice through IT award, sponsored by the Legal Education Foundation, at the Legal Aid Lawyer of the Year Awards 2017.

• Advicenow has won both the Plain English Campaign web award, for the clear language, design and organisation of the site, as well as awards for a number of guides.

History

• Advicenow was incorporated into Law for Life: the Foundation for Public Legal Education in June 2013. Law for Life works to ensure that everybody has the knowledge, confidence and practical skills they need to deal with law-related issues. 
• Advicenow was originally founded in 2001 and supported by Advice Services Alliance, the umbrella body for advice networks in England and Wales. 

Funding

• Most of our income comes from grants from trusts and foundations for particular projects. 
• We now recieve donations from individuals - for which we are always very grateful. We need these more than ever now as our small amount of funding from the Minsitry of Justice  has stopped.
• We are sometimes paid by other organisations and charities to help them improve the effectiveness of their information. We use the money raised to keep as much or our information available and up to date as we can. 
• We have started to sell five guides to those that can afford it (whilst still giving it away to those that cannot), in order to support our service. We use the money raised to keep as much or our information available and up to date as we can. 

We are grateful to all our funders, past and present for their support. We are also hugely grateful to the individuals who donate money to support our work.

Advicenow is mainly funded through grants from trusts and foundations. Up until recently we received money from Government to help keep our website and existing services going, but unfortunately that funding was not renewed with immediate effect in June 2023.

This year Law for Life has received money for Advicenow from the following funders:

• Nuffield Foundation
• Bar Standards Board
• Tudor Trust
  
• Allen and Overy

In the past Advicenow has also been funded by:

• Awards for All from The National Lottery Community Fund
• Litigant in Person Support Strategy
• The Legal Education Foundation
• FLOWS at RCJ Advice
• Access to Justice Foundation
• Ministry of Justice
• Civil Justice Council
• Family Justice Council

• Nuffield Foundation

• Legal Services Commission

• Equality and Human Rights Commission

• European Union Programme for Employment and Social Solidarity – PROGRESS 2007–2013

• The Esmée Fairbairn Foundation

• TDS Charitable Foundation

• New Opportunities Fund (now part of The National Lottery Community Fund), and

• The Treasury's Invest to Save Budget.

We are currently seeking funding from government, trusts and foundations, and individuals so that we can continue to provide a lifeline to those who need it.

Advicenow

'Straight, clear advice.'

'I was glad I found your website. It was clear, concise and gave me the answers I needed. I will recommend this website to family, friends and other users.'

'Thank you for the well-written, clear help that you provide. It was comforting and informative. Much appreciated.'

'Website recognises that not everyone can afford a solicitor, and the tone is empathetic and easy to understand.'

‘I am an advice services manager and we love your Advicenow guides!’

‘One of the most helpful websites for people to get practical help and advice. Looks lovely (and it works) on the phone as well.’ From @raymondsheehy via Twitter

‘I know exactly what steps I must take in my attempts to bring resolution.’

‘Thanks for providing this information free of charge. It is appreciated.’

'So happy to find this site, the only agenda being to help people in their time of need. Will pass your details to my friends and family. Huge thank you.'

‘It’s sites like this that help people who don't know who to ask.’

‘All of the guides were extremely easy to understand and more substantially helpful than some professionals I had consulted over the matter!’

'The Survival Guides are really helpful, this has helped me enormously. Equally your website is easy to navigate around, sections are clearly labelled and set out - this has taken away some of the stress in my current situation when I have needed to find out certain information. Thank you.'

'Fantastic resource for people in my situation...can't afford a solicitor!'

Going to court

‘Brilliant and beautiful.’

‘Very informative and incredibly helpful, and that's just from the introduction on representing myself in court.’

Applying for a court order about the arrangements for your children without the help of a lawyer

‘This is the best guide I have found on the net and I've looked at a lot. It has all the information needed to help at court and gives confidence.’

How to avoid or deal with benefits sanctions – e-learning course

'I am a welfare benefits adviser and trainer and have worked my way through the module and have found it very interesting and informative! I was wondering if you would have any objections if we shared the module with advisers within the Neighbourhood Office network as I  feel they would greatly benefit from this excellent resource.’

‘Just wanted to say thanks for forwarding through the link to the Sanctions e-learning. It’s excellent. I work in a social landlord and have suggested this should be done by all front line customer facing housing staff.’

How to win a PIP appeal

'Very useful. It would be a lot harder without it, for a lot of people - not just me.'

‘It gave me more information than anything else I have read on claiming PIP so I would like to thank you very much.’

'Thank you for publishing such a useful guide; it is a high quality product and will benefit many people. I work for an advice service and we are telling all our clients about it'.

‘Excellent resource-you deserve funding. If my tribunal is successful, expect a donation so you can help advise others like me.’

‘I would like to say thank you for the guide. Our local advice agency are impossible to contact and we were both worrying about the hearing and desperate for advice. Your guide has put both our minds at rest. So a big thank you from both of us!

PIP Mandatory Reconsideration Request Letter Tool

"Thank you - I have just been successful with my Mandatory Reconsideration Request! I used your tool and found it to be a massive help. I attribute my successful outcome for the most part to Advicenow.org.uk." 

'Thank you so much for the tool I used for PIP, I have won my case!'

'Thank you. The PIP tool is fantastic!'

'Thank you so much for making this stressful process so easy and accessible! I am so impressed, I was prepared for a few days of research and planning in order to start an appeal but your website and tools are so useful and efficient that after a couple of hours, I am ready to go post my letter. Thank you!!!' 

'What a brilliant help tool! We were daunted at the prospect of requesting reconsideration - this followed great disappointment at the letter received from DWP. Now we feel that we have hope. Thank you.'

How to deal with an interview under caution

‘I'm a benefits adviser working for a national disability charity - I can't advise on fraud issues myself. Whenever I get a query about an interview under caution I always signpost to your info on this. I think it is brilliant and so helpful to people.’

Living Together

‘Clear, simple and easy to find. Feel it's trustworthy information.’