Band 5 NHS Salary After Tax 2026/27

Band 5 nurse salary after tax and NHS Band 5 take home pay

The calculator is based on Agenda for Change pay, not on job title. A Band 5 nurse, midwife, physiotherapist, radiographer, theatre practitioner or operational manager on the same pay point has the same base calculation before local enhancements, overtime, salary sacrifice or tax-code changes.

Band 5 salary after tax and pension

NHS pension is usually the largest non-tax deduction because it is charged as a percentage of pensionable pay. At Band 5, the cleanest example is the intermediate point: £34,592 sits in the 8.3% pension tier, but adding the Fringe HCAS minimum of £1,346 takes pensionable pay to £35,938, just over the £35,156 threshold for the 9.8% tier. Top Band 5 also sits in the 9.8% tier even without London weighting. This is why the pension line is shown separately: the worker is not just earning more gross pay; they may also be paying a different pension percentage.

Band 5 salary with student loan

Student loans are not one single deduction. In 2026/27, Plan 1 starts above £26,900, Plan 2 above £29,385, Plan 4 above £33,795, Plan 5 above £25,000, and postgraduate loan above £21,000. Plans 1, 2, 4 and 5 are repaid at 9% of earnings above the threshold; postgraduate loan is 6%. Check your Student Loans Company account, payslip or payroll notice if you are unsure which plan applies, then use the calculator selector rather than guessing.

Band 5 London weighting after tax

“London weighting” means the NHS High Cost Area Supplement, often shortened to HCAS. It is extra pay for eligible staff in Inner London, Outer London or Fringe areas. HCAS is pensionable, so it can increase gross salary, pension contributions, taxable pay, NI and student-loan deductions at the same time. The useful question is therefore not “what is the gross weighting?” but “how much extra lands in my monthly pay?”

Your first Band 5 payslip: what to check

A new Band 5 starter can have the correct national salary and still receive an unexpected first payment. Payroll timing, a temporary tax code, pension enrolment, part-time hours and student-loan instructions can all change the amount that arrives.

Basic pay and pay point

For England in 2026/27, entry Band 5 basic pay is £32,073 full time. Check that the annual salary and contracted weekly hours on the payslip match the offer letter. A 30-hour contract is 80% of 37.5 hours, so the basic annual figure is about £25,658 before enhancements or HCAS.

NHS pension and PAYE

Full-time entry Band 5 is in the 8.3% NHS pension tier, producing a contribution of about £2,662 a year before tax relief. Pensionable HCAS and enhancements can alter the tier. Also check the PAYE tax code: a starter or emergency code can make the first month differ from the steady-state estimate even when the annual calculation is correct.

Student loan and variable additions

Plan 2 is charged only on earnings above £29,385, so it reduces full-time entry Band 5 by about £20 a month in this model but normally falls to £0 on the 30-hour entry example. Nights, Saturdays, Sundays, bank holidays, overtime and back pay appear as separate additions; compare each line with the roster rather than treating the basic-pay estimate as a prediction of the whole payslip.

Worked Band 5 NHS take-home pay examples

Use these examples to check an offer, payslip or promotion.

Standard pension member

Use the entry point as the cleanest example. Entry Band 5 is £32,073; the NHS pension deduction is 8.3%, or about £2,662 a year before tax relief. That leaves an estimated £2,040.21 a month after pension, Income Tax and NI before any student loan. A Plan 2 loan then reduces the same example by roughly £20 a month, because only the pay above the £29,385 Plan 2 threshold is charged at 9%.

London weighting scenario

At entry Band 5, Inner London HCAS is roughly 20% of £32,073, so about £6,415 gross. The take-home increase is much smaller than £6,415 divided by 12 because HCAS is pensionable and taxable. In the table above, entry Band 5 rises from about £2,040 a month with no HCAS to about £2,351 with Inner London. Fringe HCAS is more subtle, but at the intermediate point it can push pensionable pay from £34,592 into the next pension tier once the £1,346 minimum is added.

Part-time NHS worker

For a 30-hour worker on a 37.5-hour contract, use 30 hours a week (80% of full time). Entry Band 5 becomes about £25,658 gross rather than £32,073, which moves pensionable pay into the 6.5% pension tier instead of 8.3%. That is why part-time take-home is not simply 80% of the full-time net figure: pension tier, NI, tax and student-loan thresholds are tested against the reduced annual pay.

Band 5 unsocial hours and enhancements

The figures above are basic Agenda for Change pay. Most Band 5 staff who work nights, weekends or bank holidays also earn Section 2 unsocial-hours enhancements, which are added to take-home pay and are both pensionable and taxable. This is the single biggest reason a real payslip is higher than the basic monthly figure.

Under Section 2 of the NHS terms and conditions, Bands 4 to 9 receive time plus 30% for weekday nights (8pm–6am) and all Saturday hours, and time plus 60% for all Sunday and public-holiday hours. Only one rate applies per hour. On the Band 5 entry rate of roughly £16.40 an hour, that is about £21.32 for night and Saturday hours and £26.25 for Sunday and bank-holiday hours.

A regular pattern of nights and weekend shifts can add a meaningful amount to monthly pay — often several hundred pounds — on top of the basic take-home shown by the calculator. Because enhancements are pensionable, they also increase NHS pension contributions slightly. The calculator models basic pay only, so treat unsocial-hours pay as an addition to, not a replacement for, the figures above.