£21,000 after tax
Take-home pay
£18,641.40
On a salary of £21,000 (21k) you take home £18,641.40 a year in the 2026/27 tax year. That is £1,553.45 a month or £358.49 a week.
At £21,000 you take home £18,641.40 a year, about £1,553.45 a month. This salary is exactly the postgraduate loan threshold, so a postgraduate borrower repays nothing yet, and every undergraduate plan starts at a higher figure. All taxable pay falls in the basic rate band.
| England, Wales and Northern Ireland | Scotland | |
|---|---|---|
| A year | £18,641.40 | £18,681.07 |
| A month | £1,553.45 | £1,556.76 |
| A week | £358.49 | £359.25 |
| A working day | £71.70 | £71.85 |
| An hour (37.5 hours a week) | £9.56 | £9.58 |
| Amount | |
|---|---|
| Salary | £21,000 |
| Income tax | £1,684.20 |
| National Insurance | £674.40 |
| Take-home pay | £18,641.40 |
How this was worked out
- Salary: £21,000
- Personal allowance: £12,570. Payroll applies it as tax code 1257L, which gives £12,579 of tax-free pay.
- Taxable income: £21,000 − £12,579 = £8,421
- Basic rate: £8,421 × 20% = £1,684.20
- Income tax: £1,684.20
- National Insurance: (£21,000 − £12,570) × 8% = £674.40
- Take-home pay: £21,000 − £1,684.20 − £674.40 = £18,641.40
The postgraduate line at £21,000
Postgraduate loans take 6% of pay above £21,000. With pay of exactly £21,000, nothing is above that line, and the postgraduate deduction is £0.
Any pay rise changes that. Each pound above the threshold loses 6% to the loan on top of tax and National Insurance, and the figures one thousand pounds up include the first postgraduate repayment.
Plan 5 has the lowest undergraduate threshold at £25,000. Plan 1, Plan 2 and Plan 4 sit higher, so an undergraduate borrower on £21,000 repays nothing.
Income tax and National Insurance
After the personal allowance of £12,570, £8,421 is taxed at 20%, which comes to £1,684.20. National Insurance at 8% on the same amount is £674.40. Your employer adds £2,400 of employer National Insurance on top of £21,000, and that sum never reaches your payslip.
A raise of a thousand pounds would add £720 for someone with no loan. The take-home pay calculator shows the smaller gain for a postgraduate borrower.
Scotland and a pension
In Scotland the take-home is £18,681.07, after Scottish income tax of £1,644.53. Taxable pay beyond the starter band meets the Scottish basic rate of 20%, the same as the rate elsewhere. The starter rate of 19% on the first slice of taxable pay makes Scottish income tax £39.67 lower than in the rest of the UK.
A five per cent pension paid by salary sacrifice leaves £17,885.40. Net pay and relief at source each leave £17,801.40, so the salary sacrifice route keeps £84 more through its National Insurance saving.
| Plan | Repayment a year | Take-home a year |
|---|---|---|
| Plan 1 | £0 | £18,641.40 |
| Plan 2 | £0 | £18,641.40 |
| Plan 4 (Scotland) | £0 | £18,681.07 |
| Plan 5 | £0 | £18,641.40 |
| Postgraduate loan | £0 | £18,641.40 |
| Type of scheme | Take-home a year |
|---|---|
| Salary sacrifice | £17,885.40 |
| Net pay | £17,801.40 |
| Relief at source | £17,801.40 |
Try other figures in the take-home pay calculator.
Questions
Do I repay a postgraduate loan on £21,000?
Not yet. The threshold is £21,000, the same as this salary, and the loan only takes a share of pay above it, so the repayment is £0.
What is £21,000 a week after tax?
It works out at £358.49 a week in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. A Scottish taxpayer on £21,000 gets £359.25 a week.
How far below the median is £21,000?
The median full-time salary in April 2025 was £39,039, according to the Office for National Statistics. £21,000 is £18,039 less than that, a little over half of it.