Understanding your NHS payslip
The Interactive NHS Doctor Payslip Explainer. This is Dr A Farm's August payslip: a full-time FY1 on 44 hours a week, 1 in 6 weekends and 8 hours of nights a week, at a London trust, in the NHS pension, on a Plan 2 student loan, paying £98 a month to park. Point at any part of the payslip to understand what it means.
Rules last checked
| ASSIGNMENT NUMBER20461137 | EMPLOYEE NAMEDR. A. FARM | LOCATIONSt Bleep's Hospital | |||||||||||||||||||||
| DEPARTMENTAcute Medicine | JOB TITLEFoundation Year 1 (FY1) | PAYSCALE DESCRIPTIONFoundation Doctor Year 1 | |||||||||||||||||||||
 | SAL/WAGE41226.00 | INC. DATE04 AUG 2027 | STANDARD HRS.40.00 | PT SAL/WAGE41226.00 | |||||||||||||||||||
| TAX OFFICE NAMENowhere and District | TAX OFFICE REF000/X00000 | TAX CODE1257L | NI NUMBERQQ123456C | ||||||||||||||||||||
| PAY AND ALLOWANCES (- = MINUS AMOUNT) | DEDUCTIONS (R INDICATES REFUND) | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| DESCRIPTION | WKD/ | PAID/DUE | RATE | AMOUNT | DESCRIPTION | AMOUNT | BALANCE C/F | ||||||||||||||||
| Basic PayAddn Roster Hours NPNight Duty 37%Weekend <1in5-1in6Ldn Zone | 173.8117.3834.76 | 173.8117.3812.86 | 19.765819.765819.7658 | 3435.50343.55254.23171.78180.17 | PAYENI ANHS Pension 9.8%Student LoanCar ParkingDoctors Mess | 596.68255.25354.34174.2898.0020.00 | |||||||||||||||||
| Year To Date Balances (This Employment Only) | This Period Summary | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| GROSS PAY | 21926.15 | TAXABLE PAY | 20154.45 | PENSIONABLE PAY | 3615.67 | TAXABLE PAY | 4030.89 | ||||||||||||||||
| NI LETTER | A | TAX PAID | 2983.40 | TAX PERIOD | 5 | NON-TAXABLE PAY | 0.00 | ||||||||||||||||
| NI PAY | 21926.15 | OTHER NI PAY | PREVIOUS TAXABLE PAY | 0.00 | FREQUENCY | Monthly | TOTAL PAYMENTS | 4385.23 | |||||||||||||||
| NI CONTS | 1276.25 | OTHER NI CONTS | PREVIOUS TAX PAID | 0.00 | PERIOD END DATE | 31 AUG 2026 | TOTAL DEDUCTIONS | 1498.55 | |||||||||||||||
| PENSIONABLE PAY | 18078.35 | PENSION CONTS | 1771.70 | PAY DATE | 26 AUG 2026 | NET PAY2886.68 | |||||||||||||||||
| MEMBERSHIP REF NUMBER | EMPLOYEE NO. | 20461137 | PAY METHOD | BACS | |||||||||||||||||||
Lines you might have that this example does not
- Flex PT Trans 2019
- Extra pay for working less than full time: £1,000 a year, split across the months you're LTFT. It's the same amount whether you work 60% or 80%.
- NROC Availability
- Pay for being on call from home, at 8% of your basic salary. Every grade gets it.
- Flexible Pay Premium
- Extra pay for specialties that are hard to fill. The specialty is in the name, so a core psychiatry trainee sees Flex Pay Psych Core. Emergency medicine, psychiatry, histopathology, oral and maxillofacial surgery and academic posts have one. GP training has the same thing under a new name: the General Practice Registrar Enhancement.
- Cash Floor / Pay Protection
- A top-up if you moved from the old contract to the 2016 one and would otherwise be paid less. It keeps your old pay, rather than adding to it.
- Bank / Locum
- Extra shifts through your trust's own bank. They're taxed like normal pay and don't count towards your pension.
These explanations are general, not financial advice, and some may be wrong or out of date: pay rules change, and your trust may do something this example does not. The payslip follows a real ESR layout and every figure on it is invented from the same published pay scales the calculator uses. Always check your own payslip. If something here is wrong, we are sorry, and we would like to know: use Spot a mistake and we will check it against the source. See the full methodology and disclaimer.
A finances crash course for resident doctors
Nobody actually teaches you any of this. I am putting together a short course on how your money works as a doctor: reading your own payslip, why your tax code goes wrong, what the pension is really worth, what changes if you go less than full time, and what to do with whatever is left over. Tick what you want covered and I will get it to you first.