The average award for age discrimination claims has risen by nearly £20,000 since last year, bringing the average to nearly three times that in 2009/10, according to Tribunal Service statistics.

Successful age discrimination cases resulted in an average payout of £30,289 for the year ending 31 March 2011, the highest average discrimination award, followed by an average payout of £14,137 for disability discrimination.

This follows statistics released by the Tribunal Service in June, which showed that the number of age discrimination claims accepted by employment tribunals in 2010/11 had risen by nearly one-third (30.8%) to 6,800 and that age discrimination had overtaken race discrimination to become the third most frequent type of discrimination claim.

Sex and disability discrimination cases saw the second and third biggest average payouts and were also the most common types of discrimination claims accepted by employment tribunals.

The highest award in a discrimination case this year was a £289,167 payout for sex discrimination.

Overall, the number of claims received by employment tribunals fell by 8% since last year, with a 15% fall in single claims and a 4% fall in multiple claims. However, this year's figure remains up 44% on the figures for 2008/09.

Article from Personnel Today