Constructive dismissal payout: how much compensation could you get?

If you have been forced to resign, the obvious question is what a claim might be worth. Constructive dismissal compensation is worked out with the same two-part formula as ordinary unfair dismissal, plus a few adjustments that can move the figure significantly in either direction.

The two parts of your payout

A tribunal award for constructive dismissal has two elements:

• The basic award - a fixed formula based on age, service and weekly pay, identical to statutory redundancy pay. Weekly pay is capped at £751 (from 6 April 2026) and service at 20 years.
• The compensatory award - your actual financial loss: lost earnings, lost benefits and pension, and a modest sum for the loss of the statutory rights you have to rebuild in a new job.

The caps that matter

The compensatory award is capped at the lower of £123,543 or 52 weeks' gross pay. For most claimants the 52-week figure is the real ceiling. There is no cap where the constructive dismissal is linked to discrimination or certain automatically unfair reasons, which is why those claims carry the highest values.

A worked example

Take someone earning £45,000 a year with 8 years of service, all aged 22 or over, who resigns over a sustained breach and takes four months to find a new role at the same salary.

• Basic award: 8 weeks x £751 (capped weekly pay is above salary here, so actual £865 weekly pay capped to £751) = £6,008
• Compensatory award: 4 months' lost net pay (say £11,200), plus pension loss (say £900), plus £500 for loss of statutory rights = about £12,600
• Total: roughly £18,600 before adjustments

What moves the figure up or down

• Your losses drive the number. The longer you are out of work, or the bigger the pay cut in your next role, the higher the award. You must look for work: tribunals reduce awards for a failure to mitigate.
• Your own conduct can cut it. If the tribunal finds you contributed to the situation, it can reduce both awards by a percentage.
• Process failures add up to 25%. If your employer unreasonably failed to follow the ACAS code, for example by ignoring a grievance, the award can be uplifted by up to a quarter. The same applies in reverse if you never raised a grievance at all.
• Most cases settle. The realistic value of a claim is what a tribunal would award, discounted for the risk of losing. That discounted figure is the number your solicitor negotiates from.

Do you qualify?

Ordinary constructive dismissal needs two years' continuous service, but there is no qualifying period where the reason is automatically unfair or discriminatory. From 1 January 2027 the qualifying period for ordinary unfair dismissal is being removed under the Employment Rights Act 2025, which will open constructive dismissal claims to far more employees.

You have three months less one day from your resignation to start a claim through ACAS early conciliation, doubling to six months for resignations on or after 1 October 2026.

If you have not resigned yet, get advice first - the strength of a constructive dismissal claim is largely decided before the resignation letter is written. Our guide on what constructive dismissal is explains the legal test, and our constructive dismissal solicitors page explains how a specialist runs these claims. For the ordinary dismissal position, see unfair dismissal compensation.