A Guide to Drafting a Schedule of Loss

Your Schedule of Loss should set out the following:

• Important background details. For example, in an unfair dismissal claim, you should include the date on which your employment terminated, your age at the date of dismissal, your length of service and your gross and net rates of pay.
• Your heads of loss. In a clear way that is easy to follow, you should set out the types of compensation you are claiming.
• You should include your calculations, so that you can explain to the Tribunal how you reached the figures.

An example Schedule of Loss is included at the end of this Guide.

As well as submitting a Schedule of Loss, you should provide documentary evidence of your loss.

This could include:

• Payslips from before and after dismissal
• P60s and P45
• Your contract or written particulars of employment, showing salary and pension
• Records of job searches and receipts for expenses incurred during job seeking
• Confirmation of Social Security benefits
• Medical notes and records

Usually, a Schedule of Loss includes the following heads of loss:

• Basic award (in an unfair dismissal claim)
• Compensatory award (in an unfair dismissal claim)
• Injury to Feelings (in a discrimination or detriment claim)
• Financial loss (in a discrimination or detriment claim)
• Other heads of loss
• Total claim

When outlining each head of loss, you should include:

1. The amount claimed
2. The time period or dates to which the claim relates
3. How you have come up with the amount, i.e. show your working.

You may be able to claim compensation for loss of earnings from the date you were dismissed.

Your immediate loss of earnings is usually calculated using your net pay (what you took home after tax).

How long can you claim for?

You can usually claim for the period:

• from the date of dismissal up to the date of the hearing, or

• until your financial loss ends — whichever comes first.

Your loss may:

• end if you find a new job that pays the same or more than your previous job, or

• reduce if you find a new job that pays less.

Income that reduces your claim

Your immediate loss of earnings will be reduced by any income you receive, including:

• payments from your former employer, or

• earnings from employment or self-employment.

Finding a new job

If you secure a permanent job that pays the same or more than your previous role, your loss of earnings usually stops.

If that new job later ends because you resign or are dismissed, you would not normally be able to claim further loss of earnings linked to the original dismissal.

When loss of earnings may not be awarded

If you are unable to work for reasons unrelated to your dismissal (for example, illness or another personal reason), the Tribunal is unlikely to award loss of earnings for that period.

Laura was dismissed on 1 January 2025. Her unfair dismissal claim is due to be heard on 30 June 2025.

Laura did not find a new job until 1 July 2025, so her immediate loss of earnings covers the 26-week period between her dismissal and the hearing.

Before she was dismissed, Laura’s net weekly pay was £500.

Calculation

£500 × 26 weeks = £13,000

Laura’s immediate loss of earnings is £13,000.

If you are still out of work at the time of hearing (or if you are working, but earning less than you did in your previous job), you can claim for future loss of earnings.

There is no set length of time that a Tribunal will award future loss. However, you will have to justify a long award of future loss and should provide evidence of any challenges you have faced in finding alternative employment.

There is an expectation that you will mitigate your loss by taking reasonable steps to find appropriate alternative employment as soon as possible.

A Tribunal might reduce the compensatory award if it considers you have not adequately mitigated your loss or if you have in some way contributed to your loss.

You can claim compensation for losing the statutory employment rights that you built up in your previous employment through continuous service.

Generally, around £600 is claimed for loss of statutory rights.

As most employees are auto enrolled in a work place pension, there is likely to be a loss of contributions on dismissal.

If you have been unable to find alternative employment and replace pension contributions or if your new employer does not contribute as much to your pension, you can claim compensation for loss.

Where you have long service or a particular type of pension, for example, a public service pension, pension loss can be very substantial, and difficult and complicated to work out. In this case you might require an actuarial report to value your loss.

You can claim compensation for money you have spent on looking for another job. This might include travel costs of attending interviews or purchasing a new suit.

You should provide evidence of expenses.

If your employer provided you with a company car, private health insurance, gym membership etc. you can claim compensation for the value of those benefits.

You should provide evidence of the benefit and its approximate value (for example by obtaining a printout of an online quotation showing how much it would now cost you to purchase the same benefit or an equivalent).

In some cases you can claim an uplift to a compensatory award.

If you have been dismissed and your employer failed to follow the three step Statutory Dismissal Procedure, you can claim an uplift of 10-50% of your compensatory award.

