Around £3.8 million was awarded to the charity in September 2025 in undistributed damages from the case of Gutmann v SW Trains, which it says will form the basis of its first collective actions funded grants programme.

The ATJF is the only charity which can be awarded undistributed damages in the event of a judgment under the Consumer Rights Act 2015.

In its grant-making strategy, launched today, the charity says it will focus unclaimed money from collective actions on three core areas:

1. Access to legal advice for individuals in their communities. This will prioritise funding long-term costs to support access to free legal advice for the people who need it the most, both at a local and national level.
2. Activity to support policy changes. ATJF will fund work which addresses the underlying causes of advice and therefore reduces the overall need for advice. This work will be done in partnership with frontline and community groups.
3. Mass reach through citizen engagement to raise awareness of legal rights, including those around consumer redress. ATJF will leverage its advice and grantee networks to encourage better understanding of rights and responsibilities as well as the development of a research and insights infrastructure to understand areas of need.

Each of these areas will be prioritised according to where the need is the greatest, the specific circumstances of the case and how impact can be maximised.

Grant-making decisions will also be determined by the amount of funds available from each case and will balance short term need with building capacity over the long term.

ATJF has worked over the last year on the development of this grant-making strategy with consumer and funding experts including Advice UK, Age UK, Citizens Advice, Consumer Voice, the Law Centres Network, and Which?.

ATJF plans to launch an open grants round in early 2026 to distribute funds due from the SW Trains case.

The strategy also outlines considerations for monitoring, evaluation and learning from the grant-making strategy to ensure that impact is demonstrated.