Age Discrimination – the statistics to March 2012

The statistics from the Ministry of Justice relating to the Employment Tribunals and Employment Appeal Tribunals are available to download from this link.  These are the courts dealing with workplace discrimination claims.

When we reported these last year, the number of age discrimination claims had risen for the second year.

For the year ending March 2012, however, the number of age discrimination claims fell from 6,800 in the previous year to 3,700. This is a reduction of 45%. Claims overall are down by 15%.

What’s also interesting is what happens to age discrimination claims once brought. 43% are withdrawn, 31% achieve an ACAS-conciliated settlement, and only 1% are successful with an additional 1% getting a default judgment. The rest are unsuccessful (whether at a preliminary stage or at a full hearing).

The maximum awarded in an age discrimination claim is £144,100, lower than the maximum in race and disability discrimination claims, but still a substantial sum. The median award for age claims is £6,065.

It’d be really interesting to know what actually happens in the settlements and when the claims are withdrawn since, between them, they represent the majority of outcomes.