NHS Mileage Calculator 2026/27

Last updated: 5 November 2026 · Figures verified against the NHS Employers 2026/27 pay circular.

By the NHS Bands Pay editorial team

The calculator

The one input that decides everything is your running total for the mileage year. A claim made in isolation looks simple, but the car rate changes once your cumulative business miles pass 4,500, so a claim for 2,000 miles can be worth £1,180 at the top rate or £835 split across both tiers, depending on what you have already claimed. That is why the calculator asks for miles already claimed before it prices anything. It also handles the two small additions that community staff most often forget: 5p per mile for miles carrying a passenger, and 3p per mile for miles carrying heavy or bulky equipment. Both stack on top of the vehicle rate. The tool works on the England Section 17 rates for journeys made on or after 1 July 2026. It is a gross payment calculator: mileage payments up to the HMRC benchmark are not taxable, and the relief figure at the bottom is the shortfall you can claim relief on, not extra cash from your employer.

The rates the calculator uses

Section 17 of Agenda for Change sets the business mileage rates for England, and the 2026/27 position changed during the year, which is why older guides disagree with each other. A new mechanism phased in during June 2026 moved the car threshold from 3,500 miles to 4,500 miles, and the higher threshold applies to journeys made on or after 1 July 2026. Journeys made between 1 June and 30 June 2026 still sat under the old 3,500-mile threshold, so a claim spanning that boundary needs the two periods priced separately. The calculator uses the current position, 4,500 miles, and anyone pricing a June 2026 journey should split it by hand using the old threshold. Every other vehicle rate is flat: no threshold, no tier change, just one rate for every mile.

HMRC runs a separate benchmark alongside the NHS rates, and the gap between the two is where Mileage Allowance Relief comes from. The benchmark is called the Approved Mileage Allowance Payment, and for 2026/27 it is 55p per mile for the first 10,000 business miles in a car, then 25p per mile after that. Motorcycles sit at 24p and pedal cycles at 20p. Note the car benchmark change: before 6 April 2026 the first band was 45p, so anyone looking at a pre-April 2026 payslip or an old guide will see a different benchmark and should not mix the two years. The calculator prices the 2026/27 benchmark only, which is the right comparison for current claims.

Source: Agenda for Change Section 17 mileage rates (England) and the HMRC Approved Mileage Allowance Payment rates for 2026/27, as recorded in the verified 2026/27 pay data and set out in full in the NHS mileage rates guide.

How the 4,500-mile tier split works

Think of the 4,500-mile threshold as a counter that runs through the mileage year, not as a property of any single journey. Every business mile you claim adds to the counter, and the rate for each new mile depends on where the counter stands when that mile is driven. The first 4,500 miles on the counter are paid at 59p. Mile 4,501 onwards is paid at 36p. The counter then resets and the next mileage year starts again at 59p. This is why two colleagues driving the same route in the same month can be paid different rates: one is still inside the first 4,500 miles and the other passed the threshold months ago. Employers track the running total, but checking it yourself before submitting a claim catches the commonest error, which is claiming a full month at 59p when part of it should have been priced at 36p.

For the 2026/27 period the mileage year runs from 1 July to 30 June, so the counter resets on 1 July each year. There is a change coming that is worth diarising: from 1 April 2027 the mileage-year counter will reset on 1 April each year instead of 1 July, bringing it into line with the financial and pay year. The transition period between the two reset dates is the part to watch, because a reset date that moves from July to April changes which rate applies to spring journeys. If your employer has not yet explained how the changeover will be handled, ask before the spring rather than discovering a shortfall in a summer expenses statement. The calculator does not model the transition, because the data file records the change of reset date without publishing the transitional counting rules, and inventing them would be worse than leaving the gap visible.

A short history helps explain why some staff still quote the old threshold. Before June 2026 the car threshold was 3,500 miles, and the June 2026 phase-in kept that figure for journeys made between 1 June and 30 June 2026 before moving to 4,500 miles on 1 July. Anyone reconciling a full year that straddles June 2026 therefore has two thresholds in one year: 3,500 for the June slice and 4,500 from July onwards. Claims made entirely after 1 July 2026, which is every claim this calculator is built for, use 4,500 throughout. If you are checking an old claim from June 2026 against this page, do not be surprised when the figures differ: the threshold changed, not the arithmetic.

Worked examples

The examples below are the calculator's own test cases, worked by hand so you can check the tool against them. They cover the cases that actually trip people up: the tier crossing, the flat-rate vehicles, and the mid-year claim where the already-claimed figure changes the answer. Every figure uses the England Section 17 rates for journeys on or after 1 July 2026 and the 2026/27 HMRC benchmarks.

The 6,000-mile community nurse example is the one to learn first, because it is the shape of a real district nursing year. The first 4,500 miles are paid at 59p, which is £2,655. The remaining 1,500 miles are paid at 36p, which is £540. Add them together and the year is worth £3,195. The relief shortfall on the same year is 1,500 miles at 19p, the gap between the 55p benchmark and the 36p employer rate, which is £285. That £285 is the amount you can claim relief on, and at the 20% basic rate it saves £57 of tax. It is not £285 back in your bank account, and anyone promising that figure as cash is confusing relief with reimbursement.

