NJC backpay calculator 2026/27

How the three figures fit together

The award applies from 1 April 2026, but most employers cannot get it into payroll that month. Everything between April and the month it appears is owed to you as arrears. The month it does appear also carries its own increase — the uplift. Both usually land in the same payslip, which is why the total can look surprisingly large that month and then drop back.

Payroll cut-offs can move either part by a cycle. If your employer runs arrears through a separate payment, say so in the optional fields and the two will be shown separately.

Why the money arrives late, and what that means

The award applies from 1 April whatever happens. What moves is when it reaches a payslip, and the gap is usually months rather than weeks. Two things cause it, and they are worth separating because only one of them is anybody’s fault.

The award is agreed late. The NJC negotiates after the year it applies to has already started — the 2026/27 circular was issued in August 2026, months after the April it applies from. Nothing can be paid before it is agreed.

Then payroll has to catch up. Once the circular lands, each authority reruns its own payroll, and where in its cycle the circular arrives decides whether the new rate makes that month or the next. This is why two neighbouring councils can pay the same award a month apart, and why who has stated a month is worth tracking separately from the award itself.

The practical consequence is that arrears are usually a lump sum covering several months, landing in one payslip. That matters for tax: income tax evens out across the year, but National Insurance does not — it is charged on each pay period on its own, so a large one-off arrears payment attracts more NI than the same money would have if it had been paid month by month. Nobody refunds the difference.

If you have left, or you are about to

Leaving does not forfeit the arrears. You are owed the months you worked, at the new rate, and your former employer has to pay them — but they will not always find you. Keep the address and bank details they hold up to date, and if the award lands after you have gone, ask. What former staff are owed sets out how the months are counted.

The mirror of that: if you started part-way through the year you are owed from your start date, not from April. The calculator takes both dates for exactly this reason.

Why your payslip may differ by a few pence

Every figure here is rounded once, half-up, to the penny. Payroll systems round at different points in their own calculation, so a difference of a few pence is normal and is not worth querying. A difference of pounds is worth querying.

What this does not include

Tax, National Insurance and pension contributions — these are gross figures, so your take-home will be lower. It also excludes enhancements, overtime, and any increment you moved through during the year. Scotland has its own SJC negotiation and is not covered.

Allowances are excluded too, but they went up by the same award — sleep-in payments, fringe area allowances and the rest. They depend on nights and sessions you actually worked, which no calculator can know, so the allowances page gives you the figures and the one-line sum.

Where the numbers come from

The annual and hourly values for every spinal column point are transcribed from the published NJC circulars — never calculated by applying the award percentage, because that is exactly how rounding errors get introduced. SCP 3 on the 2026-27 spine is £25,614.00 a year; SCP 43 is £56,293.00. See the methodology and the source register, or the full spine table.