NHS Healthcare Assistant Take-Home Pay 2026/27: What HCAs Keep Each Month

Last updated: 29 October 2026 · Figures verified against the NHS Employers 2026/27 pay circular.

By the NHS Bands Pay editorial team

A healthcare assistant salary is quoted gross, but nobody budgets gross. The number that matters at the end of the month is what lands in the bank after pension, tax and National Insurance. This page works that number out step by step for every healthcare assistant step in England in 2026/27, so an HCA can find their own band and step, read across, and see the monthly figure that follows from the published pay scales.

Healthcare assistants sit on Agenda for Change Bands 2 and 3 for most posts: Band 2 for healthcare assistants and support workers, Band 3 for senior healthcare assistants and senior support workers. Two features of these bands shape everything that follows. First, neither band has an intermediate step in the England scale: Band 2 is a single spot rate, so every Band 2 employee, from a first-day healthcare assistant to a twenty-year porter, earns the same full-time basic pay, and Band 3 has an entry and a top step only. Second, Bands 2 and 3 carry the highest unsocial-hours percentages in Agenda for Change after the closed Band 1, which means shift work is worth more, proportionally, to an HCA than to a nurse or midwife on a higher band. The headline table below starts from basic pay only, then the later sections add those elements one at a time.

Every figure on this page follows the same method. Pension comes off gross pay first, and tax is calculated on what remains. That order matters, because it means pension contributions also reduce the tax bill. National Insurance is calculated on full gross pay, not on pay after pension. Student loan deductions are shown in a separate column, because they apply only to borrowers, and at HCA pay levels a Plan 2 loan takes nothing at all. The method is the same one used in the nurse take-home pay guide, the midwife take-home pay guide and the paramedic take-home pay guide. For the gross salary picture, including role descriptions, see healthcare assistant salary, and for the hour-by-hour breakdown see healthcare assistant hourly pay.

Monthly take-home by band step: the full table

Read the table by band and step. Gross salary is the full-time 2026/27 Agenda for Change figure for England. Pension, income tax and National Insurance are monthly amounts. Take-home is what remains after those three deductions, before any student loan. The final column shows take-home after a Plan 2 student loan, which is the same as take-home here, because no full-time HCA step reaches the Plan 2 threshold.

The step that matters most to a new healthcare assistant is the move from Band 2 to Band 3 entry. Gross pay rises by £488 a year, and take-home rises from £1,700.11 to £1,727.27 a month, a gain of £27.16 a month. The pension rate does not change across that move, because both salaries sit in the 6.5% tier, so the whole gross rise flows through tax and National Insurance only. The move from Band 3 entry to Band 3 top is larger: gross pay rises by £1,716 a year, and take-home rises by £95.53 a month, from £1,727.27 to £1,822.80. The next rung after Band 3 top is Band 4 entry at £28,392, only £916 above Band 3 top in gross terms, and its take-home is worked out in the progression box at the end of this page.

For the hourly view of the same bands, see the healthcare assistant hourly pay guide, which breaks Bands 2 and 3 down by the hour, including night, weekend and overtime rates. The hourly rate calculator converts any of these salaries to an hourly figure for a different contracted hours pattern. Compare bands in full at Band 2 pay and Band 3 pay.

A worked month: the Band 2 payslip

Take a healthcare assistant on Band 2, £25,272 a year, full-time, no student loan, standard tax code. Gross monthly pay is £2,106.00. Pension at 6.5% takes £1,642.68 a year, which is £136.89 a month, leaving £23,629.32 of pay after pension for tax purposes. Take off the £12,570 personal allowance and taxable income is £11,059.32 a year, all of it inside the 20% basic-rate band, giving annual tax of £2,211.86, or £184.32 a month. National Insurance is 8% of the £12,702 between £12,570 and the salary, giving £1,016.16 a year, or £84.68 a month, with no 2% slice because pay sits below £50,270. What is left is £20,401.30 a year, which is £1,700.11 a month. With a Plan 2 student loan, nothing further comes off, because £25,272 sits below the £29,385 threshold.

That worked month doubles as a cross-check on the whole table, because the same method produces every row. A healthcare assistant who gets a different payslip figure can start by looking for a different tax code, a student loan plan other than Plan 2, or unsocial hours and overtime on top of basic pay, rather than doubting the arithmetic. Monthly components are rounded to the penny, so adding rounded monthly components can differ from the monthly take-home by 1p.

