Employment claims rise at highest rate for five years

New figures published by the Ministry of Justice show that in the period from April to June 2018, the number of single claims received by the Employment Tribunal increased by 165% when compared to the same quarter in 2017.

Fees were abolished in July 2016 and, since then, we’ve seen a steady increase in the number of claims issued.  Despite this, figures are still lower than those that applied before fees were introduced.

The figures also reveal that only 53 claimants brought claims out of time (out of almost 11,000 single claims). This indicates that fewer individuals are arguing that they did not bring claims earlier because of fees.

The sustained rise in claims being lodged since the abolition of tribunal fees in July 2017 has inevitably led to increased caseloads for the justice system. For single claims, outstanding caseload rose by 130%, while for multiple claims this was 34%.”