Free Wills Month and Will Aid 2026: how to get a free or cheap will this October and November

Free Wills Month: 55 and over, from 1 October

Free Wills Month is a charity-funded campaign that runs twice a year, in March and October; the scheme's own pages and Age UK, one of the charities behind it, both say so. The scheme's own site says the next run begins on 1 October 2026, which the Stroke Association confirms on its own page. It offers people aged 55 and over the chance to have a simple will written or updated free of charge by solicitors in selected locations across the UK. The charities pay the solicitors, and the scheme's terms say it only works with registered solicitors and law firms. The charities listed on the scheme's site when we checked on 29 September are Age UK, Alzheimer's Research UK, Arthritis UK, Breast Cancer Now, the British Heart Foundation, Chest, Heart and Stroke Scotland, Dogs Trust, Guide Dogs, Marie Curie, Mencap, Mind, Myeloma UK, the National Trust and the National Trust for Scotland, the NSPCC, PDSA, Prostate Cancer UK, the Scottish SPCA, the Stroke Association, the Royal British Legion, the Salvation Army, Scottish Women's Aid and WWF.

Who qualifies. The scheme is for individuals or couples aged 55 and over. In the scheme's own words, for couples making mirror wills it is sufficient that one of you has reached 55. There is no income or benefits test.

How to book. From 1 October, the form on freewillsmonth.org.uk (your name, postcode and email) lets you choose charities and then view the participating solicitors near you; you then contact a solicitor yourself to book. Before 1 October the form only takes a register-interest reminder. The Free Wills Month office is on 0333 022 0396: that is the number in the scheme's own terms, and the one Age UK gives for finding out which solicitors are taking part near you. Only some areas take part in each run, and Age UK's July 2026 factsheet says the towns and cities are usually different each time, so many postcodes will see the message that the scheme is not in your area at the moment, with an option to be told when it is. The scheme does not publish an area list before launch. MoneySavingExpert's list for October 2026, updated on 22 September, names more than 50 areas across England, Wales and Scotland and includes Northern Ireland; that is a secondary source, so the postcode search on 1 October is the test that counts.

Appointments are limited. They are allocated first come first served and the campaign closes once they are taken, which the scheme says may be before the end of the month. Each firm sets its own cap, and the scheme's solicitor page says some firms take only 10 to 15 appointments. Most appointments are face to face in the solicitor's office, though the scheme says some solicitors offer remote appointments or home visits, so ask. The timing rule is in the scheme's own words: its FAQ says you contact a participating firm during the campaign month to ask for an appointment, and its page for solicitors says clients must get in touch during the month but the appointment itself can be at any time that suits you and the solicitor. Age UK's advice is the same: book with your chosen solicitor during October, as early as you can.

What is free. A simple will, written or updated, including mirror wills for a couple. The scheme's terms say its payment covers the will itself and all associated ID checks and administration normally included in a solicitor's standard will-writing service, so those should not be charged separately. You can also register the will free with the National Will Register using a code on your declaration form.

What is not free. The scheme's terms say the definition of a simple will lies with the solicitor concerned. If your will needs more, the solicitor may ask you to pay the difference between their rate for a simple will and the actual fee; the named examples are tax advice, division of tenancy and creating a discretionary trust. The simple element is still paid for by the charities. Age UK's advice is to ask at the outset what extra charges could apply to your circumstances, before the appointment goes any further.

The charity gift, handled honestly. The charities fund the scheme in the hope that people will remember them, and there is no obligation to do so. The scheme's homepage says selecting a charity does not oblige you to leave it a gift, and its terms say a legacy to one of the charities is not a condition of the solicitor being paid. The charities never see your will: the only document passed on is a confidential declaration form that asks where you heard of the campaign, your age, and whether or not you left a gift. If you want to leave a gift, this is a straightforward way to do it; if you do not, the will is still free.

Will Aid: any age, every November, a suggested donation

Will Aid works the other way round. Every November, participating solicitors volunteer their time and waive their fee for writing a basic will, and instead you make a donation to the scheme's charities. The scheme says Will Aid 2026 is live and bookings are open; its list of participating solicitors was due at the beginning of September 2026. It does not publish exact start and end days beyond November, though MoneySavingExpert reads it as booking by the end of November with the appointment possibly falling later. Find a solicitor by postcode at willaid.org.uk; for questions about the scheme, its campaign team is on 0300 0300 013, the number on Will Aid's own contact page. The scheme says that wherever you are in the UK you will be able to get a professionally written will, in person, by video call or by phone depending on the firm.

What it costs. The donation is voluntary and at your discretion. Will Aid suggests £120 for a single basic will or £200 for a pair of mirror wills, and says you are free to choose the amount; most solicitors, it says, would charge considerably more. You donate upfront, online or by cheque. The money is shared between eight charities in 2026: Age UK, the British Red Cross, Christian Aid, Crisis, the NSPCC, Shelter, SCIAF and Trócaire. You cannot pick one of them, and since an HMRC ruling in March 2013 the donation cannot be Gift Aided.