The mid-year example shows why the already-claimed box exists. A nurse who has already claimed 4,000 miles and now claims 2,000 more has a running total of 6,000 miles, so only the first 500 of the new miles are paid at 59p, which is £295, and the remaining 1,500 miles are paid at 36p, which is £540, giving £835 in total. Entered with the already-claimed box left at zero, the same 2,000 miles would wrongly price at £1,180, an overstatement of £345. The shortfall on the mid-year claim is the same £285 as the full-year 6,000-mile example, because the shortfall depends on the cumulative position, not on how the miles are grouped into claims. That is a useful cross-check: split a year into monthly claims and the shortfall should add up to the same total as claiming the whole year at once.

The two flat-rate examples are deliberately boring, and that is the point. A motorcyclist doing 5,000 miles a year at 30p receives £1,500 with no tier change and no shortfall, because the 30p employer rate beats the 24p benchmark on every mile. A cyclist doing 1,000 miles at 20p receives £200, again with no shortfall, because the employer rate equals the benchmark exactly. Flat rates make the maths easy, and they also make the relief question easy: if your employer rate is at or above the benchmark on every mile, there is nothing to claim, and a £0 shortfall from the calculator is the right answer.

What a year of driving is worth

The chart below plots the car payment for a full mileage year at four annual mileages, using the same Section 17 rates as the calculator. The shape tells the story better than any single figure: the line climbs steeply while every mile is paid at 59p, then flattens once the 36p tier takes over. A driver doing 1,000 miles a year averages the full 59p per mile. A driver doing 10,000 miles averages 46.35p per mile, because more than half the year is paid at the lower rate. High-mileage community staff therefore earn less per mile on average than low-mileage colleagues, which is exactly why the relief shortfall exists: it softens, but does not remove, the penalty for driving further. District nurses and health visitors are the staff most affected, because home visiting puts them at the top of the mileage table year after year.

Mileage Allowance Relief: the shortfall, mile by mile

Relief is where the most expensive misunderstanding in mileage lives, so it is worth slowing down for it. The correct method works mile by mile: for each mile, compare the employer rate with the HMRC benchmark for that mile, and add up only the miles where the employer rate is lower. For a car, the first 4,500 miles need no relief at all, because 59p beats the 55p benchmark. Miles 4,501 to 10,000 each carry a 19p shortfall, because the employer pays 36p against a 55p benchmark. Beyond 10,000 miles there is no shortfall either, because the benchmark drops to 25p and the employer rate of 36p is higher again. The maximum shortfall for a standard car year is therefore 5,500 miles at 19p, which is £1,045, and no amount of extra driving pushes it higher.

The tempting shortcut is to subtract the two totals, and it gives the wrong answer. Take the 10,000-mile year: the benchmark total is 10,000 miles at 55p, which is £5,500, and the employer pays £4,635, so the totals method gives a shortfall of £865. The mile-by-mile method gives £1,045. The £180 gap is the first 4,500 miles, where the employer overpays relative to the benchmark by 4p a mile, and that overpayment does not cancel out the shortfall on later miles. HMRC does not net the two off against each other, so the calculator does not either. Anyone whose accountant or payroll office quotes the £865 figure for a 10,000-mile year is using the totals method, and the mile-by-mile figure is the one to claim.

Claiming the relief is a separate step from claiming the mileage itself, and it is the step most staff miss. Your employer pays the mileage; you claim the relief from HMRC, usually through form P87 or through self assessment if you already file a return. Claims can be backdated up to four tax years, which matters for community staff who have been driving high-mileage years without knowing relief existed. The relief reduces your taxable income by the shortfall amount, so the cash value depends on your tax rate: £1,045 of shortfall saves £209 at 20% and £418 at 40%. Higher-rate taxpayers therefore get twice the cash value from the same driving, which is a quirk of how tax relief works rather than a difference in the driving itself. The tax code guide explains how relief of this kind shows up in your code and on your payslip.

One more boundary deserves a plain statement. The reserve rate of 30p per mile applies where the standard rates are not payable, for example in certain bank or irregular working arrangements, and the bulky equipment addition of 3p per mile applies on miles where heavy equipment is carried. Both are set out in the rates table above, and both are worth claiming where they apply, because employers do not add them automatically. The calculator prices the bulky addition and the passenger addition directly. It does not price the reserve rate as a vehicle option, because whether the reserve rate applies depends on your contract and assignment terms, so check those terms first and price reserve-rate miles at 30p flat if they apply to you.

What counts as a business mile

Under Section 17 the test is whether the travel is necessary for you to do your job, over and above your normal commute. Driving from your base to a patient's home counts. Driving between work sites during the day counts. Driving from home to your normal workplace does not count, no matter how far you live from base, and that home-to-base leg is the commonest reason claims get rejected. The claimable day starts when you leave your base for your first visit, not when you leave your house. Staff with no fixed base have different arrangements, and in that case your contract and your employer's policy define your base of work, so confirm it in writing rather than assuming the most generous reading.

