Money Worked Out

NHS Band 1 pay after tax

A full-time Band 1 salary in England starts at £25,272. After income tax, National Insurance and NHS Pension contributions you take home £1,700.26 a month.

Band 1 is the lowest Agenda for Change band. In England it is closed to new entrants and has one rate of pay, £25,272, which leaves £1,700.26 a month after tax, National Insurance and the pension. Scotland pays Band 1 staff £26,557, so take-home there is £1,776.87 a month.

Estimated take-home pay a month

£1,700.26

£20,403.10 a year from gross pay of £25,272.00

Your details

Contracted hours, from 1 to 37.5 a week.

Add nights, weekends, London weighting and extra hours

Use weekly averages for a typical week. Unsocial hours form part of your contracted hours. Put hours above your contract in extra hours.

Part of your contracted hours, after applying the whole-shift rule below.

Part of your contracted hours. Do not count these again as night or Saturday hours.

High cost area supplement (HCAS), scaled to your contracted hours.

All hours above your contracted hours, including public holiday extra hours.

The public holiday share of your extra hours. These count as overtime first.

Whole-shift rule: if more than half of a continuous weekday evening or night shift falls between 8pm and 6am, count the whole shift at the first rate. Apply this before entering your night hours. Sunday and public holiday hours use the second rate.

Your NHS pay and deductions
Pay or deductionA yearA month
Basic pay£25,272.00£2,106.00
Nights and weekends£0.00£0.00
London weighting (HCAS)£0.00£0.00
Extra hours at plain time£0.00£0.00
Overtime£0.00£0.00
Gross pay£25,272.00£2,106.00
Pensionable pay£25,272.00£2,106.00
NHS Pension (6.5%)£1,642.68£136.89
Income tax£2,210.06£184.17
National Insurance£1,016.16£84.68
Student loans£0.00£0.00
Take-home pay£20,403.10£1,700.26

How this was worked out
  1. Basic pay: £25,272.00 × 37.5 ÷ 37.5 = £25,272.00 a year. Standard week.
  2. Hourly rate shown: £12.92. We use the exact rate: full-time salary × 7 ÷ 365 ÷ 37.5. Weekly pay rule. The handbook sets weekly pay as 7/365 of salary but does not fix an hourly divisor for overtime. Your employer may differ by a few pence an hour.
  3. Nights and weekends: exact hourly rate × (0 hours × 47% + 0 hours × 94%) × 365 ÷ 7 = £0.00 a year. HCAS is excluded from the base. Unsocial hours rates.
  4. London weighting (high cost area supplement, HCAS): £0.00 a year. The full-time percentage is limited by the area's minimum and maximum, then multiplied by 37.5 ÷ 37.5. Part-time rule.
  5. Extra hours at plain time: exact hourly rate × hours up to the standard week × 365 ÷ 7 = £0.00 a year. Extra hours rule.
  6. Overtime above 37.5 hours: exact hourly rate × overtime hours × 1.5 (or 2 for public holidays) × 365 ÷ 7 = £0.00 a year. Public holiday extra hours count as overtime hours first, up to the hours above the standard week. Overtime rates.
  7. Gross pay: the five rounded annual components total £25,272.00. We round each annual component once to pennies, half up, combining both unsocial rates and both overtime rates before rounding. Monthly amounts are annual amounts divided by 12, rounded half up.
  8. Pensionable pay: basic pay + regular unsocial pay + HCAS + plain-time extra hours up to the standard week = £25,272.00. Hours above the standard week are excluded, even when paid at plain time. Pensionable extra hours; Regular unsocial pay; Pensionable HCAS. Check your payroll's treatment of regular payments.
  9. NHS Pension tier 2: 6.5% of actual pensionable pay = £1,642.68 a year. This is taken before income tax but does not reduce National Insurance or student loan pay. NHS Pension tiers.
  10. This is a whole-year tax estimate using the standard tax code, rest of UK income tax and the student loans you selected. A monthly payslip can differ.
  11. Salary: £25,272
  12. Pension (net pay): £25,272 × 6.5% = £1,642.68, taken off before tax
  13. Personal allowance: £12,570. Payroll applies it as tax code 1257L, which gives £12,579 of tax-free pay.
  14. Taxable income: £23,629.32 − £12,579 = £11,050.32
  15. Basic rate: £11,050.32 × 20% = £2,210.06
  16. Income tax: £2,210.06
  17. National Insurance: (£25,272 − £12,570) × 8% = £1,016.16
  18. Take-home pay: £25,272 − £2,210.06 − £1,016.16 − £1,642.68 = £20,403.10

