Tribunal Intelligence · Yerty Findings
What happens to a tribunal award after you win?
Winning is not the end of the calculation. Among ~30,040 cases with a monetary award, the most common adjustments are the ACAS uplift (9.8% of awarding cases, +17%), Polkey reductions (6.3%, −49%) and contributory fault (5.9%, −40%). The two big reductions each roughly halve the award when they apply.
| Adjustment | % of awarding cases | Typical effect |
|---|---|---|
| ACAS uplift | 9.8% | +17% |
| Recoupment | 6.7% | → DWP |
| Polkey reduction | 6.3% | −49% |
| Contributory fault | 5.9% | −40% |
| Mitigation | 3.9% | −27% |
| Grossing-up | 2.2% | +25% |
| Compensatory cap | 2% | caps |
| Section 38 | 1% | +2–4 wks |
| Chagger uplift | 0.3% | +45% |
The adjustments that reduce an award
Two reductions do most of the work. A Polkey reduction (6.3% of awarding cases) reflects the chance the employee would have been dismissed anyway, and typically cuts the award by about 49%. Contributory fault (5.9%) reflects the claimant's own conduct, cutting it by around 40%. Between them they feature in roughly one in eight awarding cases. Failure to mitigate (3.9%) takes off about 27% more.
The adjustments that increase it
The most common single adjustment is the ACAS uplift (9.8%), applied where an employer unreasonably failed to follow the ACAS Code, adding about 17%. Grossing-up for tax (2.2%) adds around 25%, the Chagger uplift for career-long loss (0.3%) around 45%, and a Section 38 award for missing written particulars (1.0%) adds two to four weeks' pay.
Recoupment and the cap
Two further mechanisms reshape rather than raise or lower the headline figure. Recoupment (6.7%) redirects part of the award to the state to repay benefits received. The compensatory cap was applied in 2.0% of awarding cases. Aggravated damages remain rare, in only 17 cases.
What this means
The headline award is rarely the final figure. A successful claim can be uplifted for an employer's procedural failures or cut substantially for a flawed dismissal that was likely coming anyway. The same gross loss can resolve very differently once these adjustments are applied.
Methodology & coverage
Frequencies are shares of the ~30,040 cases with a monetary award captured in Yerty's remedy layer, drawn from a corpus of 131,146 cases. They describe the awarding subset and should not be read as shares of all tribunal cases. The remedy layer is still being completed, so figures may be refined. These adjustment frequencies are not published in official Ministry of Justice statistics.
Frequently asked questions
What happens to a tribunal award after you win?
It is adjusted. Among ~30,040 cases with a monetary award, tribunals apply uplifts and reductions — most commonly the ACAS uplift (9.8%), Polkey reductions (6.3%) and contributory fault (5.9%).
What is a Polkey reduction?
A reduction reflecting the chance the employee would have been dismissed anyway had a fair process been followed. It appears in 6.3% of awarding cases and typically cuts the award by about 49%.
How much does the ACAS uplift add?
Where an employer unreasonably failed to follow the ACAS Code, the award can rise by up to 25%. It is the most common adjustment, in 9.8% of awarding cases, adding about 17% on average.
What is contributory fault?
A reduction for the claimant's own conduct contributing to the dismissal. It appears in 5.9% of awarding cases and typically reduces the award by around 40%.
Do these percentages apply to all tribunal claims?
No. They are shares of the ~30,040 cases that won a monetary award, not of all 131,000 cases. Most claims settle or do not result in a captured award and are not in this base.
See how awards are built — and reduced
Benchmark remedies and adjustments across cases with facts like yours.
Explore the Intelligence Hub →Sources
- Yerty Intelligence Hub — analysis of published employment tribunal judgments
Related: award amounts · how often the cap applies
How to cite this
Yerty (2026). What happens to a tribunal award after you win?. Yerty Intelligence Hub. https://yerty.co.uk/tribunal-data/findings/tribunal-award-adjustments (last updated June 2026).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. These figures describe the published tribunal record among awarding cases and are not a prediction for any individual claim. For advice on your circumstances, consider speaking to a qualified employment solicitor.