FND and work
Understand the workplace route and choose the next conversation.
FND is not automatically a legal disability
Protection depends on the condition's actual substantial and long-term effects under the law that applies. Fluctuating or recurring effects can matter.
What to do next: Describe the work barrier and the effect over time rather than relying on the diagnosis name alone.
Important limit: Only a court or tribunal can finally determine disputed disability status. This page cannot decide it.
Miss L Hayward v Medivet Group Ltd, case 3200671/2018
Outcome: At a preliminary hearing the claimant was found to satisfy the Equality Act disability definition at the relevant time.
Safe lesson: Fluctuating effects can be assessed under the statutory disability definition; the analysis concerns the person's actual effects, not an automatic rule for an FND diagnosis.
Limits: First-instance, fact-specific and non-binding. It was a disability-status determination, not a ruling that every person with FND is disabled or that the substantive discrimination claims succeeded.
Status: First-instance, fact-specific and non-binding.
Read the official judgment
Mr C Thompson v Ainscough Ltd, case 2411006/2023
Outcome: The preliminary issue was decided in favour of disability status at the relevant time despite the formal diagnosis being obtained later.
Safe lesson: A later diagnosis does not by itself prevent a tribunal from finding that the statutory effects existed at the relevant earlier time; evidence of effects still matters.
Limits: First-instance, fact-specific and non-binding. This preliminary decision did not determine the merits or final outcome of all substantive discrimination complaints.
Status: First-instance, fact-specific and non-binding.
Read the official judgment
Sources and review information
Status: Owner released - source checked
Evidence check: Mapped to checked master-register claims
Jurisdiction: UK by nation
Last checked: 2026-07-15
Legal status: current
Review trigger: Recheck quarterly, immediately before release, and when an official source changes
Prepared by: Project editorial team
Owner release date: 2026-07-22
Independent review: Not independently reviewed
Corrections: Use the site correction route without including personal health information.
Last checked: 2026-07-15
Jurisdiction: UK by nation; Great Britain; Northern Ireland
Prepared by: Project editorial team
Owner release date: 2026-07-22
Independent review: Not independently reviewed
Correction route: Report changed or inaccurate information without including personal health information.
England, Wales and Scotland use the Equality Act framework
The Equality Act 2010 includes protection from disability discrimination and a duty to make reasonable adjustments when its conditions are met.
- Direct and indirect discrimination
- Discrimination arising from disability
- Reasonable adjustments
- Harassment and victimisation
What to do next: Use the Acas or Equality Advisory and Support Service route for a current individual problem.
Important limit: The type of claim, employer knowledge and reasonableness are fact-specific.
Sources and review information
Status: Owner released - source checked
Evidence check: Mapped to checked master-register claims
Jurisdiction: Great Britain
Last checked: 2026-07-15
Legal status: current
Review trigger: Recheck quarterly, immediately before release, and when an official source changes
Prepared by: Project editorial team
Owner release date: 2026-07-22
Independent review: Not independently reviewed
Corrections: Use the site correction route without including personal health information.
Northern Ireland uses a separate framework
Northern Ireland workplace disability rights arise under its Disability Discrimination Act framework rather than the Equality Act 2010.
What to do next: Use the Equality Commission for Northern Ireland and Labour Relations Agency routes.
Important limit: Do not use Great Britain tribunal or Acas instructions as if they were the Northern Ireland process.
Sources and review information
Status: Owner released - source checked
Evidence check: Mapped to checked master-register claims
Jurisdiction: Northern Ireland
Last checked: 2026-07-15
Legal status: current
Review trigger: Recheck quarterly, immediately before release, and when an official source changes
Prepared by: Project editorial team
Owner release date: 2026-07-22
Independent review: Not independently reviewed
Corrections: Use the site correction route without including personal health information.
Disclosure is a choice, but information can affect support
A person does not generally have to lead with a diagnosis. An employer normally needs enough information to understand a disadvantage, consider support or manage a real safety issue.
What to do next: Decide what functional information is needed for the conversation and keep a dated record.
Important limit: Disclosure, recruitment questions, employer knowledge and safety duties are legally fact-sensitive.
Mr R Neeves v BSH Home Appliances Ltd, case 3305177/2022
Outcome: The tribunal dismissed the disability-discrimination and unfair-dismissal complaints. Its findings included employer knowledge, but knowledge alone did not establish the substantive claims.
Safe lesson: Employer knowledge is only one element: a claimant must still establish the requirements of the particular cause of action, and an employer may still establish a defence or justification.
Limits: First-instance, fact-specific and non-binding. The unsuccessful result does not show that FND is outside disability law or that employer knowledge is unimportant; it reflects the tribunal's findings on the pleaded issues.
Status: First-instance, fact-specific and non-binding.
Read the official judgment
Sources and review information
Status: Owner released - source checked
Evidence check: Mapped to checked master-register claims
Jurisdiction: UK by nation
Last checked: 2026-07-15
Legal status: current
Review trigger: Recheck quarterly, immediately before release, and when an official source changes
Prepared by: Project editorial team
Owner release date: 2026-07-22
Independent review: Not independently reviewed
Corrections: Use the site correction route without including personal health information.
Choose a workplace route
Go to adjustments and support, absence and workplace problems, or the carefully caveated case examples.
- Adjustments and support
- Absence, capability and problems
- What FND employment decisions can and cannot show
What to do next: Open the route that matches the present issue.
Important limit: Case examples illustrate questions to ask; they do not predict an outcome.
Sources and review information
Status: Owner released - source checked
Evidence check: Mapped to checked master-register claims
Jurisdiction: UK by nation
Last checked: 2026-07-15
Review trigger: Recheck quarterly, immediately before release, and when an official source changes
Prepared by: Project editorial team
Owner release date: 2026-07-22
Independent review: Not independently reviewed
Corrections: Use the site correction route without including personal health information.