Fees For Employment Tribunals
On 26th July 2017, the Supreme Court ruled that the government had acted unlawfully and unconstitutionally when they introduced Employment Tribunal fees for claimants in 2013. The government announced the same day that claimant fees paid to Employment Tribunals would be stopped immediately and that claimants who previously paid fees would receive a full refund of those fees.
External links: https://www.gov.uk/employment-tribunals/refund-tribunal-fees
The rest of this page should now be read as a reference to the previous fee structure.
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Since July 2013 all claimants bringing an Employment Tribunal claim or lodging an appeal with the Employment Appeal Tribunal are required to pay applicable tribunal fees or make an application for a fee remission, (why they should be exempt from paying fees or pay reduced fees). For those who must pay a fee, the fee must be sent with the claim application.
This is the first time that fees have been applied for tribunal cases. The stated aims for introducing tribunal fees is two-fold:
1. To reduce the number of speculative or spurious claims from reaching tribunals. In previous years bringing, (or threatening to bring) a case to a tribunal has been used as a tactic to force employers to settle cases early.
2. To make the tribunal service pay for itself, or at least reduce the annual costs of running the tribunal service.
Claim Types & Fees
The level of fees depends on the type of claim brought by the claimant:
Type A claims – unpaid wages, redundancy pay, holiday pay and notice pay.
Type B claims – unfair dismissal, discrimination, whistleblowing, and equal pay.
There are two main fees for Type A & B claims:
Issue fee
This is the fee to start a claim - £160 for Type A and £250 for Type B.
Hearing fee
The fee payable by the claimant when they decide they wish to proceed to a full tribunal hearing of their case - £230 for Type A and £950 for Type B.
Type B claims have higher fees because there is usually more evidence and tribunal time involved in these types of claim.
Group Fees
There are reduced fees for groups of claimants making the same claim; these are called “fee groups”. For example, a group of employees making the same claim against their employer. Group fees are as follows:
Type A
- 2-10 claimants – Issue fee £320, Hearing fee £460
- 11-200 claimants - £640 and £960
- Over 200 claimants - £960 and £1,380
Type B
- 2-10 claimants – Issue fee £500, Hearing fee £1,900
- 11-200 claimants - £1,000 and £3,800
- Over 200 claimants - £1,500 and £5,700
Employment Appeal Tribunal Fees
- To lodge an appeal - £400
- Full appeal hearing - £1,200
Fee Remission
There are three levels of fee remission:
- Level 1 – You receive benefits payments
- Level 2 – You and your partner’s gross income is below a certain level
- Level 3 - You and your partner’s disposable income is below a certain level
External links: https://www.gov.uk/employment-tribunals/make-a-claim
Links & Addresses - Employment Law