Money Worked Out

NHS Band 3 pay after tax

A full-time Band 3 salary in England starts at £25,760. After income tax, National Insurance and NHS Pension contributions you take home £1,727.42 a month.

NHS Band 3 in England runs from £25,760 to £27,476 in 2026/27. Full-time take-home is £1,727.42 a month at entry and £1,822.95 at the top, after the NHS Pension, income tax and National Insurance. The Scottish Band 3 scale starts above the England top point.

Estimated take-home pay a month

£1,727.42

£20,729.08 a year from gross pay of £25,760.00

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£25,760.00£2,146.67
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£25,760.00£2,146.67
Pensionable pay£25,760.00£2,146.67
NHS Pension (6.5%)£1,674.40£139.53
Income tax£2,301.32£191.78
National Insurance£1,055.20£87.93
Student loans£0.00£0.00
Take-home pay£20,729.08£1,727.42

How this was worked out
  1. Basic pay: £25,760.00 × 37.5 ÷ 37.5 = £25,760.00 a year. Standard week.
  2. Hourly rate shown: £13.17. 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 × 35% + 0 hours × 69%) × 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 £25,760.00. 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 = £25,760.00. 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 = £1,674.40 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: £25,760
  12. Pension (net pay): £25,760 × 6.5% = £1,674.40, 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: £24,085.60 − £12,579 = £11,506.60
  15. Basic rate: £11,506.60 × 20% = £2,301.32
  16. Income tax: £2,301.32
  17. National Insurance: (£25,760 − £12,570) × 8% = £1,055.20
  18. Take-home pay: £25,760 − £2,301.32 − £1,055.20 − £1,674.40 = £20,729.08

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 3 take-home pay in England, 2026/27
Pay pointSalaryPensionTake-home a yearTake-home a month
Entry£25,760£1,674.40£20,729.08£1,727.42
Top£27,476£1,785.94£21,875.37£1,822.95

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

Band 3 take-home pay in Scotland, 2026/27
Pay pointSalaryPensionTake-home a yearTake-home a month
Point 1£29,103£2,037.21£22,885.46£1,907.12
Point 2£31,409£2,198.63£24,416.65£2,034.72

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

Band 3 jobs and the step between points

The NHS careers pay rates page names emergency care assistant and occupational therapy support worker as examples of Band 3 roles.

Band 3 in England has two points, and moving from the first to the second lifts yearly take-home from £20,729.08 to £21,875.37. The gain in take-home is roughly two thirds of the rise in salary, because tax, National Insurance and the pension each take a share of the extra pay.

Both England points sit in the same NHS Pension tier, so the contribution grows only in line with pay, from £1,674.40 to £1,785.94. The step into the next tier comes further up the scale, on Band 4.

Tax on Band 3 pay

All of the taxable pay on England's Band 3 falls in the basic rate band. Income tax is £2,301.32 at entry and £2,622.21 at the top point, and National Insurance runs from £1,055.20 to £1,192.48.

These are annual figures for someone with the standard tax code, no student loan and no other income. A monthly payslip can differ by a few pence, as the methodology page explains.

Band 3 on the Scottish scale

NHS Scotland pays Band 3 at £29,103 and £31,409. Even the first Scottish point is higher than the top of the England band. Both Scottish points fall in one pension tier, with contributions of £2,037.21 and £2,198.63.

Scottish Band 3 pay stays inside the starter and basic income tax bands, so none of it is taxed at the intermediate rate. Take-home is £22,885.46 a year at the first point and £24,416.65 at the second, well ahead of either England figure.

Questions

What is NHS Band 3 a month after tax?

In England, a full-time Band 3 employee keeps £1,727.42 a month at the entry point and £1,822.95 at the top point, with the NHS Pension already taken off.

Does the Band 3 pension rate change between points?

No. In England both Band 3 points fall in the same contribution tier, and the same is true of the two Scottish points, although the Scottish tier and rate differ from England's.

Is Band 3 pay higher in Scotland?

Yes. The Scottish Band 3 scale runs from £29,103 to £31,409, and a Scottish taxpayer at the first point takes home £1,907.12 a month.