Tribunal Intelligence · Yerty Findings
What do employment tribunal awards look like, by claim type?
Summary of findings
Median single-claimant awards ranged from £2,293 for unlawful deductions to £12,500 for disability. Pregnancy and maternity (£12,407) and sex discrimination (£11,697) sat just below disability, unfair dismissal was £7,130, and breach of contract was £3,912. For the claim type used as the specimen here, the middle half of awards ran from £4.3k to £23k around a median of £12.4k. Injury to feelings was the largest single head, and the median was higher where an adjustment applied (£14.8k) than where none did (£11.2k).
Median awards by claim type
Illustrative single-claimant medians from published decisions. Median · single-claimant published awards · whole-case totals involving the claim type · example figures, not a live report.
| Claim type | Median award |
|---|---|
| Pregnancy & maternity | £12,407 |
| Disability | £12,500 |
| Sex discrimination | £11,697 |
| Unfair dismissal | £7,130 |
| Breach of contract | £3,912 |
| Unlawful deductions | £2,293 |
How wide the range was
A median does not show how far awards spread around it. The specimen below is for Pregnancy & maternity, the claim type used in the Award Benchmark step example. Specimen visuals · illustrative only · live report uses claim-type samples.
| Measure | Value |
|---|---|
| Low (start of the middle half) | £4.3k |
| Median | £12.4k |
| High (end of the middle half) | £23k |
| Median award | £12.4k |
| Middle half | £4.3–23k |
| Sample | 536 |
What the money was made of
Where the sample supports it, awards were made up of injury to feelings, financial loss, basic and compensatory elements, and interest. Shares below are from the same specimen.
| Head of award | Share |
|---|---|
| Injury to feelings | 42% |
| Financial loss | 28% |
| Basic / compensatory | 20% |
| Interest | 10% |
Adjustments that changed the total
Published awards can be adjusted, for example for contributory fault, Polkey or the Acas uplift. The specimen compares the median where no adjustment applied with the median where one did.
| Awards | Median | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Without adjustment | £11.2k | Median when none apply |
| With adjustment | £14.8k | Contributory · Polkey · Acas uplift |
Method
Methodology & coverage
Medians are of single-claimant published awards, as whole-case totals involving the claim type. Awards appear only where a tribunal made a money judgment, so they are not an overall win rate. The figures here are example figures from the Award Benchmark, not a live report; a live report adds confidence intervals, size bands, composition and adjustments for the claim type chosen. Distribution, composition and adjustment figures are specimen visuals.
Frequently asked questions
Which claim type had the highest median award?
Disability, at £12,500, followed closely by pregnancy and maternity (£12,407) and sex discrimination (£11,697).
Which claim type had the lowest median award?
Unlawful deductions, at £2,293, followed by breach of contract (£3,912).
Is there one average award for an employment tribunal claim?
No. The medians differ by claim type, and within one claim type the total depends on which heads of award apply and whether the award was adjusted.
Is an award the same as a win rate?
No. Published awards exist only where a tribunal made a money judgment. Most claims settle or are withdrawn before that point, so award figures say nothing about how often claims succeed.
Do these figures tell me what my claim is worth?
No. They describe past tribunal awards for a claim type. They are not a prediction for any individual claim.
See what awards look like for your claim type
Choose a claim type and read the benchmark, with each figure linked to the decision behind it.
Start exploring →Sources
- Yerty Intelligence Hub — single-claimant awards in published employment tribunal decisions
Related: Award Benchmark · award adjustments · award amounts
How to cite this
Yerty (2026). What do employment tribunal awards look like, by claim type?. Yerty Intelligence Hub. https://yerty.co.uk/tribunal-data/findings/awards-by-claim-type (last updated November 2026).Figures reflect the analytical subset used for this question; see our methodology for corpus coverage. Free to cite for non-commercial use with attribution to Yerty. For commercial use, bulk or API access, or AI training, see our Data Use & Citation policy.
Figures derived from Employment Tribunal decisions published by HM Courts & Tribunals Service on GOV.UK, licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Analysis © Yerty. Re-use is subject to our Data Use & Citation policy.
Yerty provides information, not legal advice. The figures above describe past tribunal awards and are not a prediction of what any individual claim is worth. For advice on your circumstances, consider speaking to a qualified employment solicitor.