Why use this calculator
Discrimination claims work on completely different financial rules from unfair dismissal and people routinely undervalue them as a result. There is no statutory cap on compensation, no qualifying period of service, and an additional head of damage that has no equivalent in a dismissal claim: injury to feelings, awarded for the distress caused rather than for any money lost.
Someone still in their job, still being paid, and with six months' service can have a claim worth tens of thousands of pounds. This calculator combines the four elements a tribunal actually assesses, so you can see how much of the value sits in injury to feelings rather than lost earnings, and price a claim or a settlement offer with the right framework rather than by analogy to a dismissal.
How to use it
- Enter your gross annual salary, which is used only to value any financial loss.
- Choose the Vento band that fits the seriousness of what happened, using the lower band for an isolated incident such as a single discriminatory remark, the middle band for serious cases, and the upper band for a sustained campaign of harassment or discrimination.
- Enter the months of pay you have lost, which is zero if you remain employed on full pay.
- Enter the months between the discriminatory act and the expected hearing, since interest runs from the date of the act.
- Finally, record whether the employer's own conduct made things worse, which supports aggravated damages.
What each result means
- Total estimated compensation
- All four heads of damage combined. Nothing here is capped, which is the main reason a discrimination claim is usually worth more than a dismissal claim.
- Likely range within this band
- The total estimate with the injury to feelings award at the bottom and at the top of the band you chose, with everything else unchanged. Where a tribunal lands inside the band depends on the facts and the evidence of impact.
- Interest added each further month
- How much the interest on the award grows for every extra month before a decision, at the 8% tribunal rate. It runs from the act on injury to feelings and from the mid-point of the loss period on financial loss.
- Injury to feelings
- Compensation for distress and humiliation, not for money lost. It is payable even if you kept your job and suffered no financial loss whatsoever.
- Band applied
- Which Vento band the case falls into. Band selection is driven by the seriousness and duration of the discrimination, not by how much you earn.
- Financial loss
- Lost earnings and benefits caused by the discrimination. Unlike unfair dismissal this is uncapped, so a long period out of work drives the award hard.
- Aggravated damages
- An extra award where the employer behaved in a high-handed, malicious or retaliatory way, such as victimising you for complaining.
- Interest
- Tribunals add interest at eight per cent a year on discrimination awards, which is why a long-delayed hearing increases rather than erodes the value.
- Injury to feelings band range
- The full span of the band you selected. Your case could land anywhere inside it, so treat the midpoint as a central estimate rather than a figure.
The formula
Injury to feelings = the midpoint of the selected Vento band
Financial loss = (annual salary divided by 12) x months of loss
Aggravated damages = 30 per cent of the injury to feelings award where the employer acted in a high-handed or malicious way
Interest = 8 per cent a year on injury to feelings from the date of the act, and on financial loss from the mid-point of the loss period
Total = all four added together
How this number is used in practice
The nine protected characteristics under the Equality Act 2010 are age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex, and sexual orientation. Discrimination can be direct, indirect, by way of harassment, or victimisation for having complained. Crucially, none of these claims requires any minimum period of service, and they can be brought while you are still employed.
A worker three months into a job who is harassed has a claim; the same worker dismissed unfairly for any other reason has none.
Injury to feelings is where the framework diverges most from ordinary intuition. The award reflects the impact on the claimant, evidenced through their own testimony and often through medical records showing anxiety, depression or sleeplessness. It has nothing to do with salary, so two people subjected to the same treatment receive similar injury awards whether they earn twenty thousand or two hundred thousand.
A GP record made at the time of the events is worth considerably more than a retrospective account given at a hearing two years later.
The time limit is three months less one day from the discriminatory act, but where there is a continuing course of conduct time runs from the last act in the series, which can rescue earlier incidents that would otherwise be out of time. Tribunals also have a wider discretion to extend time in discrimination cases than in unfair dismissal, on a just and equitable basis.
Even so, the safest course is always to start Acas early conciliation on the earliest date you can, and to keep a dated diary of incidents with names of witnesses, since the pattern is often what establishes the claim.
Worked examples
A £42,000 earner in the middle Vento band with 6 months of lost pay and a hearing 12 months after the act
Injury to feelings of £25,150 plus £21,000 of financial loss and interest of about £2,852, totalling roughly £49,002
An employee still in post on £35,000 claiming a single discriminatory remark in the lower band
No financial loss at all, but injury to feelings of £6,950 plus interest still makes the claim worth over £7,000
A £70,000 earner in the upper band with 18 months' loss and retaliatory conduct by the employer
Injury to feelings of £50,300 plus £15,090 of aggravated damages and £105,000 of loss, taking the award past £180,000
When people use it
- Valuing a discrimination claim before starting Acas early conciliation
- Assessing whether a settlement offer reflects injury to feelings as well as lost pay
- Employees still in post working out whether a claim is worth bringing with no financial loss
- Employers pricing exposure to an uncapped claim before deciding whether to defend it
- Advisers explaining to a client why a discrimination claim outvalues the parallel dismissal claim
Tips
- There is no qualifying period and no cap. You can claim from day one of employment, and while still employed.
