Plan NHS pension contribution impact on salary, taxable pay, monthly take-home pay, and Agenda for Change bands.
The NHS pension contribution rate is not a choice: it is set by a tier that follows from your pensionable pay, so a pay award or a move up a step point can move you into a higher tier and change the rate on all of it. Contributions are taken from pay before Income Tax is worked out, so the cost to your take-home pay is smaller than the headline contribution rate.
Enter your pensionable pay. The contribution tier follows from it, so the rate is not a choice.
The scheme takes the contribution before tax, so £2,905 goes into the pension but take-home only falls by £2,324. Your tier is set by pensionable pay, not by choice.
2026/27 rates, England, Wales and Northern Ireland, no student loan. Open the full calculator to change region, student loan or pension method.
Payslip showing different figures? The payslip checker works out what your pay and tax code should have produced and shows which assumption could explain the gap.
| Tax/source year | 2026/27 |
|---|---|
| Region | England/Wales/Northern Ireland |
| Tax code basis | 1257L where the page uses PAYE defaults |
| Pension basis | No pension deduction unless this example says otherwise |
| Student loan basis | No student loan unless selected in this example |
| What is not decided here | PayBreakdown does not decide payroll correctness, lender approval, benefit entitlement or employer compliance, and does not give regulated financial, mortgage, debt, tax, payroll or legal advice. |
|---|
The figures on this page are worked from NHS pension, using the values below. Open the calculator if your example salary differs.
The NHS pension contribution rate is set by pensionable pay. It is not a choice, and it is not the same as the percentage most workplace schemes quote.
Crossing a tier boundary applies the higher rate to the WHOLE of pensionable pay, not just to the part above the boundary. That is unlike Income Tax, and it is why a small rise can cost more in contributions than it adds in pay.
| Pensionable pay | Contribution rate |
|---|---|
| £0 to £13,259 | 5.2% |
| £13,260 to £28,854 | 6.5% |
| £28,855 to £35,155 | 8.3% |
| £35,156 to £52,778 | 9.8% |
| £52,779 to £67,668 | 10.7% |
| £67,669 and above | 12.5% |
The NHS scheme uses a net pay arrangement: the contribution comes out of pay BEFORE Income Tax is worked out. So a contribution does not cost its full face value in take-home.
A basic-rate taxpayer paying £100 into the scheme sees take-home fall by £80, because that money was never taxed. A higher-rate taxpayer sees it fall by £60. The relief is automatic and there is nothing to claim.
It also means the pension reduces taxable pay, which can matter at a threshold — the personal allowance taper, the high income child benefit charge, or a student loan repayment band.
This estimate is worked out on £35,000 annual gross. Change any of those and the take-home figure moves; pension method and student loan plan usually move it most. A payslip can differ from any calculator because payroll works pay period by pay period, so a tax-code change, a bonus, arrears or a refund can land in one month and not the next. See how each deduction is worked out.
No. It is an estimate worked from published HMRC and GOV.UK figures for the current tax year, using the assumptions shown on this page. It cannot see your tax code history, benefits in kind or employer payroll rules, so check important decisions against your payslip, official guidance or a qualified adviser.
Yes. Open the linked calculator to change the salary, pension, tax code, region or student loan plan and the figures update as you type.
Last updated 2026-08-27. Checked by Sean Elsmore. Rates last checked against GOV.UK on 2026-08-07. Estimates are for planning and should be checked against official records where the decision matters.