How much compensation can an employment tribunal award?
Short answer
For unfair dismissal, a basic award of up to £22,530 plus a compensatory award capped at the lower of £123,543 or 52 weeks’ gross pay. Discrimination awards are uncapped and add injury to feelings of £1,300 to £62,900. In practice most awards fall far below the caps.
Tribunal compensation is assembled from defined components rather than picked as a round figure — and the headline cap is an outer boundary, not an expectation.
The two awards in an unfair dismissal claim
- Basic award — the statutory redundancy formula: age-banded weeks of service, up to 20 years, at a week’s pay capped at £751, so a maximum of £22,530.
- Compensatory award — your actual proven financial loss (lost wages, pension, benefits), subject to a double cap: the lower of £123,543 or 52 weeks’ gross pay. For anyone earning under about £123,000, it is the 52-week limb that really binds.
Those caps disappear entirely for dismissals connected to whistleblowing or health and safety, and for discrimination claims, which are uncapped by design.
Discrimination and injury to feelings
Discrimination awards add a separate element for injury to feelings, assessed against the Vento bands — from £1,300 to £62,900 for claims presented on or after 6 April 2026. This compensates distress and humiliation rather than money lost, so a substantial award is possible even where you suffered no financial loss at all.
What moves the number up and down
- Acas Code adjustment — up to 25% either way where a party unreasonably failed to follow the relevant Code. It applies only to the claims listed in Schedule A2 to TULR(C)A 1992 and is discretionary.
- Polkey reduction — the compensatory award is cut by the percentage chance you would have been dismissed anyway after a fair procedure, occasionally to nil. It never touches the basic award.
- Contributory fault — conduct on your part that contributed to the dismissal can reduce both awards.
- Mitigation — you must look for comparable work, widening the search over time. Turning down a genuinely comparable job usually ends your future loss from that date, so keep a dated log of every application and reply.
There are no tribunal fees to weigh against any of this, so a settlement offer should be judged against a realistic schedule of loss rather than against the cost of proceeding.
Related guides
Employment Tribunal Compensation: How Awards Are Calculated
Tribunal compensation is not a lump sum a judge picks. It is built from defined components, each with its own formula, and then adjusted up or down by a short list of statutory and case-law rules before any cap is applied. Understanding that sequence is what lets you draft a realistic schedule of loss, judge whether a settlement offer is fair, and avoid the two commonest mistakes — assuming the headline cap is what you will get, and forgetting that failing to look for work can cut your award to almost nothing. This guide sets out how each element is calculated for claims in England, Wales, and Scotland.
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Employment Tribunal Basics
The Employment Tribunal is an independent judicial body that resolves disputes between workers and employers. It is less formal than a civil court but follows strict procedures and deadlines. This guide walks you through the key steps.
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Unfair Dismissal Overview
Being dismissed from a job is stressful. If your employer lacked a valid reason or did not follow a fair procedure, you may have been unfairly dismissed and be entitled to compensation. This guide explains the law and what to do.
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Acas Early Conciliation
Before you can make most types of employment tribunal claim, you must first contact Acas (the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service) and go through Early Conciliation (EC). This is a free, confidential service that gives you and your employer an opportunity to resolve the dispute without going to tribunal. EC is mandatory, but participation is voluntary — neither side is required to reach an agreement, and you receive a certificate to file your tribunal claim if EC concludes without settlement.
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