- Injury to feelings does not depend on your salary. A low earner and a high earner subjected to the same treatment get similar injury awards.
- Keep a dated diary of every incident with names of witnesses. A pattern across months is what moves a case up a Vento band.
- See your GP and describe the impact at the time. Contemporaneous medical evidence supports both a higher band and a separate personal injury claim.
- Where discrimination continues as a series of linked acts, time runs from the last act, which can bring earlier incidents back into time.
- If you were dismissed as well, plead both claims. The discrimination claim is uncapped and carries injury to feelings, so it usually dominates.
What it assumes, and where it stops being accurate
- Uses the Vento bands applying to claims presented on or after 6 April 2026, uprated annually by Presidential Guidance.
- Takes the midpoint of the selected band. A real award can fall anywhere within the band, and band selection is itself contested at hearing.
- Aggravated damages are modelled at 30 per cent of injury to feelings. There is no fixed formula and tribunals vary widely.
- Assumes the claim succeeds and that liability is established for the full period of loss claimed.
- Personal injury damages for a recognised psychiatric injury are excluded and can be claimed in addition where medical evidence supports it.
- No adjustment is made for failure to mitigate loss, Acas Code uplifts, or any pension loss element.
Terms used on this page
- Vento bands
- Guideline ranges for injury to feelings awards in discrimination claims, uprated each April.
- Injury to feelings
- Compensation for distress and humiliation caused by discrimination, independent of financial loss.
- Protected characteristic
- One of the nine grounds under the Equality Act 2010 on which discrimination is unlawful.
- Victimisation
- Detrimental treatment because someone complained about discrimination or supported a complaint.
- Aggravated damages
- An additional award where the employer's own conduct made the injury to feelings worse.
Questions people ask
- What are the Vento bands?
- Guideline ranges for injury to feelings awards, named after Vento v Chief Constable of West Yorkshire Police. The lower band covers isolated incidents, the middle band serious cases that do not merit the highest award, and the upper band sustained campaigns of discrimination. They are uprated every April by Presidential Guidance.
- Is there a cap on discrimination compensation?
- No. Unlike unfair dismissal, where the compensatory award is limited to the lower of a year's pay or £123,543, discrimination awards are uncapped in every head: financial loss, injury to feelings, aggravated damages and interest. Awards running into six figures are not unusual in serious long-running cases.
- Can I claim if I have not lost any money?
- Yes. Injury to feelings compensates for distress rather than financial loss, so an employee still in post on full pay can recover a substantial award. The lower band alone starts at £1,300, and many claims brought by people still employed sit in the middle band.
- What counts as an aggravating feature?
- Conduct that made the injury worse: acting in a high-handed, malicious or insulting way, failing to investigate a complaint, retaliating against the person who complained, discrimination by someone in a position of authority, or repeating the behaviour after a warning. Each supports an award of aggravated damages.
- How long do I have to bring a discrimination claim?
- Three months less one day from the act complained of, extended by the Acas early conciliation period. Where there is a continuing course of conduct, time runs from the last act. Tribunals can extend time on a just and equitable basis more readily than for unfair dismissal.
- Do I need two years of service?
- No. Discrimination protection applies from the first day of employment and even at the recruitment stage, so a rejected job applicant can bring a claim. That is a major difference from ordinary unfair dismissal, which needs two years of continuous service before it can be brought at all.
Use this with
Discrimination Compensation Calculator answers one part of the question. These pick up where it stops: Unfair Dismissal Compensation Calculator, Constructive Dismissal Compensation Calculator, Employment Tribunal Cost Estimator and Unpaid Wages Claim Calculator.
Where these figures come from
Figures and rules on this page follow United Kingdom law.
- The Employment Rights (Increase of Limits) Order 2026. The statutory instrument setting the limits used here, in force 6 April 2026
- GOV.UK: Calculate your statutory redundancy pay. Official redundancy entitlement tool and the age-banded weeks table
- GOV.UK: Redundancy: your rights. Week's pay cap of £751 and the £22,530 maximum
- Equality Act 2010. The nine protected characteristics and the forms of prohibited conduct
- Equality and Human Rights Commission: employment guidance. What amounts to discrimination, harassment and victimisation at work
Discrimination Compensation Calculator produces an estimate for general information. It is not financial, tax, medical, legal or engineering advice. read the full disclaimer. Spotted a wrong number? Report it and it gets fixed. The form picks up this calculator and the inputs you used.