Settlement Simulator

A plain-English sanity check on a UK settlement offer. It compares your offer with a realistic tribunal outcome — net of tax, because that's the comparison that actually matters.

Your pay & the offer Annual base salary

Offer amount

The total ex-gratia ("goodwill") sum being offered, before tax.

Other taxable income in the tax year you'd be paid (optional)

Sets your marginal tax rate. Left blank, we use your salary (conservative).

Notice pay Is any notice being paid as taxable pay in lieu of notice (PILON)?

Your situation

These plain questions decide which tribunal routes might apply to you. Answer as best you can — you can change them.

How long do you think it'll take to find similar work?

weeks (drives loss of earnings; 13 is a common starting point)

Were 20 or more people being let go at around the same time?

Do you think your selection for redundancy/dismissal was unfair?

Could the unfairness be linked to age, sex, race, disability, pregnancy or another protected characteristic?

Were you dismissed for raising concerns or whistleblowing?

Advanced (optional)

Chance you'd have been dismissed anyway (Polkey reduction)

50%

Reduces the unfair-dismissal compensatory award. For a genuine redundancy with only a procedural flaw, 60–80% is common. Does not apply to discrimination/whistleblowing loss.

Injury-to-feelings band (discrimination / whistleblowing) Dismissal date (optional)

From 1 January 2027 the cap on the unfair-dismissal compensatory award is removed.

Optional: show expected value at win probability

100%

At 100% this is off. Lower it to weight the tribunal figure by your chance of winning.

If you pursued it — your costs

Tribunals are a "no-costs" jurisdiction: each side normally pays its own legal bills, so even if you win you usually don't get your fees back. Settlement agreements, by contrast, almost always include an employer contribution to your legal advice — so costs sit mainly on the litigation side. These are rough public-source figures; edit them.

How would you fund a claim?

Estimated total legal fees to a hearing (incl. VAT)

Straightforward unfair-dismissal claims commonly run ~£5,000–£20,000; discrimination or whistleblowing often £30,000–£50,000+ once counsel is involved. You pay this win or lose.

Other costs — expert/medical reports, travel (optional)

There's currently no tribunal issue fee (a claimant fee has been floated but isn't in force, May 2026).

Settle now vs go to tribunal

Both figures are what you'd actually keep — net of tax, and (for tribunal) net of your legal costs too.

Settle now

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Go to tribunal if you win

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Routes that apply to you

Each card is a possible source of leverage, valued net of tax. These are rough ranges, not promises.

Where you sit — the leverage table

Greyed rows don't apply to your answers. Highlighted rows are your live leverage.

Component	£30k slice?	NIC?	Net to you

Realistic net range at tribunal — after tax and your costs:

What moves this number

⏱ Time limits are short. A tribunal claim generally requires you to start ACAS Early Conciliation and file within about 3 months less one day of the dismissal. Signing a settlement waives all of these claims. Don't let a deadline pass while you decide.

Free, impartial help:

ACAS helpline — 0300 123 1100 (Mon–Fri) · acas.org.uk
Citizens Advice — citizensadvice.org.uk
An employment solicitor — many offer a free first chat.

This is not legal or tax advice. It's an estimate based on the figures below, to help you ask better questions. Real awards depend on evidence, pension and benefit losses, and tribunal discretion. It never tells you to accept or reject anything — that's your decision, ideally with advice from an employment solicitor, ACAS or Citizens Advice.

How this is calculated

The idea

Different parts of an exit are taxed differently, so gross figures mislead. Everything here is put on a net footing, and your offer is compared with the net of a realistic tribunal outcome — before you weigh up risk, cost and delay (which favour settling).

Key rules used

One £30,000 tax-free slice is shared across genuine termination payments (ex-gratia settlement, compensatory award, protective award, basic award) — never counted twice.
PILON and the protective award carry employee National Insurance; most other components don't.
Income tax is stacked on your other income, so it automatically captures the 60% effective band (£100k–£125,140 personal-allowance taper) and the 45% additional rate.
Loss of earnings uses your net weekly pay over your expected time to re-employment.
Polkey reduces an unfair-dismissal award by the chance you'd have been dismissed anyway. Mitigation is built into the re-employment weeks. Discrimination/whistleblowing loss is uncapped.

Constants (claims presented on/after 6 April 2026)

Source basis: Employment Rights (Increase of Limits) Order 2026; Ninth Addendum to the Presidential Guidance on Vento bands; standard ITEPA termination-payment rules. Review every April.

Limitations

Estimates only — not a valuation of your specific claim.
Loss is simplified to earnings; it ignores pension and benefit loss, which can be large.
Protective-award sizing is a rule of thumb; tribunals assess seriousness case by case.
Injury-to-feelings tax treatment is genuinely fact-sensitive — treated here as tax-free, but flag it with an adviser.
England, Wales & Scotland only (not Northern Ireland).

Built as a sanity-check tool. 100% in your browser — no servers, no accounts, no analytics. Figures dated 6 April 2026.