Band 4 to Band 5: the real gain
The gross jump is £916. After tax, National Insurance and a pension tier that moves from 8.3% to 8.3%, what actually reaches you is £599 a year — £49.89 a month, and 65.4% of the gross rise.
| Band 4 top | Band 5 entry | Difference | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Salary | £31,157 | £32,073 | £916 |
| Pension tier | 8.3% | 8.3% | 0.0% |
| Pension contribution | £2,586 | £2,662 | £76 |
| Income tax | £3,200 | £3,368 | £168 |
| National Insurance | £1,486 | £1,560 | £73 |
| Take-home a year | £23,884 | £24,483 | £599 |
| Take-home a month | £1,990.36 | £2,040.25 | £49.89 |
Why the net gain is so much smaller
Three things happen at once. The extra pay is taxed at your marginal rate. Your pension contribution rises because the contribution is a percentage of a bigger number. And if the rise crosses a tier boundary, the percentage itself goes up and applies to all your pensionable pay, not just the extra.
That third effect is the one nobody warns you about. Here the tier does not change, which makes this one of the cleaner steps on the Agenda for Change scale.
With a student loan
| Plan | Net gain a year | A month | % of gross rise kept |
|---|---|---|---|
| Plan 2 | £515 | £42.89 | 56.2% |
| Plan 4 (Scotland) | £599 | £49.89 | 65.4% |
| Plan 5 | £515 | £42.89 | 56.2% |
Is it worth applying?
That is not a money question alone, and it should not be answered as one. Band %s carries different responsibility, and often different hours and different unsocial hours exposure, which can move the figure in either direction. What the table above does is remove the guesswork from the money half, so you can weigh the rest honestly.
If the step is marginal financially, it is worth checking whether it changes your unsocial hours pattern. The unsocial hours calculator prices that separately, and for some roles it is larger than the band step itself.
The step with a high cost area supplement
| Area | Band 4 top | Band 5 entry | Net gain a year | A month |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Outside a high cost area | £31,157 | £32,073 | £599 | £49.89 |
| London fringe | £32,715 | £33,677 | £629 | £52.39 |
| Outer London | £36,027 | £36,943 | £588 | £48.98 |
| Inner London | £37,388 | £38,488 | £705 | £58.77 |
And with unsocial hours in the mix
| Enhancement | Band 4 top | Band 5 entry | Net gain | Pension tier after |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0% | £31,157 | £32,073 | £599 | 8.3% |
| 5% | £32,715 | £33,677 | £629 | 8.3% |
| 10% | £34,273 | £35,280 | £235 | 9.8% |
| 15% | £35,831 | £36,884 | £676 | 9.8% |
Enhancements are pensionable, so they count towards the tier as well as towards your pay. A band step combined with a regular night pattern is the most common way NHS staff cross a tier boundary without expecting to. The tier trap page lists every boundary.
These are the England Agenda for Change scales. Scotland received a different award (3.75%) applied to a re-based 2025/26 starting point and uses a different band point structure, so Scottish salaries are not England's figures plus a percentage. Wales received the same 3.3% headline but negotiates its own terms. Northern Ireland had not announced a 2026/27 award at the time of writing. We have not published Scottish, Welsh or Northern Irish scales here because we could not confirm them from a primary source, and a wrong salary is worse than no salary. Check your own nation's circular before relying on a figure.
Questions people actually ask
How much more is Band 5 than Band 4?
£916 gross, and £599 in your pocket — £49.89 a month.
Does moving band change my pension contribution?
Yes, and in two ways: the contribution is a percentage of a larger salary, and if you cross a tier boundary the percentage itself rises and applies to everything.
Figures on this page are for the 2026/27 tax year (6 April 2026 to 5 April 2027) and were last checked on 29 August 2026. Every rate we use is listed on the sources page.