Workers affected 2023/24
776,000
stress, depression, anxiety
Physical injury needed?
No
psychiatric diagnosis only
Can you lose your job?
No
ERA 1996 s.100
Upfront cost
£0
No Win No Fee basis
Written by
Azhar Ali
Personal Injury Solicitor at Claim Time Solicitors, Birmingham. Handling personal injury and child injury claims across England and Wales on a No Win No Fee basis.
This guide is reviewed against current UK statute including the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, the Employment Rights Act 1996, and SRA standards.
Yes, you can make a psychological injury at work claim if your employer’s negligence caused a diagnosed mental health condition such as stress, anxiety, depression, or PTSD. You do not need a physical injury. The claim goes against your employer’s liability insurance, not them personally. In 2023/24, nearly 776,000 UK workers were living with work-related stress, depression, or anxiety. Most psychological injury at work claims are handled on a No Win No Fee basis.
Workplace psychological injury is not a niche issue. The HSE reports that stress, depression, and anxiety accounted for nearly 776,000 cases of work-related illness in 2023/24, making it the single largest category of workplace health problem in the UK. These conditions led to 16.4 million lost working days in that year alone.
Despite the scale of the problem, most people who suffer a psychological injury at work never make a claim. Some do not know they can. Some fear losing their job. Some assume that because their injury is not visible, it is not claimable. All three assumptions are wrong. This guide explains when a psychological injury at work claim is valid, what the legal test is, what evidence you need, what compensation looks like, and how job protection works.
Can I claim for a psychological injury at work?
Your employer owed you a duty of care to protect your mental health at work. They breached that duty through negligence. And that breach caused a diagnosed psychiatric condition. If all three are present, you have the basis of a psychological injury at work claim.
The Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 requires employers to protect the health, safety, and welfare of their employees. “Health” includes mental health. An employer who exposes workers to unmanageable stress, fails to address bullying, ignores reports of harassment, or creates conditions that foreseeably cause psychiatric harm has breached their statutory duty.
A psychological injury at work claim does not require a physical injury. Many successful claims arise from chronic workplace stress, bullying campaigns, traumatic incidents witnessed at work, or systematic management failures that the employer knew about and did not address. The claim requires a diagnosed psychiatric condition, a medical report linking it to the workplace, and evidence that the employer’s breach caused the harm.
What counts as a psychological injury at work?
- Work-related stress that has progressed beyond normal workplace pressure into a diagnosed condition affecting daily functioning
- Anxiety disorders including generalised anxiety, panic disorder, and social anxiety triggered or worsened by workplace conditions
- Depression caused by sustained workplace pressure, bullying, isolation, or the aftermath of a traumatic incident
- Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) from witnessing a serious accident, assault, or death at work
- Adjustment disorder following a significant change in working conditions, demotion, or workplace conflict
- Burnout with clinical diagnosis where sustained overwork has caused a diagnosable psychiatric condition, not simply tiredness
The key distinction is between workplace dissatisfaction and a diagnosable psychiatric condition. Being unhappy at work is not a basis for a claim. Having a clinically diagnosed condition caused by your employer’s breach of duty is. A GP, psychiatrist, or clinical psychologist provides the diagnosis that forms the medical evidence for a psychological injury at work claim.
The Hatton test: when is a workplace psychological injury foreseeable?
Hatton v Sutherland [2002] established the legal framework for workplace stress claims. The core principle: an employer is only liable for psychiatric injury if a reasonable employer would have foreseen that the particular employee was at risk of developing a psychiatric condition because of the work they were being asked to do.
The Hatton test means the employer is not expected to assume every employee is vulnerable. The question is whether there were signs that this specific employee was at risk, and whether the employer should have acted on those signs.
Indicators include
- The employee told the employer they were struggling
- the workload was objectively unreasonable
- the employee had been off sick with stress-related symptoms
- the employer knew the role carried a heightened risk of psychiatric harm.
If the employer knew or ought to have known about the risk and failed to take reasonable steps to address it, the Hatton test is satisfied and the psychological injury at work claim can proceed.
If the employer had no reason to foresee the harm, the claim is more difficult to establish. This is why documenting your concerns in writing to your employer, HR, or occupational health is so important: it creates the evidence that the risk was known.