Pension: one tier for every healthcare assistant

Pension is the largest deduction for most healthcare assistants, and it is also the one that does quiet work elsewhere. Because contributions come off before tax is calculated, every pound of pension contribution saves 20p of basic-rate tax at these income levels. Unlike nurses and paramedics, whose steps cross pension tier boundaries, every full-time healthcare assistant sits in a single tier. The contribution tiers for 2026/27 are provisional, calculated from the published 2025/26 thresholds, and the employer adds 23.7% on top of every member contribution. The full tier set is:

The practical consequence is simple: a promotion from Band 2 to Band 3, or from Band 3 entry to Band 3 top, is never blunted by a pension tier rise, because the rate stays at 6.5% throughout. Band 4 entry at £28,392 is still inside the 6.5% tier, which runs to £28,854; the first HCA-route step to pay 8.3% is Band 4 top at £31,157, which sits inside the £28,855 to £35,155 tier. Full pension tier tables by band are in the pension contributions by band guide, and the wider pension picture is in NHS pension contributions. Opting out of the pension would lift take-home in the short term, but it would also give up the employer 23.7% contribution and the pension itself, so this page treats pension membership as the normal case and does not present an opt-out figure as a recommendation.

Student loans: why the Plan 2 column is zero

Student loan repayments are not tax and they are not pension, but they come off the same payslip, so they belong in any honest take-home figure. For healthcare assistants the Plan 2 story is short: Plan 2 takes 9% of pay above £29,385 a year in 2026/27, and every full-time HCA salary on this page sits below that threshold, so the deduction is zero at every step. That is worth stating plainly, because a healthcare assistant who trained through a degree route and carries a Plan 2 loan may expect a deduction and wonder why the payslip shows none. The answer is the threshold, not an error.

Other plans use different thresholds, and a healthcare assistant on Plan 1, Plan 4, Plan 5 or a postgraduate loan should run the threshold for their own plan rather than reading the Plan 2 column as their figure. A healthcare assistant who moves to Band 4 or Band 5 through the nursing associate or registered nurse route will cross the Plan 2 threshold on the way: Band 4 top at £31,157 already sits above it, so a Plan 2 deduction of £13.29 a month would apply there on the same method. The full student loan rules for NHS staff are in the student loan repayments guide.

Unsocial hours: what weekend and night work adds to take-home

Basic pay is only the starting point for healthcare assistants on ward rotas. Under Agenda for Change Section 2, Band 2 gets 41% on top of plain time for Saturday and weekday night hours, from 8pm to 6am, and 83% on top for Sunday and bank holiday hours. Band 3 gets 35% and 69%. A Band 2 healthcare assistant earns £12.91 an hour plain time, so a Saturday or night hour is worth an extra £5.29 and a Sunday or bank holiday hour an extra £10.72, giving £18.20 and £23.63 an hour in total. A Band 3 senior healthcare assistant at entry earns £13.16 an hour, so the same enhancements are worth £4.61 and £9.08 an hour, giving £17.77 and £22.24 in total, and at the top of the band (£14.04 plain time) they are worth £4.91 and £9.69, giving £18.95 and £23.73.

Put those rates against a realistic month and the effect becomes concrete. A Band 2 healthcare assistant who works two extra 12 hour night shifts and one extra 12 hour Sunday shift in a month, on top of a normal rota, earns an extra £255.60 in gross pay: 24 night hours at £5.29 plus 12 Sunday hours at £10.72. Annualised, pensionable pay rises to £28,339.20, still inside the 6.5% pension tier, and monthly take-home rises to £1,870.85, a gain of £170.74 after pension (£153.50), tax (£232.12) and National Insurance (£105.13). The gain is roughly two thirds of the gross uplift, because every extra pound is itself pensionable, taxable and subject to National Insurance. Healthcare assistants choosing between a weekday clinic post and a ward rota post should compare on this basis: the rota post pays more, but the gap in the bank is smaller than the gap in the rota enhancements suggests. The full unsocial hours rules are in the unsocial hours and overtime guide.

Overtime works on top of the same base. Bands 1 to 7 pay time and a half for overtime, and double time on bank and public holidays, with overtime starting above 37.5 hours a week. A Band 2 healthcare assistant on £12.91 an hour therefore earns £19.37 an overtime hour and £25.82 on a bank holiday, while a Band 3 senior healthcare assistant at entry earns £19.74 and £26.32 and at the top of the band £21.06 and £28.08. Overtime and an unsocial hours enhancement cannot both be claimed for the same hour. Part-time healthcare assistants should note the threshold rule: hours above contracted hours up to 37.5 are paid at plain time, plus any unsocial enhancement that applies, and overtime rates only start beyond 37.5.

