NHS Band 5 pay after tax

A full-time Band 5 salary in England starts at £32,073. After income tax, National Insurance and NHS Pension contributions you take home £2,040.36 a month.

Band 5 is where many newly qualified clinical professionals start, nurses among them. In England it has three points in 2026/27, from £32,073 to £39,043. Monthly take-home after the NHS Pension, tax and National Insurance runs from £2,040.36 to £2,380.95.

Estimated take-home pay a month

£2,040.36

£24,484.31 a year from gross pay of £32,073.00

Your details

Where you work

Band

Pay point

Hours a week

Contracted hours, from 1 to 37.5 a week.

I pay into the NHS Pension Scheme

Student loan Postgraduate loan as well

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.

Night and Saturday hours a week

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

Sunday and public holiday hours a week

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

London weighting area (England only)

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

Extra hours a week

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

Public holiday extra hours a week

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 deduction	A year	A month
Basic pay	£32,073.00	£2,672.75
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	£32,073.00	£2,672.75
Pensionable pay	£32,073.00	£2,672.75
NHS Pension (8.3%)	£2,662.06	£221.84
Income tax	£3,366.39	£280.53
National Insurance	£1,560.24	£130.02
Student loans	£0.00	£0.00
Take-home pay	£24,484.31	£2,040.36

How this was worked out

Basic pay: £32,073.00 × 37.5 ÷ 37.5 = £32,073.00 a year. Standard week.
Hourly rate shown: £16.40. 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.
Nights and weekends: exact hourly rate × (0 hours × 30% + 0 hours × 60%) × 365 ÷ 7 = £0.00 a year. HCAS is excluded from the base. Unsocial hours rates.
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.
Extra hours at plain time: exact hourly rate × hours up to the standard week × 365 ÷ 7 = £0.00 a year. Extra hours rule.
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.
Gross pay: the five rounded annual components total £32,073.00. 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.
Pensionable pay: basic pay + regular unsocial pay + HCAS + plain-time extra hours up to the standard week = £32,073.00. 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.
NHS Pension tier 3: 8.3% of actual pensionable pay = £2,662.06 a year. This is taken before income tax but does not reduce National Insurance or student loan pay. NHS Pension tiers.
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.
Salary: £32,073
Pension (net pay): £32,073 × 8.3% = £2,662.06, taken off before tax
Personal allowance: £12,570. Payroll applies it as tax code 1257L, which gives £12,579 of tax-free pay.
Taxable income: £29,410.94 − £12,579 = £16,831.94
Basic rate: £16,831.94 × 20% = £3,366.39
Income tax: £3,366.39
National Insurance: (£32,073 − £12,570) × 8% = £1,560.24
Take-home pay: £32,073 − £3,366.39 − £1,560.24 − £2,662.06 = £24,484.31

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 5 take-home pay in England, 2026/27
Pay point	Salary	Pension	Take-home a year	Take-home a month
Entry	£32,073	£2,662.06	£24,484.31	£2,040.36
Intermediate	£34,592	£2,871.14	£26,130.73	£2,177.56
Top	£39,043	£3,826.21	£28,571.39	£2,380.95

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

Band 5 take-home pay in Scotland, 2026/27
Pay point	Salary	Pension	Take-home a year	Take-home a month
Point 1	£34,544	£3,005.33	£26,008.45	£2,167.37
Point 2	£36,911	£3,211.26	£27,526.33	£2,293.86
Point 3	£43,039	£4,217.82	£31,082.03	£2,590.17

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

Who is paid on Band 5

The NHS careers pay rates page gives ICT test analyst as a Band 5 example, along with many newly qualified clinical professionals such as nurses, operating department practitioners, podiatrists and therapeutic radiographers.

Three points, two pension tiers

The entry and middle points of England's Band 5 share one pension tier. Take-home rises from £24,484.31 to £26,130.73 between them. The top point, £39,043, lies above the upper edge of that tier, so the contribution rate goes up on the whole salary and the pension deduction reaches £3,826.21.

Even with the higher rate, the Band 5 top point leaves £28,571.39 a year, or £2,380.95 a month. Income tax stays at the basic rate at every point, from £3,366.39 to £4,527.56.

Every Band 5 salary is above the Plan 2 student loan threshold of £29,385, so graduates on Plan 2 repay part of their pay at each point. The tables leave loans out. The NHS pay calculator adds them.

Band 5 in Scotland

The Scottish Band 5 scale has three points too: £34,544, £36,911 and £43,039. Each one is higher than the matching England point, and the Scottish first point is almost as high as the England middle point.

Scottish income tax reaches the intermediate rate of 21% at all three points. The higher pay more than makes up for it, and Scottish take-home is £26,008.45, £27,526.33 and £31,082.03 a year. As in England, the Scottish top point starts a new pension tier, with a deduction of £4,217.82. The Band 6 page continues the scale.

Questions

What does a newly qualified nurse take home on Band 5?

At the Band 5 entry point in England a full-time nurse takes home £2,040.36 a month in 2026/27, before any student loan, overtime or unsocial hours pay.

Why does the pension deduction jump at the Band 5 top point?

The top point falls in a higher NHS Pension tier than the first two points. The higher rate applies to the whole salary, so the deduction rises more than the pay does.

How does Scottish Band 5 take-home compare?

A Scottish Band 5 employee keeps £2,167.37 a month at the first point, against £2,040.36 at the England entry point, because the Scottish scale pays more.

Is Band 5 taxed at the higher rate?

No. Every Band 5 point in England is taxed only at the basic rate. The NHS Pension comes off before tax, which keeps taxable pay further below the higher rate threshold.