NHS pay rise 2026/27

Band 5 entry is shown because it is the most common starting point on the scale. Every nation’s full table is on its own page.

Where a nation has made an award, the pay increase covers everyone on Agenda for Change there: nurses and the rest of the nursing staff, midwives, healthcare assistants, paramedics, porters, admin staff and most other NHS roles. Doctors, dentists and very senior managers are paid under separate arrangements, so their rise is not this one.

Northern Ireland has not had a 2026/27 rise

Staff there are still on the 2025/26 rates. No Agenda for Change pay circular has been issued for 2026/27, so there is no percentage to report — and any table that gives you one for Northern Ireland is showing you England’s. What Northern Ireland staff are actually being paid, and how far behind that leaves them, is set out in full on its own page.

What the rise is worth after tax

The percentage is gross, and nobody is paid gross. A rise is taxed at your marginal rate rather than your average one, so what reaches your bank is always a smaller share than the headline suggests — between 50.5% and 66.8% of it across the bands, on the England scale for somebody in the pension scheme.

Entry step of each band, England, in the pension scheme. Work it out for your own figures.

What the award has been

Only the years this site holds a verified circular for. Where a nation shows one year, that is the limit of what is held rather than the limit of what happened.

• England — 2026/27: 3.3%
• Scotland — 2026/27: 3.75% · 2025/26: 4.4%
• Wales — 2026/27: 3.3% · 2025/26: 3.6%
• Northern Ireland — 2025/26: 3.6% · 2024/25: 5.5%

Scotland’s 2025/26 figure is the revised one. It was agreed at 4.25% and lifted to 4.4% when the deal’s inflation guarantee triggered, with arrears paid in March 2026.

Why the percentage is not the whole answer

Wales’s lowest pay points did not get the 3.3%. They were lifted to £26,300 instead — the Living Wage Foundation rate of £13.45 an hour, paid in advance of the award — £13.45 × 37.5 hours × 365/7 weeks is £26,300 a year. The percentage was not applied on top, so anyone working it out from last year’s figure will get those points wrong.

Scotland changed the working week, not just the money. A full-time week there is now 36 hours against 37.5 in the rest of the UK. Annual salary rose by 3.75%; the hourly rate rose by more, because the same salary is spread over fewer hours. Anything paid by the hour — unsocial hours, overtime, bank shifts — moved with it.

NHS back pay: what you are owed, and when it lands

Back pay, backpay and arrears are three words for the same thing here — the money owed for the months between the date an award takes effect and the payslip it first shows up in. Payroll systems print “arrears”; almost everyone else says back pay, and this page means the same by all three.

A rise applying from 1 April does not mean it lands in April’s payslip. Payroll cut-offs move it, often by a month or more, and the difference then arrives as arrears. Where a nation is late, the arrears cover every month back to the effective date — so a later award is not a smaller one, only a slower one.

The amount is the gap between the old and the new annual rate, spread across the months owed — not a percentage of a whole year’s salary. It arrives as pay, so income tax, National Insurance and pension contributions all come off it in the month it lands.

Work out your own back pay — by band, step and the month your payslip first showed the new rate, as three figures you can find on the payslip.

Questions people ask

When does the NHS pay rise take effect?

In England, Scotland and Wales the 2026/27 rise applies from 1 April 2026. Northern Ireland has not had a 2026/27 award yet. It reaches your payslip when your employer’s payroll applies it, and any months before that are paid as back pay.

Will band 2 and band 3 get a pay rise?

Yes. In England, band 2 starts at £25,272, up £807. Band 3 starts at £25,760, up £823. In Wales bands 2 and 3 both start at £26,300; the Wales scale says why its lowest points differ.

Is NHS back pay taxed?

Yes. It is paid as pay, so income tax, National Insurance and pension contributions come off it in the month it lands, as they do from the rest of that month’s pay.

How much back pay will I get?

The difference between your old and new pay for each month you were paid at the old rate. The back pay calculator works it out from your band, your step and the month your payslip first showed the new rate.

Where these figures come from

Each nation’s own circular, transcribed and checked twice, never copied from another nation and never worked out by applying a percentage. Where a published figure does not follow the percentage its own circular declares, we publish what the circular says and note the difference. See the methodology and the source register.