London weighting: take-home with HCAS

High Cost Area Supplement is pensionable, so it lifts both gross pay and the pension contribution. Inner London pays 20% of basic pay with a minimum of £5,794 and a maximum of £8,746, outer London pays 15% with a minimum of £4,870 and a maximum of £6,137, and the fringe zone pays 5% with a minimum of £1,346 and a maximum of £2,270. The minimums matter at HCA pay levels, because the percentages alone would fall short of them. At Band 2, 20% of £25,272 is £5,054.40, below the inner minimum, so the inner payment is lifted to £5,794. Outer London 15% is £3,790.80, below the outer minimum, so the payment is lifted to £4,870. Fringe 5% is £1,263.60, below the fringe minimum, so the payment is lifted to £1,346. At Band 3 top, the same pattern holds for inner and outer London: 20% of £27,476 is £5,495.20, lifted to £5,794, and 15% is £4,121.40, lifted to £4,870, while fringe 5% is £1,373.80, which sits inside the fringe range and is paid as calculated.

Even with the minimums doing the work, London take-home is a clear step above the national figure: a Band 2 healthcare assistant in inner London takes home £1,985.36 a month, against £1,700.11 with no supplement, and a Band 3 senior healthcare assistant at the top in inner London takes home £2,105.41 a month, against £1,822.80. The full London weighting rules are in the London weighting HCAS guide, and the HCAS calculator works out the supplement for any band and zone.

Part-time healthcare assistant take-home pay

Part-time work is common among healthcare assistants, and part-time take-home does not scale in a straight line from full-time take-home, because tax and National Insurance are calculated on actual pay. Here the pension tier does not change anything, because every part-time figure still sits in the 6.5% tier, but tax and National Insurance still fall with actual pay, and the Plan 2 position stays at zero throughout.

Two practical points follow. First, a part-time healthcare assistant whose actual pay falls below the personal allowance of £12,570 would pay no income tax at all, but none of the part-time figures here fall that low: the lowest, Band 2 on 0.6 WTE at £15,163.20, still sits above the allowance, so it pays £26.79 a month in tax. Second, hours worked above contracted hours up to 37.5 a week are paid at plain time, not overtime rates, so a part-time healthcare assistant picking up extra shifts should check whether those hours are plain time or overtime before budgeting on them. The part-time pay guide and the part-time pay calculator cover the pro-rata maths in full.

Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland

The rates on this page are for England. Scotland agreed a 3.75% award from 1 April 2026 and moved to a 36 hour week, with its own pay scale and its own income tax bands. Scotland also has a nine-tier pension structure from 5.7% to 12.7%, but the tier thresholds are not in the verified data file, so this page quotes no Scotland take-home figure rather than estimating one from the England tiers. Wales applied the 3.3% award with a Real Living Wage floor of £13.45 an hour, giving a Band 2 spot salary of £26,300. On the same method as the England table, a Welsh Band 2 healthcare assistant takes home £1,757.33 a month (pension £142.46, tax £200.34, National Insurance £91.53), against £1,700.11 for the England spot rate, because income tax and National Insurance rates are the same across the two nations and only the gross pay differs. Northern Ireland had the 3.3% award recommended but not implemented at the last check, so do not budget on it. For the devolved picture, see the Scotland pay guide, the Wales pay guide and the Northern Ireland pay guide.

What the figures leave out

These are basic-pay figures for full-time contracts unless a section says otherwise, and real healthcare assistant income is usually higher and messier. Bank and agency shifts pay above the Agenda for Change rate in most areas, but there is no national rate card and rates vary widely by region, urgency and specialty, so this page quotes no bank or agency figure. The Agenda for Change rate is still the right benchmark, because it is the pension-building foundation: every bank or agency hour worked outside substantive employment is an hour that does not build NHS pension in the same way, and the substantive post also carries annual leave, sick pay and the other Agenda for Change terms that sessional work does not. Mileage for community healthcare assistants is an expense reimbursement, not pay: car mileage is 59p a mile up to 4,500 miles a year and 36p a mile beyond that, and it is covered in the mileage rates guide rather than counted in take-home here. Uniform tax relief of £125 a year for healthcare assistants (worth £25 at the basic rate and £50 at the higher rate) and any local recruitment premia are also left out, because they are expenses or local payments, not basic pay. A payslip that differs from this page by a small amount usually differs because of a different tax code, a student loan plan, or unsocial hours and overtime on top of basic pay. Monthly components are rounded to the penny, so adding rounded monthly components can differ from the monthly take-home by 1p.

Healthcare assistants on maternity leave, sick leave or a career break should not read these monthly figures as leave pay: maternity pay, sick pay and the career break guide each follow different rules. Annual leave entitlement itself does not change take-home in a normal month, but the annual leave guide sets out the 27, 29 and 33 day tiers plus bank holidays by length of service.

Frequently asked questions

How much does an NHS healthcare assistant take home each month in 2026/27?

