Most workers who win an employment tribunal award never receive the money they are owed, new figures suggest.
According to a BBC investigation, more than 5,000 people who used the government’s enforcement scheme since its launch have not been paid. The data, obtained through a Freedom of Information request, show that just over 7,000 claimants applied to the Employment Tribunal Penalty Enforcement and Naming Scheme. But fewer than 25 percent received their award.
Introduced in 2016, the scheme allows the government to issue penalty notices to employers who fail to pay tribunal awards within 28 days. Since then, more than 4,800 penalties have been issued, with a combined value of over £9 million. But only 109 have been recorded as paid. Despite nearly 4,000 applications to have non-paying employers named online, the government has yet to publicly identify a single one.
Awards go unpaid even after enforcement attempts
One claimant, Nadine Fallone, was awarded nearly £65,000 by an employment tribunal after it ruled she had been unfairly dismissed and treated detrimentally while managing a bar operated by London firm Peckham Levels Ltd. She had reported staff drug use at the venue. In the ruling, she was awarded £28,750 for detrimental treatment, £35,250 for unfair dismissal and a compensatory sum of £915.
Fallone told the BBC the tribunal process was “probably the worst experience of my life”. The case went to a full hearing after settlement talks failed, but weeks after the judgment, the company went into administration. She has yet to receive any of the money.
Preston Benson, the company’s former director, said in a statement that the impact of the case on Fallone was “deeply regrettable”, but added that he had “no legal ability” to pay the award once the firm was in administration. He remains a director of 12 other businesses.
‘The life I was making I no longer have’
Rosie Davies, another claimant, was awarded £6,000 in unpaid wages and breach of contract after losing her job in the motorsports industry. Eighteen months on, she said she was “still waiting for a penny of that money”.
Davies used both the government scheme and the High Court enforcement route. Officers were sent to the home of her former employer, Christian Elvidge, who runs Motorflix Ltd, a social media agency. Davies had been hired by a different company under his control, Motorflix Media Ltd, where she was the only employee.
After Elvidge declared that Motorflix Media Ltd had no assets, enforcement action ended. The company remains registered but has not submitted accounts. Davies said the financial stress forced her to move back in with her mother. She applied to have the employer named online, but nothing came of it. Speaking to the BBC, she said she now wishes she “hadn’t bothered” with the tribunal system.
“I thought the justice system would step in and make sure I received that money,” she said.
Elvidge did not respond to a request for comment.
System ‘completely broken’
The government scheme was created after a 2013 survey found that more than a third of tribunal claimants had not received any payment. The then-Conservative government introduced penalties for non-payment, and in 2018 added the power to name employers online.
Employment disputes remain common. According to the Ministry of Justice, there were 491,000 open employment tribunal claims in March 2025. Most are resolved before a hearing, but delays and enforcement issues persist.
Citizens Advice told the BBC the tribunal system was “completely broken”. Its policy manager, Emer Sheehy, said it was “frankly scandalous” that awards often go unpaid despite claimants following the correct process.
Tina McKenzie, policy director at the Federation of Small Businesses, said the most common reason awards go unpaid was company insolvency. She said it had become more frequent in recent years, and called for reforms, including a central fund to cover awards when businesses collapse.
She added that with 500,000 businesses closing over the last five years, “it’s not OK” that some claimants are left unpaid, but warned that waiting times are already over a year and could worsen under current government proposals.
A spokesperson for the Department for Business and Trade told the BBC that the enforcement scheme was introduced by a previous government but acknowledged it needed improvement. They said strengthening enforcement of unpaid awards would form part of the government’s forthcoming Plan for Change.
