Employment tribunal deadline doubles: six months to claim against your employer from 1 October

From 1 October 2026 the deadline for taking an employer to an employment tribunal in the UK has changed. It used to be three months less one day. It is now six months less one day. For an ordinary worker this is the most noticeable single change in the Employment Rights Act 2025 package.

What changed on 1 October

Until now, someone who was dismissed, underpaid or treated unfairly had under ninety days to file a claim. Now they have almost half a year. Acas puts the new rule simply: six months minus one day for most claims.

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Three months was the deadline people missed most often. You are dismissed, you spend a month recovering, a month looking for work, and by the time you get round to the paperwork the clock has run out. That is the reasoning behind the change: the government's own assessment named the short deadline as a main reason claims were never brought.

Which claims get six months

Most of them: unfair dismissal, unpaid wages and holiday pay, unlawful deductions, discrimination and harassment, breach of contract.

Some claims already had a six-month limit — statutory redundancy pay, equal pay, dismissal connected with industrial action, claims against a trade union and claims by armed forces members. Six months is now the general rule rather than the exception.

One geographical caveat: in Scotland, breach of contract claims keep the old three-month limit until 9 November 2026.

When the clock starts

From the event, not from the day you started thinking about it. For dismissal that is your last day of employment, not the day you were told. For underpayment it is the day the money should have reached your account. For discrimination it is the day of the incident, or the last incident if it was repeated.

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If wages were short for several months in a row, each shortfall has its own deadline. So there is still no reason to wait: the oldest months expire first.

Why you must call Acas first

Before making a tribunal claim you are legally required to notify Acas and go through free early conciliation. This is not a court hearing: an Acas conciliator tries to settle the matter with the employer, and a large share of disputes end there.

The important mechanic: while conciliation runs, the clock stops. Your time limit is paused from the moment you notify Acas and restarts when conciliation ends. Contacting Acas therefore protects your deadline by itself.

What to do if the deadline is close

Notify Acas the same day — without waiting for the employer's reply, without waiting for the outcome of an internal grievance, and without waiting until you have found a lawyer. An internal grievance process does NOT extend the limit. That is the most common and most expensive mistake.

A tribunal can accept a late claim, but only if it decides that filing in time was not reasonably practicable (for dismissal) or that an extension is just and equitable (for discrimination). It is not something to rely on.

Who this matters to most

Readers working in warehouses, delivery, construction, care and hospitality — the sectors where hours go unpaid, holiday pay is withheld and dismissals happen quietly. Six months instead of three is a realistic amount of time to collect payslips, messages and bank statements and actually get to a tribunal.

Read also: what you are owed if you are made redundant · 28 days' holiday: how it is calculated · what else changed on 1 October