If you are experiencing work-related stress or mental health symptoms, put your concerns in writing to your manager or HR. An email, a letter, a formal grievance. This creates a documented record that your employer was on notice. If they fail to act after being put on notice, the foreseeability element of a psychological injury at work claim is significantly strengthened.
Common causes of workplace psychological injury
| Cause | Examples of employer breach |
|---|---|
| Excessive workload | Sustained unreasonable hours, understaffing, no breaks, and targets impossible to meet safely. |
| Bullying and harassment | Verbal abuse, public humiliation, isolation, or persistent undermining by managers or colleagues. |
| Traumatic incident | Witnessing a serious accident, assault, death or threat of violence at work without adequate support. |
| Failure to provide support | No referral to occupational health, no reasonable adjustments, or ignoring requests for help. |
| Discrimination | Race, sex, disability, age or other protected characteristic discrimination causing psychiatric harm. |
| Whistleblowing retaliation | Demotion, exclusion or harassment following a protected disclosure. |
| Return-to-work mismanagement | Forcing an employee to return too early after stress-related absence without a phased return or reasonable adjustments. |
What evidence do you need for a psychological injury at work claim?
- Medical diagnosis. A GP, psychiatrist, or clinical psychologist must diagnose a recognised psychiatric condition and link it to the workplace. An independent medical expert report is usually obtained as part of the claim process.
- Written complaints or grievances. Emails, letters, or formal grievances sent to your employer, HR, or occupational health documenting your concerns. These establish that the employer was put on notice.
- Workplace records. Incident reports, accident book entries, risk assessments (or absence of risk assessments), sickness absence records, occupational health referrals, and performance management documentation.
- Witness evidence. Colleagues who witnessed the bullying, excessive pressure, or traumatic incident. Their statements support your account independently.
- Personal records. Your own contemporaneous notes of what happened, when, who was involved, and what was said. Keep dates, times, and direct quotes where possible.
- Financial loss records. Payslips for lost earnings, receipts for private therapy or counselling, medication costs, travel to medical appointments.
What is the average payout for stress at work?
There is no meaningful average payout for stress at work, and any site quoting one is guessing. Compensation is built from two separate parts: general damages set by the severity band your diagnosis falls into, and special damages covering every financial loss you can evidence. In stress claims the second part is usually the larger of the two.
People search for an average because they want a rough idea of whether a claim is worth pursuing. That is entirely reasonable, but an average across all stress at work claims would be close to useless, because the range runs from a few thousand pounds for a condition that resolved in months, to six figures where someone could not return to their profession.
What is genuinely useful is understanding how the figure is put together, because that tells you which parts of your own situation matter.
The two components of any stress at work payout
What is genuinely useful is understanding how the figure is put together, because that tells you which parts of your own situation matter.
How much compensation for a psychological injury at work?
Compensation in a psychological injury at work claim covers general damages for the psychiatric condition (assessed under the JCG 17th edition, April 2024) plus special damages for all financial losses.
| Component | What it covers | How it is set |
|---|---|---|
| General damages | The psychiatric injury itself: pain, suffering and loss of amenity. | The Judicial College Guidelines severity band your medical evidence supports. |
| Past loss of earnings | Net pay lost from the onset of the condition to settlement. | Payslips. Calculated precisely, not estimated. |
| Future loss of earnings | Reduced earning capacity where you cannot return to the same role or hours. | Expert evidence on prognosis and employability. |
| Treatment costs | Private therapy, counselling, psychiatric input and medication. | Invoices and a recommended future treatment plan. |
| Other losses | Travel to appointments, care and assistance, and retraining costs. | Receipts and supporting evidence. |
The reason the second component dominates in stress claims is straightforward. Psychiatric conditions frequently stop someone working for months, sometimes permanently, and in a way that a healed physical injury does not. A person earning a modest salary who is off work for a year has already accrued a past loss of earnings figure that can exceed the general damages for their injury.
