"A Huge Barrier to Justice" : £6.6 million outstanding in Employment Tribunal refunds

31 July 2018

One year after the Supreme Court ruled Employment Tribunal fees unlawful, thousands of claimants are still awaiting outstanding fees for their Employment Tribunal claims. This is a major issue, as the Ministry of Justice announced that these claims are on the rise with 9,252 claimants filing complaints against their employees, which is more than double the amount between October 2013 and June 2017.  

Currently, only £6.6 million out of £33 million has been refunded, which means 80% costs are still outstanding, which does not align with the government’s intentions back in October 2017, where they vowed to repay all fees immediately through their official refund programme.

Commenting on the refund programme, a representative from HM Courts and Tribunals Service stated that:

“Since launching our refund scheme we have been working hard to process refunds to those eligible and have also been sending around 10,000 letters a month to those people we think may be eligible.”.

However, contradicting this statement, the Justice Secretary, David Gauke commented that “further action was necessary”, before contacting eligible claimants who were owed tribunal fees, establishing notable backtracking by the government.

There has been outrage regarding these payment delays, with Christina McAnea, Unison’s assistant general secretary for Unison stating that

“this huge wrong should have happened faster” and that the government should “promise never again to introduce such a huge barrier to justice.”

If you require assistance with recovering your tribunal fee please contact us now at https://www.threegraceslegal.co.uk/contact or telephone 0151 659 1070.