According to the Ministry of Justice’s newly published quarterly statistics, 14,000 single claims were lodged between April and June 2026. That is 28% more than in the same quarter last year.
Meanwhile, tribunals disposed of 6% fewer cases.
The result? The outstanding single-claim caseload has reached 70,000. That represents a 51% annual increase and is the highest level recorded since the current statistics began.
And this happened under the existing rules:
- Two years’ service is generally required to claim ordinary unfair dismissal.
- Most tribunal claims must be brought within three months less one day.
On 1 October, the landscape changes.
Schedule 12 of the Employment Rights Act 2025 extends the primary limitation period from three months to six for claims involving unfair dismissal, discrimination, detriment, working time, TUPE and more.
Historically, some potential claims have fallen away because an employee was unwell, waiting for an internal appeal or simply unaware of the deadline. A longer limitation period means fewer of those claims are likely to disappear.
In practice, six months may stretch much further. Once Acas early conciliation and the statutory extension are factored in, an ET1 could arrive close to a year after the dismissal.
That creates an immediate practical risk. Document-retention policies designed around the old three-month deadline may automatically delete the very evidence an employer later needs to defend a claim.
The next major change arrives on 1 January 2027, when the qualifying period for ordinary unfair dismissal falls from two years to six months.
The government estimates that 6.3 million employees fall within the six-month-to-two-year service bracket and expects the reform to generate approximately 3,000 additional tribunal claims annually.
There is another factor the official statistics cannot neatly measure. Employees now have free access to AI tools capable of drafting grievances, estimating potential claims and helping complete an ET1 at any hour of the day.
The practical cost of escalation has never been lower. When something costs nothing, people do more of it.
Employers should be reviewing document-retention rules, probation processes and management training now, not when the first claim arrives.
