“There are lies, damned lies and statistics,” Mark Twain famously ranted, referring to the beguiling character of figures. What may seem as self-evident truths deduced from a few hard statistical facts can turn out to be wide of the mark. Reality can be a complicated creature.

Figures published last week by the Employment Tribunals Service show that the number of age discrimination claims increased by more than a third - 37 per cent - over the past year. In total, 5,200 applications for age discrimination were registered in the period. Still a long way down though on the predicted figure of 8,000 a year advanced by the Department for Trade and Industry when the Age Regulations were being debated back in 2006.

The most obvious inference would be that age discrimination is on the increase – after all, a sudden cloud of billowing smoke ought to suggest rampaging fire is taking hold. 

This would be a rash conclusion however. A number of factors could explain the increase in age discrimination claims, not necessarily that discrimination is increasing per se. 

For a start, the tribunal service itself attributes a major portion of the rise to a big increase in multiple issue claims. In other words, an applicant, instead of simply bringing a claim for unfair dismissal, may decide to lodge a claim for unfair dismissal and age discrimination. Sometimes multiple issues – three, four or more - are embraced within a single claim.

Last year (April 08 to March 09) 88,700 multiple claims were accepted; this year, this it has mushroomed to 164,800. In contrast, 71,300 claims were in single issues.

If the facts are reasonably clear, sensible people settle up. The tribunal becomes the ghost at the bargaining table where a deal is hammered out. It is always a good strategy for the applicant to pile up the anti on the table before the game of poker starts.

These realities are reflected in the breakdown of how age discrimination claims were dealt with by tribunals. 3,900 age claims were disposed of between April 2009 and March 2010.  Of these, 1,500 (39 per cent) were withdrawn. 

In some cases claimants were probably given explanations, or reason to reconsider their formal application. Grievances may have been settled once the depth of feeling had been registered. Most may have gone away happy – or perhaps none of them did so. We just don’t know. So the statistics only tell half the story and leave us pondering on the rest of it.

A further 1,500 applications resulted in Acas-conciliated settlements. Again, we know nothing about them either. They probably include a range between vindication and climb down for the individuals concerned. 

Then we have the failures: 270 applications (7 per cent) struck out at the hearing. 110 (3 per cent) were dismissed at a preliminary hearing, perhaps because the claim fell outside the scope of the legislation, at any rate because it had no hope of success). 330 were unsuccessful at a full hearing.

Only 95 claims were successful at a hearing. But here is a strange thing: a mere 28 of these resulted in awards of compensation. Actually, this might not be quite so bad as it looks. Whilst for some there was an essentially Pyrrhic victory in which the winner had nothing to show for a lot of time and effort. 

But in other cases the tribunal may simply have made an award of liability and left the parties to agree the compensation. (In fact, this is quite common.) So, in such cases we would not know what the level of compensation was that successful claimant receives.

In age discrimination cases where the tribunal did make an award of compensation, the median award was £5,868. The average was £10,931 – reflecting the fact that there were a few much larger awards. The maximum award was £48,710 but in 10 of the 28 awards made, the level was less than £5,000.

It seems likely that these modest levels of compensation make it relatively easy for employers to offer settlements, particularly bearing in mind that the estimated average price of defending claims was £9,000 for employers in 2008 – it will have gone up by now of course.

There can be no doubt that the 5,200 claims brought up to March this year represent only the tiniest ice crystal on the hidden iceberg of age discrimination in the workplace. But we should remember too that the minuscule number of successful claims is an even tinier reflection of the amount of discrimination taking place and understates too the action taken against age discrimination by individuals.

If more people brought claims when they were needlessly and conspicuously rejected for jobs, for example, there would probably be many more failures reported in the Employment Tribunal figures simply for want of convincing evidence. There would be some successes too but there need to be more if people are to people are to realise they can defend their rights in this way.

The willingness or unwillingness of people to enforce their rights certainly has an impact in the longer term. Those who suffer age discrimination should not be put off trying by these tiny success rates.  They should know that there is more success than there might appear but like every sort of case that comes before tribunals there is a story of support and advice that has influenced those bringing claims in the first instance. 

Over coming years we might well see more claims in the statistics but hopefully less discrimination in the workplace. One outcome would feed the other, but the casual observer might find it difficult to appreciate what is going on.

In the meantime, we need more research to tell us what is happening to age discrimination at work. We really can’t take it all at face value.