Most published averages are either taken from a different jurisdiction, drawn from employment tribunal awards rather than personal injury claims, or simply invented. The two routes are governed by different guidelines and produce very different numbers, which is covered in the next section. Treat any single headline figure with suspicion, including on this page. What matters is your diagnosis, your prognosis and your evidenced losses.
What moves the figure up or down
- Duration and prognosis. A condition expected to resolve within a year sits in a very different band from one with a guarded long-term outlook. This is the single biggest driver of general damages.
- Whether you returned to work. A permanent inability to do your previous job converts the claim from one dominated by general damages into one dominated by future loss of earnings.
- Quality of the medical evidence. A formal diagnosis from a psychiatrist carries more weight than a GP note recording “stress”. The diagnosis determines the band.
- Documented treatment. Engagement with therapy or medication supports both the severity of the condition and the treatment costs claimed.
- Pre-existing conditions. Where a psychiatric condition already existed, the claim covers the deterioration the employer caused, not the underlying condition.
- Contributory factors. Where matters outside work contributed, the expert is asked to apportion. This reduces rather than defeats the claim.
The practical consequence is that two people with the same diagnosis can receive very different sums. The one who has payslips, a psychiatric report, a treatment record and evidence of a failed return to work has a documented claim. The one who has a GP note and a recollection has a much weaker one.
Personal injury claim or employment tribunal?
Stress at work can be pursued through two entirely separate routes with different tests, different deadlines and different compensation guidelines. Much of the confusion about average payouts comes from figures being quoted from one route and applied to the other.
A personal injury claim is a civil claim against your employer for negligence. It requires a diagnosed psychiatric injury, proof that the employer breached their duty of care, and proof that the breach caused the injury. General damages are assessed under the Judicial College Guidelines. The time limit is three years.
An employment tribunal claim is a different animal. Where stress arises from discrimination, harassment or a protected disclosure, a tribunal can award compensation for injury to feelings, assessed not under the JCG but under the Vento bands. The time limit is usually three months less one day, which is dramatically shorter and is the deadline people most often miss
| Band | Range | Typically applies to |
|---|---|---|
| Lower band | £1,300 to £12,600 | Less serious cases, including isolated or one-off acts. |
| Middle band | £12,600 to £37,700 | Serious cases not meriting an upper band award, including repeated or sustained treatment. |
| Upper band | £37,700 to £62,900 | The most serious cases, such as a prolonged campaign of discriminatory conduct. |
| Exceptional | Above £62,900 | Reserved for the most exceptional cases. |
Vento bands from the Ninth Addendum to the Presidential Guidance, issued 30 March 2026, applying to claims presented on or after 6 April 2026. Reviewed annually against the Retail Prices Index. Injury to feelings is assessed separately from any award for financial loss.
| Personal injury claim | Employment tribunal | |
|---|---|---|
| What you must show | Diagnosed psychiatric injury, breach of duty, causation | Discrimination, harassment, or detriment for a protected reason |
| Diagnosis required? | Yes, always | Not necessarily for injury to feelings |
| Compensation guideline | Judicial College Guidelines | Vento bands, for injury to feelings |
| Time limit | 3 years from injury or date of knowledge | Usually 3 months less one day |
| Who pays | Employers' liability insurer | The employer |
| Decided by | Negotiation between solicitors, or the civil courts | Employment tribunal |
The tribunal time limit of three months less one day runs far ahead of the three-year personal injury deadline. Someone who spends six months deciding whether to act may still have a viable personal injury claim while the tribunal route has already closed. If discrimination, harassment or whistleblowing is any part of what happened, take advice early rather than waiting to see whether your health improves.
If your employer reduces your hours, changes your role, gives unexplained negative performance reviews, excludes you from meetings, or pressures you to withdraw the psychological injury at work claim, document everything. Dates, times, what was said, who was present. A pattern of this behaviour may constitute unlawful detriment, and your solicitor needs to know about it immediately.
Will I lose my job if I make a psychological injury at work claim?
Dismissing or penalising an employee for pursuing a legitimate personal injury claim is automatically unfair dismissal under the Employment Rights Act 1996, section 100. This applies from day one of employment. The claim goes against employer’s liability insurance, not your employer personally.
