Nurse take-home pay calculator
Choose your band for a starting point, then adjust. We apply income tax, National Insurance and your NHS pension contribution to show what actually reaches your bank.
A Band 5 nurse on around £31,000 contributing 9.8% to the NHS Pension takes home roughly £23,409.20 a year — about £1,951 a month — after tax, NI and pension in 2025/26. Enhancements for nights, weekends and bank shifts add to this; set your base pay below.
- Personal allowance
- £12,570
- Applies in
- England, Scotland & Wales supported
- Calculation
- NHS Pension via net-pay (reduces tax, not NI)
Base salaries are typical 2025/26 examples and exclude unsocial-hours enhancements — adjust the slider to your actual pensionable pay. Confirm your NHS pension tier at the NHS pension cost page.
Parsed as: 1257L (£12,570 allowance, England & NI)
Taken before tax — reduces your income tax, but not your NI.
Nursing pay, enhancements and the NHS pension
Your basic Agenda for Change pay runs through PAYE with the NHS Pension taken as a net-pay contribution (before income tax, so it cuts your tax but not your NI). What the preset above doesn’t include is unsocial-hours enhancements — nights, weekends and bank shifts — which can add materially to your take-home and are taxed as normal pay. Add them to the salary figure to see your real total. The NHS pension is a strong defined-benefit scheme; see our NHS guide for how the tiers work.
Questions people ask
For others like you
Sources: NHS Pension Scheme contribution rates — NHSBSA · NHS Agenda for Change pay — gov.uk · Income tax rates — gov.uk