You can also claim an uplift of up to 50%, if your claim is for constructive unfair dismissal and your employer unreasonably failed to comply with the provisions relating to grievances in the Labour Relations Agency Code of Practice on Disciplinary and Grievance Procedures.

There is a statutory cap on the amount that you can claim as part of a compensatory award.

The cap changes annually and at the time of writing (April 2026) is £123,785.

There is no cap on the compensatory award in certain cases, such as health and safety dismissal cases and whistleblowing dismissal cases.

Polkey deductions

In some unfair dismissal cases, a Tribunal may reduce compensation by making what is known as a Polkey deduction.

A Polkey deduction comes from a court case called Polkey v AE Dayton Services (1987).

When can a Polkey deduction apply?

A Polkey deduction may apply if the Tribunal decides there was a real chance that you would have been dismissed even if the employer had followed a fair process.

For example, this might apply where:

• you were unfairly dismissed for misconduct, but

• the employer can show that you would have been fairly dismissed later for redundancy or another valid reason.

How does it affect compensation?

• If the Tribunal decides you would definitely have been fairly dismissed, it may make no compensatory award at all.

• If the Tribunal decides there was only a chance of fair dismissal, it may reduce your compensation by a percentage to reflect that risk.

Who has to prove it?

It is up to the employer to show that a Polkey deduction should apply.

A Tribunal might reduce levels of compensation if it can be shown that the employment would have ended at a point in the near future for another reason.

A Tribunal might reduce compensation if it decides that the Claimant caused or contributed to the dismissal through their blameworthy conduct.

You cannot claim for injury to feelings, personal injury or other non-financial loss as part of the compensatory award. 

Vento bands

The value of an injury to feelings award is determined by reference to ‘Vento bands’.

The Vento bands originate from the case Vento v Chief Constable of West Yorkshire [2002] EWCA Civ 1871. 

There are three Vento bands – Lower, Middle and Upper – which change in value each year.

At the time of writing (April 2026), the values of each band are as follows: 

• Lower band – £1,300 to £12,600 – for a one-off or minor incident. 

• Middle band – £12,600 to £37,700 – for a more serious incident with an ongoing impact. 

• Upper band – £37,700 to £62,900 – for a very serious incident with long-lasting effects. 

For the most serious cases, the Tribunal can make awards in excess of £62,900. 

Supporting evidence

To support your argument for an injury to feelings award, you should include in your witness statement a description of how your employer’s actions affected you. For example, did the treatment you experienced cause you stress, anxiety, sleeplessness or did you require therapy or medication.

You might need to evidence the effect on you with GP letters or other medical records. 

Interest

In a discrimination claim, the Tribunal also has a discretion to add interest to an injury to feelings award, running from the date of discrimination until the date on which the award is calculated.

At the time of writing (April 2026), the applicable rate of interest is 8% per annum.

Your Schedule of Loss should include a request for interest to be added (although it is not necessary for you to work out the precise amount, as the Tribunal will do so if and when an award is made). 

Personal injury

Compensation in respect of discrimination can sometimes include an award for personal injury, over and above injury to feelings.

You might be able to seek such an award in your Schedule of Loss if, for example, your employer’s discriminatory acts caused or worsened a recognised psychiatric illness.

However, you would usually be expected to provide evidence of this by obtaining a specialist medical report. 

Financial loss

If you are claiming that your employer subjected you to discrimination or detriment, you can seek an award in your Schedule of Loss for any financial loss you have suffered as a consequence.

For example, if the acts of discrimination or detriment led you to take a period of sick leave, you can claim the difference between your normal pay and the sick pay that you received, if lower. 

Dismissal as discrimination

If you are alleging that your dismissal was an act of discrimination, the financial loss you can claim might include immediate and future loss of net earnings, loss of other employment benefits, pension loss, and expenses.  

This head of loss is therefore similar to the compensatory award in an unfair dismissal claim (see above), so if you are also alleging unfair dismissal there may be an overlap. 

There are, however, differences between an unfair dismissal compensatory award and an award for financial loss caused by a discriminatory dismissal.

In particular, unlike the compensatory award:

• There is no cap on the maximum amount of financial loss you can be awarded in a discrimination claim
• The Tribunal has a discretion to add interest to the award for immediate financial loss arising from discrimination, running from the mid-point between the date of discrimination until the date on which the award is calculated and
• The rules on recoupment of Social Security benefits do not apply to compensation for discrimination (see further below). 