What a basic will means here. Will Aid's FAQ describes it as a will that leaves everything to a few family members, friends and charities, names a couple of executors, needs no detailed Inheritance Tax advice and involves no assets outside the UK. It does not include setting up trusts, powers of attorney or other devices, which are charged separately, and a complex will may need a separate fee agreed with the solicitor. Two smaller charges to expect: some firms use a third party to verify your identity and pass that cost on at cost price with no admin fee, and home visits are limited and usually charged extra, while many firms take instructions by phone or video call instead. Will Aid clients can also register the will free with the National Will Register, which the scheme says usually costs £25 plus VAT.

Who it is for. Unlike Free Wills Month, Will Aid is not restricted to the over-55s; its own pages state no age limit at all, and MoneySavingExpert describes it as open to anyone aged 18 or over.

Other free routes we could verify

The National Free Wills Network is the scheme behind many charities' own free-will offers, run by Capacity Marketing for Charities, the same company that organises Free Wills Month. It says 338 charities and 1,018 solicitors take part and that it conforms to the regulations of the Law Society of England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. You cannot join it directly: the only way in is to be referred by a member charity you support. The charity passes your details on, and the network says its pack should take no longer than five working days to reach you once it has them, with a list of your nearest participating solicitors and a yellow confidential declaration form that acts as your voucher. You book directly with the solicitor and take the form to the appointment. The network says most people who use it do leave a gift, but there is no obligation to, and that solicitors can charge you for any work beyond a simple will. If you already give to a charity, asking whether it is a member is the simplest way to find out.

Some charities run their own offers all year. The Stroke Association's Free Will Scheme is open to anyone over 60, or a stroke survivor over 18, for a simple will, with no obligation to leave a gift. Great Ormond Street Hospital Charity's page, dated February 2026, offers free wills to anyone over 18 through three services: solicitors from the National Free Wills Network, The Goodwill Partnership at home, and Farewill online. Shelter Scotland offers a National Free Wills Network pack listing six local solicitors for face-to-face appointments and up to four for remote ones, or a Farewill telephone service that carries a £20 fee for a late cancellation or no-show; it covers a simple will only, and says more complex estates may cost extra.

One warning. Will Relief Scotland, a September scheme that some sites still mention, could not be verified for 2026: when we checked on 29 September its old web addresses redirected to an unrelated gambling site, and the company registered under that name was dissolved in 2014. Do not follow links to it. Union schemes and other commercial free-will months are described by MoneySavingExpert but we could not confirm them at the providers' own pages, so they are not listed here.

When a simple will is not enough

GOV.UK says you can write your will yourself but should get advice if it is not straightforward, and lists the cases: you share a property with someone who is not your husband, wife or civil partner; you want to leave money or property to a dependant who cannot care for themselves; you have several family members who may make a claim on your will, such as a second spouse or children from another marriage; your permanent home is outside the UK; you have property overseas; or you have a business. The Law Society lists the same situations and adds that if you do make your own will, a solicitor should still check it. Age UK's July 2026 factsheet adds two more reasons to use a solicitor: leaving significant sums to people who would not usually inherit, or wanting to set up a trust. The free schemes are built for simple wills and simple circumstances, and every one of them lets the solicitor say when yours is not.

Tax is the common trigger. There is normally no Inheritance Tax to pay if an estate is worth less than £325,000, or if everything above that threshold goes to a spouse, civil partner or charity. Otherwise the standard rate is 40 per cent on the part above the threshold, or 36 per cent on some assets if 10 per cent or more of the net value goes to charity in the will. Free Wills Month names tax advice as extra work, and Will Aid's basic will excludes detailed Inheritance Tax advice, so if your estate may be above the threshold and you want planning around it, expect to pay for that part or to use a paid solicitor throughout.

Life changes. In England and Wales, getting married cancels any will you made before; GOV.UK also lists separation or divorce, having a child, moving house and the death of a named executor as reasons to update. The Law Commission recommended on 16 May 2025 that the rule (which also applies to forming a civil partnership) be abolished, partly because of predatory marriages, and its project page says it is now for Government to review; we found no legislation, so the rule stands. A free scheme update is a good moment to catch any of these.

While you're at it: a Lasting Power of Attorney

None of the free schemes covers a Lasting Power of Attorney. Will Aid excludes powers of attorney explicitly and charges for them separately; Free Wills Month describes only simple wills. If you want one, budget for it alongside the will.

In England and Wales an LPA is registered with the Office of the Public Guardian. Applying to register costs £92 per LPA, so £184 for both a property and financial affairs LPA and a health and welfare LPA, and it takes 8 to 10 weeks if there are no mistakes in the application. If the OPG finds a mistake it may let you correct it and apply again within three months for £46.

