UK employment tribunal limits rise 6 April 2026

From Monday 6 April 2026, the statutory limits that employment tribunals and insolvency payments use in Great Britain will increase. This is a routine update made each year by government. We’ve turned the legal wording into a simple explainer you can use in class, in HR briefings, or when checking your own rights after a workplace dispute.

Why this is happening is straightforward: the law says these sums track inflation measured by the Retail Prices Index for September each year. For 2026, the indexation figure is 4.5% (September 2025 compared with September 2024). That is the uplift applied across the board in this Order. (ons.gov.uk)

Who this applies to is also clear. The new limits cover England, Wales and Scotland. Northern Ireland sets its own figures through a separate order and sometimes uses slightly different rounding, so NI totals can differ. The draft 2026 Northern Ireland order has been prepared separately by the Department for the Economy. (niassembly.gov.uk)

Which date decides the limits? The rule is to look at the event that triggers the claim, not the day you file it. If you are claiming unfair dismissal, use the effective date of termination. If it’s statutory redundancy pay, use the “relevant date” for redundancy. If you’re owed a guarantee payment, use the day you were stood down. For claims about tips (fair allocation, policy or records), use the date of the failure. For trade union inducement cases, use the date the offer was made. If that “appropriate date” falls on or after 6 April 2026, the new (higher) caps apply; if it falls before, last year’s figures still govern your case.

What actually goes up? The headline ones most people look for are the maximum “week’s pay” used for redundancy and certain awards, the daily guarantee payment, the cap on the compensatory award for ordinary unfair dismissal, and specific sums linked to trade union rights and tips legislation. Because this Order applies a 4.5% uplift, you can estimate 2026/27 figures by increasing last year’s amounts by roughly 4.5% and rounding to the nearest pound (the official Schedule contains the exact totals).

Let’s work with the familiar 2025/26 starting points. From 6 April 2025 the weekly cap used for redundancy/basic awards was £719; the cap on the compensatory award for ordinary unfair dismissal was £118,223 (or 52 weeks’ gross pay, if lower); the daily guarantee payment was £39; the tips‑related compensation caps were £5,135; and minimum basic awards in specific dismissal cases were £8,763 or £13,384 depending on the statute. These were set in the 2025 Order on legislation.gov.uk. (legislation.gov.uk)

Using the same method as the Order, here is how the 4.5% uplift changes those familiar markers in 2026/27. A week’s pay moves from £719 to about £751. The unfair dismissal compensatory cap rises from £118,223 to about £123,543 (remember: tribunals still apply the lower of that figure or 52 weeks’ gross pay until future reforms take effect). The daily guarantee payment increases from £39 to about £41. The tips compensation caps shift from £5,135 to about £5,366. Minimum basic awards move from £8,763 to about £9,157, and from £13,384 to about £13,986. These are rounded estimates to help you plan; always use the published Schedule for exact sums.

A quick redundancy example you can teach with. Imagine you are 45 with 10 complete years’ service and your normal weekly pay is £900. Statutory redundancy uses age‑banded weeks: years over 41 count as 1.5 weeks, earlier years count as 1 week. If five of your years are over 41, your total entitlement is 12.5 weeks. Under the 2025/26 cap (£719), that’s roughly £8,988. Under the 2026/27 cap (about £751), it’s roughly £9,387. The uplift won’t transform every case, but it does make a difference you can see.

Now an unfair dismissal example. Take two salaries. At £60,000, the maximum compensatory award is still 52 weeks’ pay, so the annual uprating doesn’t change your ceiling. At £150,000, the statutory cap matters: the 2025/26 limit was £118,223; in 2026/27 it’s about £123,543, so the potential ceiling increases by around £5,300. What it means: higher earners affected by the statutory cap see the most visible change from the annual uprating.

If your “appropriate date” is before Monday 6 April 2026, the 2025/26 figures continue to apply to your case. That is baked into the Order so earlier events are not re‑rated after the fact. For classroom clarity: a dismissal on Friday 3 April 2026 uses last year’s cap; a dismissal on Tuesday 7 April 2026 uses the new one. The 2025 Order sets out the baseline numbers we use in examples. (legislation.gov.uk)

Looking ahead, the government has signalled further change: from 1 January 2027 it intends to remove the statutory cap on the compensatory award for ordinary unfair dismissal entirely, while also shortening the qualifying period for ordinary unfair dismissal to six months. That plan is outside this 2026 uprating, but it matters for medium‑term planning and teaching. Always check for commencement updates. (osborneclarke.com)