For these reasons, it is good practice to set out the unfair dismissal compensatory award and any discrimination-related financial loss separately in your Schedule of Loss, and to include a request for interest to be added to the latter.

This makes it easier for the Tribunal to identify exactly what you are seeking under each claim.

However, it will not result in a ‘double recovery’ – i.e. if you win both the unfair dismissal and discrimination claims, you will not get two separate awards in respect of the same losses.

The example Schedule of Loss at the end of this Guide shows how compensation for unfair dismissal and discrimination can be set out. 

Uplifts to awards

Finally, if your complaint is that a dismissal by your employer was discriminatory, you can seek an increase to the awards for injury to feelings and financial loss of 10-50% if your employer failed to follow the three step Statutory Dismissal Procedure. 

If your claim is for constructive discriminatory dismissal, discrimination which is unconnected to dismissal, or detriment short of dismissal, you can seek an uplift to the awards for injury to feelings and financial loss of up to 50% if your employer has unreasonably failed to comply with the provisions relating to grievances in the Labour Relations Agency Code of Practice on Disciplinary and Grievance Procedures. 

If you believe you are owed holiday pay, notice pay, arrears of pay, or any other unauthorised deduction from your wages, you should indicate the outstanding amounts – and how you have calculated them – in your Schedule of Loss. 

If you are making a claim such as unfair dismissal, discrimination, equal pay, detriment, redundancy payment, holiday pay, unauthorised deduction from wages, or breach of contract, you can ask the Tribunal to increase your compensation by up to four weeks’ gross pay if your employer has failed to provide you with written particulars of employment during your employment. 

If your employer has not provided you with accessible physical or digital payslips at or before the time your wages were paid, showing your gross pay, deductions and net pay, you can claim a sum equal to any unnotified deductions your employer has made (although this is limited to the 13 weeks before the date on which you submitted your ET1 Claim Form to the Tribunal).

You are not allowed ‘double recovery’ – i.e. if you also have a claim for unauthorised deduction from wages in respect of the same unnotified deductions, you cannot get two separate awards. 

For most claims, for example equal pay, redundancy payment, holiday pay, unauthorised deduction from wages, or breach of contract, you can seek an uplift of up to 50% if your employer has unreasonably failed to comply with the provisions relating to grievances in theLabour Relations Agency Code of Practice on Disciplinary and Grievance Procedures.

If your claim involves dismissal, you have a duty to try to reduce your loss by attempting to find another job.

If you don’t take adequate steps to try to reduce your loss, the Tribunal might reduce your compensation accordingly.

You should keep evidence such as a diary of job applications and interviews to help demonstrate how you’ve tried to mitigate your loss.  

However, the burden is always on the Respondent to prove to the Tribunal that you have unreasonably failed to mitigate. 

In an unfair dismissal claim, where the Claimant has received Universal Credit (or Income-Related Employment and Support Allowance, Jobseeker’s Allowance or Income Support) following dismissal, a proportion of their compensatory award during the immediate loss period might be recouped by the Social Security Agency.   

As this recoupment process happens after the Tribunal has calculated any award, you should generally not deduct these benefits from the figures you are claiming in your Schedule of Loss. 

By contrast, New Style or Contributory Employment and Support Allowance is not subject to recoupment, and if you have only started to receive it because of your dismissal, it should generally be deducted from the compensatory award set out in your Schedule of Loss (in the same way that you would deduct income you have received from a new job). 

Personal Independence Payment is treated differently, and should generally not be deducted from the figures in your Schedule of Loss (nor will it be subject to recoupment). 

Recoupment rules do not apply in a discrimination claim.

If you are alleging a discriminatory dismissal and as a result of being dismissed you have received Universal Credit, Income-Related Employment and Support Allowance, Jobseeker’s Allowance, Income Support, or New Style / Contributory Employment and Support Allowance, you should generally deduct these benefits from the discrimination-related financial loss set out in your Schedule of Loss. 

If you were already in receipt of such benefits prior to dismissal – for example if you had a pre-existing Universal Credit claim – you only need to deduct any additional amounts that you received due to having been dismissed (which can usually be worked out by looking at your benefits statements from before and after the dismissal). 

Where a Claimant will be required to pay tax on their compensation, the Tribunal can ‘gross up’ their award.

This means that the amount of the award is increased to take account of the amount that the Claimant will have to repay in tax.  

No employee National Insurance contributions are due on awards for unfair or discriminatory dismissal.