Went to an employment tribunal between 2013 and 2017? Can you reclaim £100s?

Fees to use employment tribunals – legal hearings between workers and employers that aim to resolve disputes over equal pay, discrimination, unfair dismissal and other issues – were introduced in England, Scotland and Wales in 2013 (it's always been fee-free in Northern Ireland).

However, these charges were scrapped in 2017 after the UK's Supreme Court ruled them to be unlawful, saying they "denied workers access to justice".

Following that ruling, the Government opened a redress scheme and set aside £32 million for refunds. Of that, just under £19 million has already been refunded to 22,800 people – but some £13 million is yet to be claimed, according to the latest available data from March 2024.

Who's eligible for a refund

You can get a refund if you paid employment tribunal fees between 29 July 2013 and 26 July 2017. Outside of these dates, you would not have had to pay fees, though you may have incurred other costs, such as witness expenses or the costs of the people or organisations you claimed against.

You can reclaim any fees yourself for free – you don't need to employ a third party to do so for you. Plus, in any case, claims can only be submitted by the individual or party who paid the fee originally – this would usually have been the claimant, thought it could have been a representative or sponsor.

How to reclaim any fees paid

The portal to claim is still open and there's currently no deadline to do so.

If your claim is against one employer and your name hasn't changed since you went to the tribunal, you can apply online via Gov.uk. If your claim was against more than one employer or you've changed your name since the claim was made, you'll need to apply by email or post instead.

When filling in the application form – either online or by email or post – you'll need to provide details including:

• Who your claim was against.
• Who your representative was (if you had one).
• Which tribunal office dealt with the claim.
• The amount you paid in fees – these were paid in advance of your hearing.
• Your address – both now and at the time the claim was made.

How much you'll get back – and when

How much you'll be refunded depends on how your case was categorised, as different fees were payable depending on which category your claim fell into:

• Type A claims, which covered simpler disputes, such as unpaid holiday pay, had an issue fee (the fee required to file your claim) of £160 and a hearing fee of £230.

• Type B claims had an issue fee of £250 and a hearing fee of £950.

• Appeal tribunal fees had a fee of £400 to lodge the appeal and a hearing fee of £1,200.

If you're found to be eligible and your claim is successful, you will get back 100% of the fees you paid, plus 0.5% interest on top from the date the fee payment was received.

Once your claim has been made and all the relevant information has been provided, you should receive your money back within a matter of days; no matter how you applied. This will be refunded into a bank account you nominate during the reclaiming process.

Fees may be reintroduced in future

In January 2024, the then-Conservative Government put forward proposals to reintroduce employment tribunal claim issue fees and appeal fees set at £55. No proposals were put forward to reintroduce hearing fees.

The current Labour Government told us that it hasn't yet made any decisions on these proposals.