Unfair Dismissal Compensation Calculator
Unfair dismissal compensation: basic award (week's pay cap £751) and the £123,543 compensatory limit, which ends if your EDT is on or after 1 January 2027.
Unfair dismissal compensation is a basic award, worked out from your age, your complete years of service and your weekly pay (capped at £751 a week), plus a compensatory award for the money you lost because of the dismissal. Where the effective date of termination is from 6 April to 31 December 2026, the compensatory award is limited to the lower of £123,543 and 52 weeks' gross pay. The Employment Rights Act 2025 removes that limit altogether where it is on or after 1 January 2027. Enter your details to see the statutory arithmetic. An employment tribunal decides whether the dismissal was unfair and what your loss is; this shows the maximum the rules allow on the figures you give.
Enter your figures and press Estimate.
The basic award
Section 119 of the Employment Rights Act 1996 counts back from the effective date of termination through your complete years of continuous employment, the last 20 at most, and allows for each year (s.119):
- one and a half weeks' pay for a year in which you were 41 or over;
- one week's pay for a year in which you were 22 to 40;
- half a week's pay for a year in which you were under 22.
A week's pay is your gross weekly pay, capped at £751 where the effective date of termination is on or after 6 April 2026 (s.227(1), as raised by SI 2026/310). The bands and the cap are the same as for statutory redundancy pay, so with 20 years over age 41 the most the basic award can be is 30 weeks of £751, which is £22,530.
Short or no notice moves the date
If your employer gave you less than the statutory minimum notice, or none, the qualifying period and the basic award are worked out from the date that minimum notice would have run out, counted from the day notice was given or, if there was none, the day you were dismissed (s.97(2) and (3); a similar rule applies if you resigned, s.97(4)). The minimum is one week once you have worked a month, one week for each complete year from two years, and twelve weeks from twelve years (s.86(1)). So someone dismissed on the spot a few days short of two years can still qualify, and someone whose statutory notice crosses an anniversary gets the extra year in the basic award. The calculator does this for you.
Where your employment ended before 1 January 2027 but that notice date falls on or after it, the law does not settle whether the Employment Rights Act 2025 changes apply: the commencement regulations give the effective date of termination its Part 10 meaning, which includes this extension for some purposes but not others (SI 2026/559 reg 4(2)). It could also count for the six-month qualifying period but not for the compensatory award limit, which is not one of the purposes the extension applies to, so the limit may still apply even if the six-month period does. The calculator shows the possible readings. A tribunal decides.
The basic award does not depend on what you lost, but a tribunal can reduce it: for unreasonably refusing an offer of reinstatement, by any redundancy payment you were paid for the same dismissal, and for your conduct before the dismissal (or before notice was given) (s.122(1), (2) and (4)). The conduct reduction does not apply where the dismissal was for redundancy, unless you were selected for one of the representative or health and safety reasons below, and then only to the part of the award that the minimum adds (s.122(3)). If you were dismissed for redundancy and already got statutory redundancy pay, that usually cancels the basic award out. In a few cases there is a floor: at least £9,157 where the reason was your work as a health and safety representative, a working time or employee representative, or a pension scheme trustee (s.120(1), SI 2026/310), and at least £5,000 where the dismissal was because of a trade union blacklist (s.120(1C), read with s.104F). Both minimums apply before any reduction under s.122. The calculator does not apply them.
The compensatory award and its limit
The compensatory award is what the tribunal "considers just and equitable in all the circumstances having regard to the loss sustained" (s.123(1)). It is mostly lost earnings to the hearing and beyond, plus lost benefits such as pension contributions and expenses caused by the dismissal. You must try to find other work: the loss is cut to what you would have lost had you done so (s.123(4)), and it is reduced by whatever share the tribunal thinks your own conduct caused (s.123(6)).
Those reductions come off before the limit below: the limit applies to the award after taking into account any payment by the employer and any reduction the law requires (s.124(5)). So where your loss is well above the limit, a reduction may leave the award unchanged at the limit.
The limit is the lower of £123,543 and 52 times a week's pay (s.124(1ZA)). The 52 weeks use your actual gross weekly pay: the £751 cap applies to the basic award, not to this limit. The limit does not apply at all if you were dismissed for whistleblowing or for one of the health and safety reasons in section 100 (s.124(1A)).
Section 25(3) of the Employment Rights Act 2025 omits section 124 entirely. It is in force from 1 January 2027, and it turns on the effective date of termination: if yours is on or after that date there is no limit on the compensatory award at all, neither the fixed sum nor the 52 weeks. If it is before, the limit applies, however late the hearing is. Someone given notice now that ends in January 2027 gets the uncapped rule. (ERA 2025 s.25; SI 2026/559 regs 3 and 4). See our Employment Rights Act 2025 timeline for the other changes.
The Acas Code adjustment
Where the claim concerns a matter covered by the Acas Code of Practice on disciplinary and grievance procedures, a tribunal can increase the award by no more than 25% if the employer unreasonably failed to follow the Code, or reduce it by no more than 25% if you did (TULRCA 1992 s.207A). In unfair dismissal it applies to the compensatory award only, before any reduction for your own conduct (s.124A). The calculator applies it before the limit, because the limit bites on the award after adjustments.