Where your employer may differ

  • The handbook sets weekly pay as 7/365 of salary but does not fix an hourly divisor for overtime. We divide weekly pay by standard weekly hours. Your employer's hourly rate can differ by a few pence.
  • You apply the whole-shift rule before entering your hours. We do not infer it from a rota.
  • For England and Wales bands 8a to 9, pay above the standard week is a local arrangement. We show plain time: check your contract.
  • Local HCAS harmonisation under handbook section 4.6 can change London weighting.
  • Sickness and annual-leave averaging of enhancements are not modelled.

This calculator does not cover ambulance staff under Annex 5, on-call pay, bank shifts on a separate contract or recruitment and retention premiums. It uses contribution tiers without modelling differences between the 2015, 1995 and 2008 pension sections. Tax is a whole-year estimate with the standard tax code. Your numbers stay in this browser.

Band 1 take-home pay in England, 2026/27
Pay pointSalaryPensionTake-home a yearTake-home a month
Entry (single point; closed to new entrants)£25,272£1,642.68£20,403.10£1,700.26

Pay scale: www.nhsemployers.org/system/files/2026-02/2026%20AfC%20pay%20scales.pdf, effective 1 April 2026

Band 1 take-home pay in Scotland, 2026/27
Pay pointSalaryPensionTake-home a yearTake-home a month
Point 1£26,557£1,699.65£21,322.39£1,776.87

Pay scale: www.publications.scot.nhs.uk/files/pcs2026-afc-01.pdf, effective 1 April 2026

Who is on Band 1

The NHS careers site gives domestic support worker, housekeeping assistant, driver and nursery assistant as examples of Band 1 roles on its Agenda for Change pay rates page. In England the band takes no new starters, so it covers staff who were already on it.

England's Band 1 rate is the same figure as both points of Band 2. A Band 1 worker in England therefore takes home exactly what a Band 2 worker does, before any overtime or unsocial hours payments, which these figures leave out.

Deductions on a Band 1 salary

On £25,272 the NHS Pension takes £1,642.68 a year. That contribution comes off before income tax is worked out, so the income tax bill is £2,210.06, all at the basic rate of 20%. National Insurance is charged on the full salary and comes to £1,016.16.

What is left for a full-time Band 1 employee in England is £20,403.10 a year. The pension rate for pay at this level is the second lowest of the six tiers in the England scheme. The tier depends on actual pay, so someone working part time on Band 1 can fall into the lowest tier instead.

Band 1 in Scotland

NHS Scotland sets its own Band 1 rate through a separate pay circular, and for 2026/27 it is higher than England's at £26,557. The Scottish scheme has its own contribution tiers too, and it takes £1,699.65 from this salary.

Scottish income tax starts with a starter rate of 19% on the first slice of taxable pay, which helps at this level. Band 1 income tax in Scotland is £2,416, and the yearly take-home is £21,322.39. The methodology page explains how each figure is worked out.

Questions

Can a new employee start on Band 1 in England?

No. The NHS Employers pay scales for England mark Band 1 as closed to new entrants. For 2026/27 its single rate is the same amount that Band 2 pays at both of its points.

How much is Band 1 a month after tax?

A full-time Band 1 worker in England takes home £1,700.26 a month after income tax, National Insurance and the NHS Pension. The Scottish figure is £1,776.87 a month.

Does Band 1 pay any higher rate tax?

No. Taxable pay on Band 1 stays well inside the basic rate band in England, and inside the starter and basic bands in Scotland, so none of it meets a higher rate.