You may pay less. Form LPA120, in its April 2026 edition, sets out two routes. A remission halves the fee to £46 per LPA if the donor's annual income before tax is £12,000 or less (GOV.UK's guide phrases it as less than £12,000; the form is the document the OPG works from). Someone on Universal Credit with income of no more than £12,000 may be granted the same 50 per cent remission, with twelve months of statements as evidence. An exemption means paying nothing, for donors on certain means-tested benefits, including the Guarantee Credit element of Pension Credit, income-based Jobseeker's Allowance, income-related Employment and Support Allowance, Income Support, Housing Benefit, Council Tax Benefit and Local Housing Allowance. It does not apply if the donor has been awarded personal injury damages of more than £16,000 that were ignored when the benefit was assessed. Non-means-tested benefits such as Attendance Allowance are not on the exemption list; the form counts them as income for the remission test. Evidence must be for the correct financial year, and if neither route fits but paying would cause financial hardship, the form allows a written hardship application. A repeat application on remission costs £23.

Scotland and Northern Ireland have different systems. In Scotland the equivalent is a continuing and/or welfare power of attorney, registered with the Office of the Public Guardian (Scotland) for £99. Its fee exemption page lists granters on income-based Jobseeker's Allowance or Universal Credit, and those where the granter or their spouse or civil partner gets income-related Employment and Support Allowance, Income Support or Pension Credit guarantee credit, among others; Personal Independence Payment or Adult Disability Payment qualifies only where gross annual income is £26,437 or less. You apply on its form, by post, sent with the power of attorney. In Northern Ireland the instrument is an Enduring Power of Attorney, which nidirect says covers financial matters only, so there is no health and welfare equivalent; it is registered with the High Court's Office of Care and Protection only when the attorney believes the donor is no longer capable of managing their affairs. The Department of Justice's fees table lists £189 for the application to register an Enduring Power of Attorney.

Scotland and Northern Ireland

Coverage. Will Aid says it is available wherever you are in the UK, its complaints route names the Scottish Legal Complaints Commission and the Law Society of Northern Ireland, and two of its eight charities are SCIAF in Scotland and Trócaire in Ireland. Free Wills Month's homepage says selected locations across the UK, but its partner charities describe its reach differently and it varies by run; MoneySavingExpert's October 2026 list includes ten Scottish areas, among them Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh, Fife, Glasgow and Inverness, and lists Northern Ireland, so check your postcode on 1 October rather than assume either way. Citizens Advice Scotland lists Free Wills Month, Will Aid and the National Free Wills Network as routes for people in Scotland.

Scots law is different in ways that matter for a simple will. A Scottish Parliament briefing from February 2025 explains legal rights: a spouse or civil partner and children, including adult children, cannot be disinherited from the moveable estate (money, investments and belongings, not the house or land). The spouse or civil partner is entitled to one third of the moveable estate if there are children and one half if not, and the children share one third if there is a surviving spouse or civil partner and one half if not, whatever the will says. Citizens Advice Scotland adds that a Scottish will can be made from age 12, must be signed by you on every page in front of one witness, and is not invalidated by marriage or civil partnership, though divorce or dissolution does invalidate most provisions for the former partner. Without a will, a surviving spouse or civil partner's prior rights cover the deceased's share of a house up to £473,000, furniture up to £29,000 and cash of £50,000 if there are children or £89,000 if not; those figures were set by a 2011 order and we found no newer one.

Northern Ireland. nidirect advises using a solicitor because of the formalities, points to the Law Society of Northern Ireland to find one, and says voluntary organisations such as Age NI can help; it gives no free-scheme details, so Will Aid and a charity referral to the National Free Wills Network are the routes to check. Without a will, nidirect says an estate of £250,000 or less goes entirely to the husband, wife or civil partner; above that they receive personal items, £250,000 (£450,000 if there are no children) and a share of the rest. An unmarried partner does not automatically inherit and would have to claim under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) (Northern Ireland) Order 1979 within six months of the grant of letters of administration, which nidirect describes as a complicated area.

What to take to the appointment

Free schemes work on short appointments, so the more you have decided beforehand, the more likely your will stays simple and free. Take whatever identity documents the firm asks for (the checks are covered by Free Wills Month; Will Aid firms may pass on the cost price of a third-party check). Then bring a list covering: your assets, with the property and how it is owned, bank and savings accounts, pensions, life insurance and anything of particular value; your debts, including the mortgage, loans and cards; the people, with full names and addresses of everyone you want to benefit, and what each should receive; guardians for any children under 18, with a reserve; executors, one or two people you trust to carry it out, again with a reserve, which is what Will Aid's basic will allows for; any charity gifts; your funeral wishes; and your existing will, if you have one.

If you want one place to gather all of that and keep it where your family can find it, our Family File (£9.99, 41 pages) has the sections for it, though a notebook does the same job; the When Someone Dies file is for whoever acts as your executor later, not for this appointment. Neither is needed to use any of the schemes above. Our guide to a household emergency plan covers the wider paperwork a family should be able to lay hands on.