Employment Tribunal Time Limit Calculator

How to use the employment tribunal time limit calculator

1. Choose the claim. Unfair dismissal, discrimination, unlawful deductions, holiday pay, detriment, breach of contract, redundancy pay or equal pay: each has its own time limit and its own starting date.
2. Enter the date time runs from. The effective date of termination, the date of the act, the payday or the date the payment was due. The date decides whether three or six months apply.
3. Add the Acas early conciliation dates. Day A and Day B from the early conciliation certificate. Leave Day B blank while conciliation is still going on.
4. Add the claim date, if you have one. To check a claim presented, or to be presented, against the last day.
5. Read the last day and the working. The last day to present the claim, each step with the rule behind it, and any reading the calculator has taken.
6. Copy it for the file. Copy the result, the working and the notes for the file or the diary.

Employment tribunal time limits from 1 October 2026

Section 152 of the Employment Rights Act 2025 and Schedule 12 change “three months” to “six months” in the time limits for employment tribunal claims. They came into force on 1 October 2026 under SI 2026/954, whose regulation 4 says the change does not apply where the relevant date is before 1 October 2026. The Schedule to those Regulations sets the relevant date for each claim listed in it; for most claims not listed, it is the date of the act, conduct or failure complained of, or the last of a series (reg 4(2)(c)), and a reference about a written statement after the employment has ended uses the day it ended (reg 4(2)(b)). The same change, with the same kind of transitional rule, was made for part-time and fixed-term workers and other regulations by SI 2026/758, and for breach of contract claims in England and Wales by SI 2026/759, where it turns on the effective date of termination.

Where the relevant date is before 1 October 2026, the claims marked six months above keep three months less one day, except redundancy pay and equal pay, which were already six months, and interim relief, which is 7 days. Schedule 12 also moves to six months the limits for written statements and itemised pay statements, time off rights, guarantee payments, flexible working requests, parental and carer’s leave, the right to be accompanied, protective awards and collective consultation, TUPE information and consultation, and trade union detriment and inducements, among others.

Counting the time: six months less one day

The limits run for a period “beginning with” the relevant date, so that day counts as the first day and the period ends on the day before the corresponding date: Acas gives a wrong payment on 1 October 2026 a last day of 31 March 2027, and one on 30 September 2026 a last day of 29 December 2026 (Acas: employment tribunal time limits). Where the later month has no corresponding date, as with 31 October to April, no case decides whether the period ends on the day before the last day of the month or on the last day itself: the calculator shows the earlier date first and the other beside it.

Weekends and bank holidays do not move the last day. The time limit is fixed by the statute, a claim can be presented online on any day, and it must reach the tribunal by the end of the last day.

The effective date of termination

Unfair dismissal and breach of contract claims run from the effective date of termination (ERA 1996 s.97(1)): the day the notice expires, for a dismissal with notice, including notice spent on garden leave; the day the termination takes effect, for one without notice; or the day a fixed-term contract ends without renewal. A dismissal by letter takes effect when the employee reads it or has a reasonable chance to (Gisda Cyf v Barratt [2010] UKSC 41), and notice given by letter runs from when it comes to the employee’s attention, unless the contract says otherwise (Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust v Haywood [2018] UKSC 22). A payment in lieu of notice does not move the date to the end of the notice period.

The statutory minimum notice extension in s.97(2) is a trap: where the employer gave less than the statutory minimum notice, it moves the date only for the qualifying period, the basic award and a week’s pay (ss.108(1), 119(1) and 227(3)), not for the time limit. A complaint may be presented after notice of dismissal is given but before the effective date of termination (s.111(3)). An application for interim relief, for a dismissal said to be for whistleblowing or another reason ERA 1996 s.128 lists, or for trade union membership or activities (TULRCA 1992 s.161), must be made within the 7 days immediately following the effective date of termination, and needs no early conciliation first.

Acas early conciliation: Day A and Day B

Before presenting most claims, the claimant must notify Acas and obtain an early conciliation certificate (Employment Tribunals Act 1996 s.18A). Day A is the day Acas receives the notification; Day B is the day the certificate is received or, if earlier, treated as received. Then, under ERA 1996 s.207B (and EqA 2010 s.140B, WTR reg 30B and art 8B of the 1994 Order):

1. the days from the day after Day A to Day B are not counted, so they are added to the time limit; and then
2. if the time limit so worked out would expire between Day A and one month after Day B, it expires one month after Day B instead.

The two steps are applied in that order, not as alternatives (Luton BC v Haque UKEAT/0180/17/JOJ). Early conciliation started after the time limit has expired extends nothing. Where it started before time began to run, only the days after the day the period begins with are not counted (Raison v DF Capital Bank Ltd [2025] EAT 86; HMRC v Garau UKEAT/0348/16/LA). A second certificate for the same matter does not stop the clock again (Garau, followed in Smith v The Restaurant Group (UK) Ltd [2024] EAT 168). Each respondent gets its own certificate, so the date is worked out for each respondent from its own.

