People in Wales facing eviction, mounting debt or a fight over their benefits will get free legal help earlier, the UK Government says, under a £1.3m grant it launches on Thursday 1 October.
The money is Wales’s share of a £16m Legal Support Grant, run by the Access to Justice Foundation, and it pays for advice from October 2026 to March 2029.
Stephen Kinnock, the Aberafan Maesteg MP and Secretary of State for Wales, said: “This government is determined to make things work better for people across Wales and that includes improving access to legal support during difficult times.”
He tied it to “our cuts to VAT on utility bills, increase to the minimum wage, rise in the state pension and other measures we have taken to reduce everyday costs and ease pressure on household budgets”.
Shelter Cymru: “the right advice at the right time”
The grant goes to frontline advice charities, including Citizens Advice and Shelter Cymru, to expand free legal help in person and online for people “facing eviction, problem debt, benefit disputes and family breakdown”, the Ministry of Justice says.
Shelter Cymru’s chief executive Ruth Power said the charity supports around 12,000 households a year across Wales, with thousands more using its bilingual online advice, and prevents homelessness “in 90% of relevant cases”.
“Across Wales, thousands of people are facing housing problems that put them at risk of homelessness,” she said. “Funding through the Access to Justice Foundation is vital in helping us continue this work and ensure more people can get the right advice at the right time.”
4,000 homeless presentations a year in Swansea
The demand is not in doubt locally. Swansea Council dealt with more than 4,000 homeless presentations last year, the fourth year in a row above that mark, and says bed and breakfast use “still remains high” despite the 68-room Llys Glas opening in January.
The same council papers show it spending £446,000 more than it is funded for on top-up housing payments for people who cannot cover the gap between their benefit and their rent, which it puts down to “increasing personal financial distress”.
The benefit disputes the fund is meant to head off are there too. A new housing benefit claim in Swansea took nearly 40 days to decide this spring against a 29-day target, with the council blaming staff shortages.
A second supported block, 72 studios in the former student building on St Helen’s Road, is due to open early next year, and the council leader has named homelessness as one of the two pressures behind this year’s spending restrictions.
Across the border in Neath Port Talbot, Kinnock’s own constituency, the council says it stopped 68 of 94 households from becoming homeless between April and June, and has bought 20 houses to get people out of the Ambassador Hotel and bed and breakfasts.
“Getting the right help at the right time”
“When people face eviction, mounting debts or family breakdown, getting the right help at the right time can make all the difference,” said Sarah Sackman, the minister for courts and legal services. The UK Government says the aim is to stop problems “spiralling into crisis” and to keep people out of court.
The grant follows more than £25m the government says it has already put into legal support services, and part of it will fund research into which kinds of help work best.
Where to get help now
Shelter Cymru’s housing advice is free, by phone and online at sheltercymru.org.uk, and Citizens Advice Swansea Neath Port Talbot covers debt, benefits and housing across both counties. Both are among the organisations the new money is meant to reach.
Related stories from Swansea Bay News
SWANSEA: Nearly six weeks for a housing benefit decision as council admits it is short of staff
The benefit queue, and the 4,000 homeless presentations behind it.
SWANSEA: St Helen’s Road student block to open as 72 homeless studios in the new year
The council’s second supported block with Codi.
FROM HOTEL TO HOME: Neath Port Talbot Council has bought 20 houses to get homeless people out of B&Bs
How the neighbouring county is tackling its own B&B numbers.
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