If your employer reduces your hours, changes your role, gives unexplained negative performance reviews, excludes you from meetings, or pressures you to withdraw the psychological injury at work claim, document everything. Dates, times, what was said, who was present. A pattern of this behaviour may constitute unlawful detriment, and your solicitor needs to know about it immediately.
How long do I have to make a psychological injury at work claim?
Three years from the date the psychological injury occurred, or from the date you first became aware your condition was caused by the workplace (date of knowledge). Workplace psychological injuries often develop gradually, and the connection to work may not be recognised until a medical professional identifies it.
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Summary
A psychological injury at work claim is an employer liability claim when workplace conditions or management failures cause a diagnosed psychiatric condition. Nearly 776,000 UK workers suffered from work-related stress, depression, or anxiety in 2023/24. The Hatton v Sutherland test requires that the employer knew or ought to have known the particular employee was at risk and failed to act. The claim goes against employer’s liability insurance, and the Employment Rights Act 1996 protects employees from dismissal for claiming.
Compensation covers general damages for the psychiatric condition under the JCG 17th edition (ranging from £1,730 for less severe to £152,890 for severe) plus special damages for lost earnings, therapy, medication, and other financial losses. No physical injury is required. The time limit is three years from the injury or date of knowledge.
Key takeaways
- 776,000 workers suffered work-related stress, depression, or anxiety in 2023/24, the largest category of workplace illness.
- You do not need a physical injury to make a psychological injury at work claim. A diagnosed psychiatric condition is sufficient.
- The Hatton test requires that the employer knew or should have known the employee was at risk. Put your concerns in writing to create the evidence trail.
- Common causes: excessive workload, bullying, harassment, traumatic incidents, discrimination, whistleblowing retaliation, return-to-work mismanagement.
- JCG compensation ranges: £1,730 to £152,890 for general damages depending on severity. Special damages are additional.
- You cannot lose your job for claiming. Dismissal is automatically unfair under ERA 1996 s.100 from day one.
- The claim goes against insurance, not your employer personally.
- Document everything in writing: emails, grievances, and complaints create the foreseeability evidence the claim needs.
- Three-year time limit from injury or date of knowledge.
Sources & References
- Health and Safety Executive (HSE) : Official workplace health and safety statistics for Great Britain, including 776,000 workers suffering work-related stress, depression or anxiety, 16.4 million working days lost, and 1.7 million total work-related illness cases in 2023/24.
- Hatton v Sutherland [2002] EWCA Civ 76 : Court of Appeal judgment establishing the legal test for foreseeability in workplace stress and psychiatric injury claims.
- Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 : Places a duty on employers to protect the health, safety and welfare of employees, including risks to mental health where reasonably foreseeable.
- Employment Rights Act 1996, section 100 : Protects employees from automatic unfair dismissal where health and safety concerns are raised or appropriate action is taken in response to serious workplace risks.
- Limitation Act 1980, section 11 : Establishes the standard three-year limitation period for personal injury claims, including claims for psychological injury at work.
- Limitation Act 1980, section 14 : Defines the "date of knowledge" used to determine when the limitation period begins where the injury or its cause was not immediately apparent.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I claim for a psychological injury at work?
How much compensation for a psychological injury at work?
What is the Hatton test?
Will I lose my job if I claim?
No. Dismissal for claiming is automatically unfair under ERA 1996, s.100, from day one. The claim goes against insurance, not your employer. Document any retaliatory behaviour and report it to your solicitor.
Do I need a physical injury to claim?
No. A diagnosed psychiatric condition caused by the workplace is sufficient. Many successful psychological injury at work claims involve no physical injury at all.
How long do I have to claim?
Three years from the injury or from the date of knowledge (when you first recognised the condition was caused by work). Workplace psychological injuries develop gradually, so the date of knowledge is often later than the employer’s breach.
Glossary of Key Terms
Disclaimer: The information on this page is for general guidance only and does not constitute legal advice. Compensation outcomes vary by individual case and depend on the specific facts and evidence. Claim Time Solicitors is authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (ID No. 444171) and accredited by The Law Society . No Win No Fee refers to a Conditional Fee Agreement; the solicitor’s success fee is capped at 25% of compensation recovered. Terms apply.