In England in 2026/27, a full-time healthcare assistant on Band 2 takes home £1,700.11 a month on the spot salary of £25,272 a year, after income tax, National Insurance and NHS pension contributions and before any student loan. A senior healthcare assistant on Band 3 takes home £1,727.27 a month at entry (£25,760) and £1,822.80 at the top of the band (£27,476). No Plan 2 student loan deduction applies at any of these full-time steps, because all three salaries sit below the Plan 2 threshold of £29,385.

How is healthcare assistant take-home pay calculated?

Pension contributions come off first, which reduces taxable income. Income tax is then calculated on what is left, using the 2026/27 personal allowance of £12,570, the 20% basic rate on taxable income up to £37,700 and the 40% higher rate above that. National Insurance is charged on full gross pay, at 8% between £12,570 and £50,270 and 2% above. Student loans are shown separately, because not every healthcare assistant still carries one. All figures on this page use a standard tax code and basic pay only, with unsocial hours, overtime and London weighting covered as additions.

What pension contribution comes off a healthcare assistant's pay?

Under the provisional 2026/27 tiers, every full-time healthcare assistant on Bands 2 and 3 pays 6.5% of pensionable pay, because all three full-time salaries fall inside the £13,260 to £28,854 tier. That is £136.89 a month at Band 2, £139.53 at Band 3 entry and £148.83 at Band 3 top. The employer adds 23.7% on top in each case. The tiers are provisional for 2026/27, calculated from the published 2025/26 thresholds, so treat the monthly pension figures as the best current estimate rather than a final published rate.

Do healthcare assistants pay student loan deductions?

On a Plan 2 loan, no, not at these salaries. Plan 2 takes 9% of pay above £29,385 a year, and the highest full-time healthcare assistant salary on this page, Band 3 top at £27,476, sits £1,909 below that threshold. The Plan 2 column in the headline table is therefore £0.00 at every step. Other plans use different thresholds, so a healthcare assistant on Plan 1, Plan 4, Plan 5 or a postgraduate loan should check their own plan rather than reading the Plan 2 column as their figure. The full student loan rules for NHS staff are in the student loan repayments guide.

Do night and weekend shifts change healthcare assistant take-home pay much?

Yes, and healthcare assistants have the highest unsocial-hours percentages of any Agenda for Change band except Band 1, which is why shift work matters so much at this pay level. Under Agenda for Change Section 2, Band 2 gets 41% on top of plain time for Saturday and weekday night hours, from 8pm to 6am, and 83% on top for Sunday and bank holiday hours. Band 3 gets 35% and 69%. A Band 2 healthcare assistant earns £12.91 an hour plain time, so a Saturday or night hour is worth an extra £5.29 and a Sunday or bank holiday hour an extra £10.72. A Band 3 senior healthcare assistant at entry earns £13.16 an hour, so the same enhancements are worth £4.61 and £9.08 an hour. The worked example in the unsocial hours section puts those rates against a realistic month.

What does a healthcare assistant take home in London?

With High Cost Area Supplement, a Band 2 healthcare assistant takes home £1,985.36 a month in inner London, £1,935.03 in outer London and £1,775.04 in the fringe zone, against £1,700.11 with no supplement. A Band 3 senior healthcare assistant at the top takes home £2,105.41 a month in inner London, £2,055.08 in outer London and £1,899.27 in the fringe zone. London weighting is pensionable, so it also lifts the pension contribution: Band 2 inner London total pay of £31,066 even crosses into the 8.3% pension tier. At Band 2 and for inner and outer London at Band 3 top, the London minimums, not the percentages, set the payment; only Band 3 top fringe pays the straight 5%.

What does a part-time healthcare assistant take home?

A Band 2 healthcare assistant on 0.8 WTE (30 hours) takes home £1,413.40 a month on actual pay of £20,121.60, and £1,137.38 on 0.6 WTE (22.5 hours, £15,163.20). A Band 3 senior healthcare assistant at the top on 0.8 WTE takes home £1,516.90 a month (£21,980.80 actual pay) and £1,211.00 on 0.6 WTE (£16,485.60). The pension tier follows actual pay, not full-time pay, but every part-time figure here still sits in the 6.5% tier, because even 0.6 WTE at Band 2, £15,163.20, sits above the 6.5% tier floor of £13,260. No Plan 2 deduction applies at any of these part-time figures.

Why does my payslip differ from the figures on this page?

The usual reasons are a different tax code, a student loan plan, unsocial hours or overtime on top of basic pay, London weighting, or a part-time fraction. Salary sacrifice for a car or pension, a previous employment in the same tax year, and arrears or back pay in a single month can also move one month away from the steady monthly figure. If the gap is small and steady, check the tax code first. If it is large, check whether unsocial hours or London weighting are included in the gross figure being compared, because this page starts from basic pay only.