Advice from an HR consultant in Ipswich on what the extended 6-month tribunal deadline means for your business and what you need to do about it.
I’ve been talking to a lot of business owners lately about the Employment Rights Act changes. Most of them had no idea that the tribunal claim window has doubled.
From 1 October 2026, employees have 6 months to bring a claim instead of 3. That old deadline used to quietly work in your favour, because plenty of people simply ran out of time.
Now they won’t.
The government’s own estimate is a 17% rise in tribunal claims. From what I’m seeing with my clients, I’d expect it to be higher than that.
Here’s what’s changed and what you need to be doing about it.
What actually happened on 1 October 2026
The time limit for filing most employment tribunal claims went from 3 months to 6 months. That applies to unfair dismissal, discrimination, harassment, whistleblowing, unlawful wage deductions and working time claims, among others.
A couple of important details to be aware of:
- The new 6-month window only applies to acts or dismissals that take place on or after 1 October 2026. Anything before that date still falls under the old 3-month rule.
- If a claim involves a series of connected acts, the extended deadline kicks in as long as the last act in that series happened on or after 1 October.
So if you dismissed someone on 30 September 2026, the old rules apply. If you dismissed them on 1 October, they’ve got until April to file.
Why this changes the risk for you
Under the old rules, if 3 months passed after a dismissal or incident without anything landing on your doormat, you could feel fairly confident it was done.
That sense of closure is gone.
Someone you let go in October could now bring a claim the following April. A grievance that seemed to fizzle out in November could turn into a formal tribunal claim in May. Situations you’d mentally filed away can resurface months later, often with legal representation behind them.
And there’s another factor to consider. With double the time available, employees have more room to seek legal advice and prepare their case thoroughly. A claim that’s been carefully put together over several months is harder to defend than one rushed through at the last minute.
Your documentation is your defence
Paperwork is the single biggest factor in whether you win or lose a tribunal claim. If you can’t produce clear records showing what happened and why, 6 months after the event, you could lose on that alone. I’ve seen it happen.
So what does good documentation actually look like in practice?
- Keep written records of every disciplinary conversation and performance discussion. Notes from an informal chat count. A vague recollection 6 months later does not.
- Make sure your disciplinary and grievance procedures follow the Acas Code of Practice. Tribunals will check.
- Apply your policies consistently across all employees. If you handle a similar situation differently for two different people, that inconsistency becomes evidence.
- Actually carry out probation reviews and document them. Having a probation policy is meaningless if nobody follows it.
- Maintain a clear paper trail showing how decisions were made and the reasoning behind them.
You should also take a look at how long you’re retaining HR files and correspondence. If you’ve been clearing things out after a few months, that needs to change. When a claim arrives and the evidence has been deleted, you can’t use it.
Your managers are your biggest risk area
Your managers are the ones making daily decisions about performance and conduct. They’re deciding who gets a warning, who passes probation, how a complaint is handled. Those are exactly the decisions that end up being scrutinised at tribunal.
If they’re having conversations but not writing anything down, the extended time limit makes every one of those undocumented decisions riskier. Six months is a long time to rely on memory.
Have a conversation with your managers now about what needs to change. They need to understand that documenting decisions isn’t bureaucracy. It’s protection for them and for the business.
Some questions worth asking yourself
Take a few minutes to think honestly about where your business stands:
- If an employee you dismissed 5 months ago filed a tribunal claim tomorrow, could you produce the paperwork to show exactly what happened and why?
- Are your managers documenting performance conversations as they happen, or relying on memory?
- When was the last time you reviewed your disciplinary and grievance procedures to check they’re in line with the Acas Code?
- Do you know how long your HR files are being kept, and whether older records are being disposed of too soon?
If you’re unsure about any of those, it’s worth getting things checked before a claim forces you to find out the hard way.
How we support businesses with this
As part of our HR consultancy services in Ipswich, we carry out process and documentation reviews for businesses of all sizes. We look at your disciplinary and grievance procedures, your record-keeping practices and how well your current setup would hold up if a claim landed.
It’s always cheaper to sort these things out before a claim arrives than after one does. A review now could save you thousands down the line, not to mention the time and stress involved.
Let’s have a conversation
If you’re not confident that your processes would stand up to a tribunal claim under the new 6-month deadline, now is the time to act.
As an outsourced HR consultant in Ipswich, I work with businesses like yours every day to make sure the right procedures and records are in place.
Get in touch to book a free consultation. We can take a look at where you are now and what needs to change.
Call us on 01473 653000 or email hello@pshumanresources.co.uk.