Community roles are where this test bites hardest, because the whole working day is spent travelling. A district nurse driving between home visits, a health visitor covering a patch, and a community paramedic on rotational primary care visits all rack up business miles that dwarf a hospital-based colleague's total. The same test still applies to every leg, and the discipline that protects a claim is boring but effective: log the date, the start and end points, the miles, and the purpose of each journey, and keep a copy of every claim you submit. If a claim is queried months later, a contemporaneous log is worth far more than a reconstructed estimate, and it is also the record HMRC would want to see if a relief claim is ever checked.

Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland

This calculator and the rates behind it describe the Section 17 arrangements for England. The devolved administrations run their own mileage arrangements, and the rates, thresholds and mileage-year definitions can differ from the English position used here. Staff working in Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland should check their own nation's pay circular or their employer's local expenses policy rather than assuming the English rates apply. Where a community team works across a border, for example a patch that straddles England and Wales, your employer will tell you which policy governs your claims, so confirm this at induction rather than discovering a discrepancy months later when two different rate sets have been mixed in one claim.

Keeping records that survive a query

Most mileage disputes are record disputes, not rate disputes. The rates are published and the calculator reproduces them, but a claim without a clear trail is hard to defend and easy to delay. Keep four things for every journey: the date, the start and end points, the number of business miles, and the purpose, such as a home visit or a clinic session. Keep a copy of each submitted claim and the expenses statement that paid it, and check the statement against your own log before the month is forgotten. Small differences, a missing leg or a transposed mileage figure, are easy to fix in the month they happen and painful to reconstruct a year later.

Two checks belong in every monthly routine. First, compare your running total against the 4,500-mile threshold before submitting, so a claim that crosses the threshold is priced correctly from the start rather than corrected later. Second, once a year, add up your shortfall and check whether a Mileage Allowance Relief claim is due, because relief is claimed from HMRC separately and nobody will prompt you for it. Staff who drive for the NHS and also pick up overtime or unsocial-hours shifts should keep the two claims separate in their records: overtime is paid on hours through payroll, mileage is paid on miles through expenses, and mixing the two in one log is how errors creep into both.

Frequently asked questions

How do I use the NHS mileage calculator?

Pick your vehicle, enter the business miles you want to claim and the miles you have already claimed this mileage year, then press Calculate my mileage pay. The tool shows your payment split across the two car tiers where they apply, any passenger and bulky equipment additions, the HMRC benchmark for the same miles, and any Mileage Allowance Relief shortfall.

What is the NHS car mileage rate for 2026/27?

For journeys made on or after 1 July 2026, a car is paid at 59p per mile for the first 4,500 miles of the mileage year, then 36p per mile for every further mile. The 4,500-mile threshold replaced the 3,500-mile threshold that applied to journeys made between 1 June and 30 June 2026.

Why does the calculator ask how many miles I have already claimed?

The car tier depends on your running total for the mileage year, not on a single claim. If you have already claimed 4,000 miles and now claim 2,000 more, only the first 500 of the new miles are paid at 59p and the remaining 1,500 drop to 36p. Leaving the already-claimed box at zero for a mid-year claim would price every mile at 59p and overstate your payment.

What is Mileage Allowance Relief, and is it cash in my bank account?

Mileage Allowance Relief is tax relief, not a cash payment from your employer. Where your employer pays less than HMRC's approved benchmark for a mile, you can claim relief on the shortfall through form P87 or through self assessment, and claims can be backdated up to four tax years. The tax you save is the shortfall multiplied by your marginal tax rate, so a £1,045 shortfall saves £209 at the 20% basic rate and £418 at the 40% higher rate.

What happens if I drive more than 10,000 business miles in a year?

The HMRC car benchmark drops from 55p to 25p per mile after the first 10,000 business miles, while the NHS car rate stays at 36p beyond 4,500 miles. The employer rate is then higher than the benchmark, so no further shortfall accrues. For a standard car year the total shortfall is capped at £1,045, which is 5,500 miles at 19p per mile between mile 4,501 and mile 10,000.

Do motorcycle and pedal cycle miles qualify for Mileage Allowance Relief?

On the 2026/27 figures, no. A motorcycle is paid 30p per mile by the NHS against a 24p HMRC benchmark, so the employer rate is already higher. A pedal cycle is paid 20p per mile, exactly matching the 20p benchmark. The calculator therefore shows a £0 shortfall for both vehicle types, and that zero is the correct answer rather than a gap in the tool.

Can I claim mileage for driving to my normal workplace?

No. Travel between home and your normal workplace is ordinary commuting and is never claimable under Section 17, no matter how far you live from base. Only business journeys qualify, such as travelling from your base to patients homes or between work sites. Staff with no fixed base should check where their contract records their base of work, because that decides which legs count.

Can I use this calculator in Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland?

The rates in this calculator are the Section 17 arrangements for England. The devolved administrations set their own mileage arrangements, so the rates, thresholds and mileage-year definitions can differ from the English position used here. Staff in Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland should check their own nation's pay circular or their employer's expenses policy rather than assuming the English rates apply.