NHS take-home pay calculator
Pick your band, nation and pay point. The calculator applies the 2026/27 UK or Scottish income tax bands, Class 1 National Insurance, the NHS Pension Scheme 2015 contribution tier and any student loan plan you select.
Your details
Standard full-time NHS week is 37.5 hours.
Take-home pay
£2,040 a month
£24,483 a year, £470 a week
- Gross salary
- £32,073
- Basic £32,073
- Income tax
- £3,368
- UK bands
- National Insurance
- £1,560
- Class 1 (8% then 2%)
- NHS pension
- £2,662
- 8.3% tier
Based on Pay scales for 2026/27 — NHS Employers. The figure ignores salary sacrifice arrangements, marriage allowance, court orders and union dues.
What the figure includes
The take-home figure on this page reflects six things working together: your gross pay from the selected band and step, UK or Scottish income tax (chosen by nation), Class 1 employee National Insurance, your tiered NHS Pension Scheme contribution, the personal allowance taper if you earn above £100,000, and any student loan plan you select.
For English Trusts, the calculator also adds the High Cost Area Supplement if you pick a London weighting zone. The supplement is the higher of two values, the zone percentage applied to your basic salary, or the zone minimum, capped at the zone maximum. The supplement is pensionable and subject to income tax and NI in the usual way.
The student loan section handles all five active plans, including Plan 5 for new undergraduates in England since August 2023. Multiple plans can apply at once: a postgraduate loan runs alongside whichever undergraduate plan you have, with its own £21,000 threshold and 6% rate.
What it does not include
Salary sacrifice schemes (cycle to work, lease cars, holiday purchase) are not modelled. If you're enrolled in any of these, your real take-home pay will be lower than the figure shown, because the sacrifice amount reduces gross pay before tax and NI are calculated.
Unsocial hours pay (the Section 2 enhancements for nights, weekends and bank holidays) isn't included either. The premium varies with your roster from month to month, so it can't be rolled into an annual calculation. For a Band 5 ward nurse working regular nights, the enhancement can add 20% to 30% to monthly take-home.
The figure also ignores marriage allowance, blind person's allowance, court orders, union dues and other voluntary deductions. Bank and agency hourly rates are different again: those are paid as gross hourly amounts with PAYE applied per shift, so an annual salary calculator can't model them accurately.
How the maths actually works
The calculator runs the same pipeline as a payslip, in a specific order. Step one: take the basic salary from your band and pay point. If you've selected a London weighting zone, add the HCAS supplement to get gross annual pay. Step two: work out your NHS pension contribution by looking up your gross pay in the tiered table. NHS pension is a net pay arrangement, so the contribution is deducted from gross before income tax is calculated.
Step three: calculate income tax. Start by working out your effective personal allowance (£12,570 for most people, tapered down by £1 for every £2 of adjusted net income above £100,000). The remaining taxable pay (gross minus pension minus personal allowance) is then taxed band by band, using the UK or Scottish rates depending on the nation you selected.
Step four: calculate National Insurance on the gross figure before pension. Class 1 main rate is 8% between £12,570 and £50,270, then 2% above. NI doesn't get the pension relief that income tax does, which is why your NI bill is the same regardless of how much you pay into the pension.
Step five: apply any student loan repayment to the gross figure (above the threshold for your plan). Step six: take-home is the gross figure minus income tax, NI, pension and student loan combined. Divide by 12 for monthly, by 52.143 for weekly.
Common questions
- Does this calculator handle the NHS Pension Scheme properly?
- Yes. The NHS Pension Scheme 2015 uses tiered contributions: your pensionable pay determines your contribution rate, from 5.2% at the bottom to 12.5% at the top. The calculator picks the right tier for your salary automatically. NHS pension is a 'net pay' arrangement, which means the contribution is deducted from your gross pay before income tax is calculated. National Insurance is still calculated on the full gross figure, so the pension doesn't reduce NI.
- Why does Scotland show a different income tax figure for the same salary?
- Scotland sets its own income tax bands. Where rUK has three rates (basic 20%, higher 40%, additional 45%), Scotland has six (starter 19%, basic 20%, intermediate 21%, higher 42%, advanced 45%, top 48%). The Scottish higher rate also kicks in at £43,663 versus rUK's £50,270. For most Band 5 to Band 7 NHS staff, this means slightly more income tax in Scotland than for the same gross salary in England. The Scottish gross pay is higher to start with, so take-home is still meaningfully better than England in absolute cash terms.
- What about salary sacrifice and lease car schemes?
- The calculator doesn't model salary sacrifice. If you're enrolled in a Trust cycle-to-work scheme, an NHS car lease, or holiday purchase, your taxable pay is reduced by the sacrifice amount before tax, NI and pension are calculated. The headline take-home figure here is therefore higher than what you'd see on a payslip if you have salary sacrifice in place. As a rule of thumb, sacrifice saves you around 32% of the sacrifice value through tax and NI relief.
- Does the calculator include unsocial hours pay?
- No. Unsocial hours premia (the Section 2 enhancements that apply to nights, weekends and bank holidays) depend on your specific roster from month to month, so they can't be folded into an annual salary calculator. For a Band 5 ward nurse working regular nights, unsocial hours pay typically adds 20% to 30% to total earnings. See the unsocial hours page for the full rate table by band.
- How accurate is the take-home figure compared to my actual payslip?
- Within pennies, assuming you're on the standard tax code (1257L) with no salary sacrifice, no marriage allowance and no special deductions. If you have any of those, the payslip will differ. The most common reason a take-home figure looks 'wrong' to a real NHS worker is that they're already paying salary sacrifice for a car or cycle scheme, which reduces gross pay before any of the standard deductions apply.
- What's a Plan 5 student loan and do I need it?
- Plan 5 applies to anyone who started a UK undergraduate course in England on or after 1 August 2023. It has the lowest repayment threshold (£25,000) and runs for 40 years from the April after you finish your course. Most newly qualified Band 5 NHS staff who completed a nursing or AHP degree in England from September 2023 onwards will be on Plan 5. Older NHS staff who studied in England between 2012 and 2023 are usually on Plan 2 (threshold £28,470). Pre-2012 students are on Plan 1 (£26,065). Scottish students get Plan 4 (£32,745). Postgraduate loans run alongside whichever undergraduate plan you have, with their own £21,000 threshold and 6% rate.