Tribunal Deadlines Double on 1 October 2026

On 1 October 2026 the deadline for bringing most employment tribunal claims doubles. Three months less one day becomes six months less one day.

That sounds like straightforwardly good news, and for a lot of people it is. But there is a transition rule sitting underneath it that is going to catch people out, and almost everything written about this change so far has been aimed at employers rather than at the people who actually need to file a claim.

Here is the part that matters: the new six months only applies if the thing you are complaining about happened on or after 1 October 2026. If it happened before that date, you still have three months less one day. The date of the change is not the date you find out about it, and it is not the date you decide to claim.

What is actually changing

The change comes from section 152 and Schedule 12 of the Employment Rights Act 2025, brought into force by regulations made in 2026. It covers most tribunal claims, including:

• Unfair dismissal
• Discrimination under the Equality Act 2010
• Whistleblowing detriment and dismissal
• Working time and holiday pay
• Redundancy payments
• TUPE claims
• Part-time and fixed-term worker claims
• Blacklisting and zero-hours exclusivity

In Scotland the equivalent change takes effect on 9 November 2026. Northern Ireland is not changing at all — employment law is devolved there, and the limit stays at three months.

The transition rule, in plain terms

Work out the date of the act you are complaining about. Not when you noticed it. Not when you decided to do something about it. The act itself.

Before 1 October 2026? Three months less one day.

On or after 1 October 2026? Six months less one day.

So someone dismissed on 15 September 2026 has until mid-December. Someone dismissed on 15 October 2026 has until mid-April. Same employer, same kind of claim, four months apart in deadline — because of one month's difference in the dismissal date.

The trap: a series of acts

This is where it gets genuinely awkward, and where we expect most of the confusion.

Discrimination and harassment claims often involve a course of conduct rather than a single event. Comments over months. A pattern of being passed over. Ongoing exclusion from meetings.

Where there is a series of linked acts, it is the date of the last act in the series that decides which limit applies. So if harassment ran from June 2026 through to November 2026, the last act falls after 1 October and the six-month limit applies to the whole series. If it stopped in September, you are on three months.

Whether separate incidents count as one continuing series or as unrelated one-off acts is a legal question that tribunals decide case by case. It is not something to guess at if your deadline is close.

ACAS Early Conciliation still pauses the clock

Whichever limit applies, you must contact ACAS for Early Conciliation before you can present a claim. Notifying ACAS stops the clock while conciliation runs — filing the claim does not. Early Conciliation can now run for up to twelve weeks, and when ACAS issues the certificate you get at least one month from that date if less than a month was left.

One important exception. If you are complaining about something that happened while you were serving in the armed forces, none of this applies to you. You have a standing six-month limit (see our armed forces rights checker) under section 123(2)(a) of the Equality Act, it has nothing to do with the October change, and ACAS does not pause it. You also have to make a service complaint first, within three months.

What to do if your date is near the line

If the act you are complaining about happened in the weeks either side of 1 October 2026, treat the earlier, shorter deadline as the one that applies until someone qualified tells you otherwise. You can also check your own tribunal position free. There is no downside to filing early. There is a very large downside to filing late.

If your deadline has already passed, it is still worth submitting. Tribunals have a discretion to allow late claims where it is just and equitable to do so in discrimination cases, or where it was not reasonably practicable to claim in time for unfair dismissal. Neither is guaranteed, and both are harder the longer you leave it — but a late claim that gets considered beats no claim at all.

Why you may not have heard about this

Most of the coverage of this change has been written for employers, by law firms advising employers. That coverage is accurate, but it is framed around what businesses need to prepare for — longer exposure windows, more claims, records kept for longer.

Very little has been written for the person on the other side of it, who just needs to know which of two numbers applies to them. That is the gap this article is trying to fill.

Get free help

ACAS on 0300 123 1100 is free and can talk you through the process. Citizens Advice on 0800 144 8848 can help more generally. If you are in a union, speak to your rep first — see trade union rights — — many unions have legal support built into membership.

Deadlines in employment law are unforgiving, and the tribunal has no general power to waive them just because a claim looks strong. If in doubt about your own date, get it checked before it passes rather than after.