Worked examples
Aged 45, 10 years' service, £900 a week, dismissed with effect from 30 November 2026. The basic award is 12 weeks (four years at age 41 or over, six below) of £751, not £900: £9,012. If the tribunal finds 26 weeks of lost take-home pay at £550 a week, the compensatory award is £14,300, well inside the limit of £46,800 (52 weeks of £900). Total £23,312.
Aged 50, 15 years, £3,000 a week, 70 weeks' loss at £1,900 a week. The loss is £133,000. With an effective date of termination of 15 December 2026 the compensatory award is limited to £123,543, because 52 weeks' pay (£156,000) is higher than the fixed limit; the total with the basic award of £14,644.50 is £138,187.50. Had the employment ended on 15 January 2027, the same loss would not be limited: £147,644.50 in total.
Aged 30, 4 years, £600 a week, 12 weeks' loss at £450, no disciplinary meeting held. Basic award £2,400. A loss of £5,400 raised by a 20% Acas uplift becomes £6,480. Total £8,880. The size of any uplift is for the tribunal.
Started 20 December 2024, dismissed on the spot on 14 December 2026. That is five days short of two years. But with under two years' service the statutory notice was one week, so for the qualifying period employment is treated as ending on 21 December 2026, after the two-year anniversary. The claim can go ahead: at £600 a week with 10 weeks' loss at £450, basic award £1,200, total £5,700.
Who can claim, tax, and time limits
- Qualifying period. Ordinary unfair dismissal needs a qualifying period of continuous service, and which one applies turns on the effective date of termination rather than on when you were told: two years where it falls before 1 January 2027, six months where it falls on or after. That change is not in force yet, so the period is two years today - including for full statutory notice given now that expires before 1 January 2027 (short or no notice can move the date for this purpose, and whether that moves it across 1 January 2027 is unsettled). (s.108; ERA 2025 s.25(2).) There is no qualifying period where the dismissal is automatically unfair, for example for whistleblowing, pregnancy or asserting a statutory right (s.108(3)).
- Tax. Unfair dismissal awards are taxed only under section 401 of the Income Tax (Earnings and Pensions) Act 2003 as termination payments, so the first £30,000 of all termination payments from the job is tax-free and the rest is employment income (HMRC EIM12960; ITEPA s.403(1)). How that works, and how it interacts with redundancy pay and notice pay, is in our redundancy pay tax guide.
- Time limit. For unfair dismissal the limit turns on the effective date of termination (the actual date, not the notice-extended one): 6 months less 1 day from that date if it is on or after 1 October 2026, 3 months less 1 day if it is before (SI 2026/954 reg 4 and the Schedule, Table 1). You must notify Acas for early conciliation before you can claim, and that pauses the clock (gov.uk).
- Made redundant? Work out your statutory payment with the redundancy pay calculator. If you resigned because of your employer's conduct, see constructive dismissal.
- Northern Ireland has its own legislation and limits. This calculator applies the law of England, Wales and Scotland.
Frequently asked questions
How much compensation can I get for unfair dismissal?
Two awards are added together. The basic award is half a week, one week or one and a half weeks' pay for each complete year of service depending on your age, up to 20 years, with a week's pay capped at £751. The compensatory award covers the loss the tribunal finds you suffered. Where the effective date of termination is from 6 April to 31 December 2026, the compensatory award is limited to the lower of £123,543 and 52 weeks' gross pay. The Employment Rights Act 2025 removes that limit altogether where it is on or after 1 January 2027.
What is the maximum compensatory award for unfair dismissal?
£123,543 or 52 weeks' gross pay, whichever is lower, where the effective date of termination is from 6 April 2026 to 31 December 2026. From an effective date of 1 January 2027 there is no limit. There is also no limit where the dismissal was for whistleblowing or certain health and safety reasons.
Is unfair dismissal compensation taxable?
It is taxed as a termination payment. The first £30,000 of all termination payments from the job, including any redundancy pay, is free of Income Tax, and anything above that counts as employment income for the tax year you receive it.
How long do I need to have worked to claim unfair dismissal?
Ordinary unfair dismissal needs a qualifying period of continuous service, and which one applies turns on the effective date of termination rather than on when you were told: two years where it falls before 1 January 2027, six months where it falls on or after. That change is not in force yet, so the period is two years today - including for full statutory notice given now that expires before 1 January 2027 (short or no notice can move the date for this purpose, and whether that moves it across 1 January 2027 is unsettled).
Does my statutory notice count towards the qualifying period?
Yes. If your employer gave you less than the statutory minimum notice, or none, the qualifying period and the basic award are worked out as if your employment ended when that notice would have run out: one week under two years' service, then a week per complete year up to twelve.
What is the ACAS uplift on unfair dismissal compensation?
If your employer unreasonably failed to follow the Acas Code of Practice on disciplinary and grievance procedures, a tribunal can increase the compensatory award by up to 25%. If you unreasonably failed to follow it, for example by not appealing, it can reduce the award by up to 25%.