If you can see an adviser, it is really useful to get their help to work out the amount to ask for as sometimes it can be quite complex. But if you cannot find advice, we explain how you should work it out and what to include below.

You will need:

• The date your employment started and ended (if it has)
• Your age
• Your pay before and after tax/National Insurance. (Your ‘gross pay’ is before tax and National Insurance is deducted, your ‘net pay’ is what you actually receive).
• If you are asking for compensation, for example unfair dismissal or discrimination, details of what you have lost in earnings – which will include information about any earnings in jobs you have had since you left.

In many cases, where you have lost your job, you may need to check whether you are owed holiday pay, and whether you have received the correct notice or notice pay.

For holiday pay, you will need to check what holidays you are entitled to under your contract, and what holidays you have taken up to your leaving date. Find out more about the amount of holiday you are entitled to.

For notice pay, you will also need to check what your contract says, and whether you were actually given the correct amount of notice. Your contract cannot give you less rights than those you are entitled to by law (often called your ‘statutory rights’). Find out more about notice periods or notice pay.

You might want to ask for your job back or another job with the same employer – you can do this, but the tribunal rarely grants it.  Usually the relationship has broken down and it would not be appropriate. Instead tribunal’s usually award compensation.

This calculation is made up of two parts – a 'basic award' and a ‘compensatory award’. You should include a calculation of both of these in your claim.

‘Basic Award’ – this is calculated in a similar way to redundancy pay. You can use the ‘Calculate your statutory redundancy pay’ tool on GOV.UK.

‘Compensatory Award’ – this is to work out what you have lost financially because of losing your job. It should include:

• Lost wages (based on your net pay, including overtime or bonuses, you would usually get).
• The value of any lost work benefits, such as a company car, pension contributions, etc.
• Your costs in looking for new work (such as travel costs, printing your cv).

The compensatory award is usually split into two parts.

The first part covers the period up to the date that the schedule is prepared (or the date that the Tribunal hearing will be, if that is known).

The second part, is a calculation of expected future losses, after the date that the first part is calculated up to – this is not for a fixed period, but is an estimate. For example, if it is reasonable to assume that you will be out of work for a further 6 months after the Tribunal hearing date, it would be calculated based on this period. In most cases, the compensation award is limited to either 52 weeks pay or a maximum amount (in 2024 it was £115,115 -it goes up every year) – whichever is the lowest.

If you believe you were unfairly dismissed because you were pregnant or had recently had a baby, see Working Families advice about how to work out the amount of compensation to ask for.

You can also add compensation for your ‘loss of statutory rights’ (typically between £350 - £750). This is to reflect the fact that it will take you another two years to get protection from unfair dismissal in a new job. If you had a lawyer, they would tell you that ‘if don’t ask you don’t get’, so you may as well ask for an amount at the top of that scale.  You don’t have to explain why you picked that figure.

If your employer unreasonably failed to follow the Acas code for grievance procedures or disciplinary procedures, the compensatory award can be increased by up to 25%. It can also work the other way, and if you have failed to follow the code, your award can be reduced by up to 25%.

If your behaviour contributed to you being sacked (referred to "contributory conduct") or if the procedural errors made by the employer made no difference to the outcome, the tribunal can reduce the amount of compensation further.

The law calls this an ‘unauthorised deduction from wages’. It can include:

• simple failure to pay your correct wages
• underpayment of National Minimum Wage rates
• failure to correctly calculate holiday pay
• failure to pay statutory payments, such as sick pay or maternity pay.

In this type of case, you set out what you believe you should have received, details of what was actually received, and calculate the amount owed.

This calculation is more difficult, so get specialist employment advice if you possibly can.

The claim may often involve other elements, such as unfair dismissal, so the basic and compensatory awards referred to above may apply.

But in addition, in discrimination cases you can claim an award for ‘injury to feelings’, and the amounts involved can be high. Tribunals follow guidelines first given in a case called ‘Vento’ and the guidelines have become known as ‘Vento’ bands. What band claims are put in depends on the seriousness of the situation and the impact on the claimant.

Vento bands for cases started between 6th April 2024 to 5th April 2025

• The lowest band is £1,200 to £11,700 – this is usually used for more minor or one-off acts of discrimination.

• The middle band is £11,700 to £35,200 – this is for cases which have not had an impact high enough for the highest band, but are more serious and/or long-running than those in the lower band.

• The highest band is from £35,200 up to £58,700 – this is usually used for the most serious discrimination and/or prolonged campaigns of bullying which had a very significant impact on the victim.When you start the claim, you will set out details of what happened and the basis for saying it was discriminatory. When you value your claim, you say briefly how you were affected, including any effect on your physical or mental health, and what amount you are claiming. For example:

You will also explain how the discriminatory behaviour made you feel and the impact it had on you in your witness statement. See our guidance on how to write a witness statement for an employment tribunal. 

You can also claim interest on the amount of money you lost and on some of the injury to feelings compensation (you can only do this in discrimination claims). Probably the easiest thing is to say “Such interest as the Employment Tribunal sees fit” at the bottom of your schedule of loss – it will usually be paid at the rate of 8%. You should ask the tribunal to add it – they might not do it otherwise.

Whatever your case is about, there is always a duty on you to reduce the amount the problem has caused you  - for example, by trying to get a new job.

You will need to explain to the tribunal what steps you have taken to find new work.  

Lawyers call this ‘mitigating your losses’.

You will need to deduct any amount you have received from new work or benefits from the amount of compensation requested.

Next >> After you start your employment tribunal claim

The information in this guide applies to England and Wales.

The law is complicated. We recommend you try to get advice from the sources we have suggested.

The cases we refer to are not always real but show a typical situation. We have included them to help you think about how to deal with your own situation. 

Acknowledgements

Advicenow is grateful to the Ministry of Justice for funding the creation of this guide under the Online Support and Advice Grant. 

Advicenow would like to thank everyone who provided advice and feedback on this guide, particularly Chris Lake, Rebecca Thomas of 42BR Barristers, and editorial teams at Thomson Reuters who kindly peer reviewed it.