Take-home pay for an NHS band 5 nurse

A full-time NHS band 5 nurse in England on the entry point of £32,073 takes home about £2,020 a month in 2026/27, after the NHS pension, Income Tax, National Insurance and a Plan 2 student loan. Without a student loan it is about £2,040. At the top of band 5, £39,043, take-home pay is about £2,308 a month with a Plan 2 loan or £2,381 without. Unsocial hours enhancements, overtime and London supplements come on top.

Band 5 take-home pay at each pay point

These figures are for England, a 1257L tax code, full-time hours (37.5 a week) and membership of the NHS Pension Scheme. They use the 2026/27 pay scale, which includes the 3.3 per cent award from 1 April 2026.

Pay point	Gross salary	Pension	Monthly take-home (Plan 2 loan)	Monthly take-home (no loan)
Entry	£32,073	8.3%	£2,020.05	£2,040.21
Intermediate (after 2 years)	£34,592	8.3%	£2,138.36	£2,177.41
Top (after 4 years)	£39,043	9.8%	£2,308.36	£2,380.80

Wales announced the same 3.3 per cent award for 2026/27, so Welsh band 5 pay points are expected to be close to England’s. Scotland has its own scale and its own tax bands: band 5 runs from £34,494 to £42,977, Scottish Income Tax rates apply, and NHS Scotland’s pension tiers are different. Northern Ireland’s 2026/27 award had not been confirmed by mid-October 2026.

How the entry point breaks down

On £32,073 with a Plan 2 loan, the year looks like this:

• NHS pension at 8.3 per cent: £2,662.06
• Income Tax at 20 per cent on £32,073 minus the pension minus £12,570: £3,368.19
• National Insurance at 8 per cent on £32,073 minus £12,570: £1,560.24
• Plan 2 student loan at 9 per cent on £32,073 minus £29,385: £241.92

That leaves £24,240.59 a year. The pension comes off first, which lowers your Income Tax, but National Insurance and the student loan are calculated on the full gross figure.

The pension tiers and band 5

The NHS Pension Scheme sets your contribution rate from your whole actual pensionable pay. Band 5’s entry and intermediate points sit in the 8.3 per cent tier (£28,855 to £35,155). The top point, £39,043, is in the 9.8 per cent tier (£35,156 to £52,778).

So the step to the top of band 5 costs more in pension than you might expect: £3,826.21 a year against £2,871.14 at the intermediate point. The higher contribution buys a bigger pension in the career average scheme, but cash in hand rises by about £170 a month on a gross rise of £371 a month. NHS Pension Scheme explained covers what the contributions build up.

Part-time nurses are placed in a tier based on their actual pay, so a nurse on 0.6 of the band 5 entry point (£19,244) pays 6.5 per cent rather than 8.3 per cent.

Plan 2, Plan 5 or no loan

Which plan you are on depends on when and where you started your course. Many nurses qualifying now are on Plan 2, with repayments at 9 per cent above £29,385. Students from England who started more recently are on Plan 5, with a lower threshold of £25,000; your Student Loans Company account confirms which applies to you. On the band 5 entry point a Plan 5 borrower repays £636.57 a year, about £53 a month, against about £20 a month on Plan 2. Students from Scotland are usually on Plan 4, with a threshold of £33,795, so they repay nothing at the band 5 entry point in England.

Student loan Plan 2 repayments explains how the threshold is applied to each payday, which matters when overtime or enhancements push one month’s pay up.

Enhancements, overtime and London

Most ward nurses earn more than basic pay. Unsocial hours enhancements for nights, weekends and bank holidays are pensionable and are added to gross pay, normally a month in arrears. They are taxed and subject to National Insurance and student loan in the same way as basic pay. NHS unsocial hours enhancements lists the rates.

In London the high cost area supplement adds 20 per cent of basic pay in inner London, 15 per cent in outer London and 5 per cent in the fringe, each with a minimum and maximum. With the supplement, the band 5 entry point is £38,488 in inner London, £36,943 in outer London and £33,677 in the fringe.

Bank shifts

Extra bank shifts at your own trust are usually paid through the same payroll and added to your salary, so they are taxed under your normal code. Bank work for a different trust is taxed separately, usually on a BR code. Tax on NHS bank shifts covers the code problems this causes.

Reliefs most nurses can claim

Two small reliefs reduce your tax. You can claim tax relief on your NMC registration fee and on professional subscriptions on HMRC’s approved list, and you can claim a flat rate expense for washing a uniform you are required to wear. Both are claimed through HMRC and adjust your tax code. Uniform tax relief shows how to claim. To run your own numbers, including enhancements, use the take-home pay calculator.