Ask most business owners what an employment tribunal claim is worth and you'll get a number pulled from a newspaper headline about a six-figure discrimination payout. That's not what most claims actually cost, and the gap between perception and reality matters when you're deciding whether to fight or settle.
Start with unfair dismissal, the most common claim type. The most recent official figures put the median award at £6,746 and the mean at £13,749, with the highest award recorded that year at £179,124. Most unfair dismissal claims that succeed are worth a lot closer to the median than the maximum.
Discrimination claims tell a more varied story, because compensation there is uncapped. Sex discrimination carries a median award of £16,161 and a mean of £53,403, with the highest recorded award reaching £995,128. Disability discrimination sits at a median of £17,218 and a mean of £44,483. Race discrimination comes in lower on average, at a median of £10,253 and a mean of £29,532. Age discrimination is the outlier, with a mean award of £102,891, usually because age discrimination claimants tend to be older, higher earning and have longer service, all of which push up the loss calculation.
The "injury to feelings" element of a discrimination award follows fixed bands, known as the Vento bands. As of the current rates, the lower band runs from £1,300 to £12,600, the middle band from £12,600 to £37,700, and the upper band from £37,700 to £62,900, with exceptional cases going higher still. This element sits on top of any financial loss awarded, not instead of it.
For unfair dismissal specifically, there are statutory caps to know. The basic award is capped at £22,530. The compensatory award is capped at £123,543 or 52 weeks' gross pay, whichever is lower, for dismissals from 6 April 2026. That cap disappears entirely from 1 January 2027, when the Employment Rights Act 2025 removes it. Discrimination claims have never been subject to any cap and won't be affected by that change, because they were already unlimited.
Here's the practical point behind all of this. Most unfair dismissal claims that succeed are worth a fraction of what people assume, often in the thousands rather than the tens of thousands. Discrimination exposure is real but the typical award still sits well below the headline-grabbing maximums. When you're weighing up whether to defend a claim through a lengthy tribunal process or settle early, the realistic value of the claim, not the theoretical maximum, should be driving that decision. Legal fees and management time spent defending a claim worth £7,000 can easily exceed the claim itself.