For notifications on or after 1 December 2025, early conciliation can last up to 12 weeks (SI 2025/1153). A certificate sent by email is treated as received on the day it is sent, and one sent by post on the day it would arrive in the ordinary course of post (the early conciliation rules, rule 9(3)); Day B is the day it actually arrived, if that is earlier (ERA 1996 s.207B(2)(b)). For a statutory redundancy payment, early conciliation extends only the time to refer the question to a tribunal and the further six months in s.164(2), not the other steps that keep the right (ERA 1996 s.164(5)).

Continuing acts and series

For discrimination, conduct extending over a period is treated as done at the end of the period, and a failure to do something when the person decided on it (EqA 2010 s.123(3) and (4)). For detriment, time runs from the last of a series of similar acts or failures (ERA 1996 s.48(3)), and for wages from the last deduction in a series (s.23(3)), though the tribunal cannot go back more than two years before the claim (s.23(4A)). The transitional rule looks at the same date: the end of the conduct, or the last in the series (SI 2026/954, Schedule, table 1, and reg 4(2)(c)). So, on our reading, the six months apply to the whole complaint where that date is on or after 1 October 2026. Whether acts form one series or one course of conduct is for the tribunal.

A late claim: “not reasonably practicable” and “just and equitable”

For unfair dismissal, wages, detriment, working time and contract claims, a tribunal can hear a late claim only if it is satisfied that it was not reasonably practicable to present it in time, and it was then presented within such further period as the tribunal considers reasonable (for example ERA 1996 s.111(2)(b)). For discrimination, the tribunal can allow such other period as it thinks just and equitable (EqA 2010 s.123(1)(b)): a broad discretion, with no rule that the claimant must show a good reason for the delay (Abertawe Bro Morgannwg University Local Health Board v Morgan [2018] EWCA Civ 640), though time limits are enforced strictly and it is for the claimant to persuade the tribunal (Robertson v Bexley Community Centre [2003] EWCA Civ 576; Adedeji v University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust [2021] EWCA Civ 23). For a dismissal for a blacklisting reason, the unfair dismissal test is also just and equitable (s.111(5)). A redundancy payment has a further six months in which the tribunal may award it if just and equitable (ERA 1996 s.164(2)); an equal pay claim in the tribunal has no extension at all (EqA 2010 s.129). The calculator explains these tests and never predicts how a tribunal would apply them.

Scotland

The calculator is for employment tribunals in England and Wales. The statutory time limits are the same in Scotland, except breach of contract: a draft Scottish Order would bring in six months only where the effective date of termination is on or after 9 November 2026.

Costs in the employment tribunal

Costs in the employment tribunal are the exception, not the rule. For costs orders, preparation time orders at the hourly rate for the year and the 28-day deadline to apply, use the free employment tribunal costs calculator.

Related tools

• Employment tribunal costs calculator, for costs and preparation time orders under the ET Rules 2024
• Limitation period calculator, for civil claims under the Limitation Act 1980
• CPR deadline calculator, for time limits in the civil courts
• All free tools

Sources

• Employment Rights Act 2025 s.152 and Schedule 12; the Employment Rights Act 2025 (Commencement No. 5 and Transitional Provisions) (Amendment) Regulations 2026 (SI 2026/954) (regulation 4 and the Schedule)
• SI 2026/758 (part-time, fixed-term and other regulations) and SI 2026/759 (breach of contract, England and Wales)
• Employment Rights Act 1996 s.23, s.48, s.97, s.111, s.128, s.145, s.164 and s.207B
• Equality Act 2010 s.123, s.129 and s.140B; Working Time Regulations 1998 reg 30 and reg 30B
• Employment Tribunals Extension of Jurisdiction (England and Wales) Order 1994 art 3, art 7 (as amended by SI 2026/759: legislation.gov.uk has not yet updated the revised text), art 8 and art 8B
• Employment Tribunals Act 1996 s.18A; the early conciliation rules of procedure and exemptions (SI 2014/254), as amended by SI 2025/1153
• Luton BC v Haque UKEAT/0180/17/JOJ; HMRC v Garau UKEAT/0348/16/LA; Raison v DF Capital Bank Ltd [2025] EAT 86; Smith v The Restaurant Group (UK) Ltd [2024] EAT 168; Gisda Cyf v Barratt [2010] UKSC 41; Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust v Haywood [2018] UKSC 22; Robertson v Bexley Community Centre [2003] EWCA Civ 576; Abertawe Bro Morgannwg University Local Health Board v Morgan [2018] EWCA Civ 640; Adedeji v University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust [2021] EWCA Civ 23
• Acas: employment tribunal time limits, Acas: how early conciliation works and GOV.UK: employment tribunals