Money Worked Out

NHS Band 2 pay after tax

A full-time Band 2 salary in England starts at £25,272. After income tax, National Insurance and NHS Pension contributions you take home £1,700.26 a month.

A full-time Band 2 job in England pays £25,272 at both of its pay points in 2026/27, so there is no step up with service. After deductions that is £1,700.26 a month. Scotland has two different Band 2 points, and the higher one leaves £1,900.76 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 × 41% + 0 hours × 83%) × 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 2 take-home pay in England, 2026/27
Pay pointSalaryPensionTake-home a yearTake-home a month
Entry£25,272£1,642.68£20,403.10£1,700.26
Top£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 2 take-home pay in Scotland, 2026/27
Pay pointSalaryPensionTake-home a yearTake-home a month
Point 1£26,696£1,708.54£21,415.36£1,784.61
Point 2£28,988£2,029.16£22,809.10£1,900.76

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

Band 2 roles and the flat England rate

Healthcare assistant, security officer, secretary/typist, domestic team leader, driver, housekeeping assistant and domestic support worker all appear as Band 2 examples on the NHS careers pay rates page.

The England pay scale lists an entry point and a top point for Band 2, but both carry the same salary of £25,272. That is also the rate for the closed Band 1. Moving up a point on Band 2 in England therefore makes no difference to take-home pay, which stays at £20,403.10 a year.

Where the Band 2 money goes

The NHS Pension takes £1,642.68 from the England Band 2 salary. Income tax comes to £2,210.06 and National Insurance to £1,016.16. None of the pay reaches the higher rate, so every taxed pound is charged at 20%.

Because the pension is paid before tax, each pound of contribution costs less than a pound of take-home. On Band 2 the yearly pension deduction is smaller than the income tax bill but larger than the National Insurance.

Two Scottish points for Band 2

In Scotland, Band 2 starts at £26,696 and rises to £28,988 at the second point. Both are above the England figure. The second point is also where a higher Scottish pension tier begins, so the contribution rises from £1,708.54 to £2,029.16.

Take-home for Scottish Band 2 staff is £21,415.36 a year at the first point and £22,809.10 at the second. Neither point reaches the Scottish intermediate rate of 21%. For other hours or a student loan, the NHS pay calculator works out the same figures for any Band 2 point.

Questions

Why do both England Band 2 points show the same pay?

The 2026/27 England scale from NHS Employers gives the Band 2 entry and top points the same salary, £25,272. So the two rows in the England table are identical.

What is Band 2 a month after tax and pension?

In England a full-time Band 2 employee keeps £1,700.26 a month. In Scotland the monthly figure is £1,784.61 at the first point and £1,900.76 at the second.

How much National Insurance does Band 2 pay?

On the England rate, employee National Insurance is £1,016.16 a year at 8% of pay above £12,570. The NHS Pension does not reduce the pay that National Insurance is charged on.