PSNI
Take-Home Pay Calculator

• Pay scale: the 2025/26 scale from 1 September 2025. No 2026/27 PSNI award had been published at 23 October 2026.
• NITA: £4,283 a year for every officer. Taxed and charged National Insurance, but not pensionable.
• Pension: 13.66% of pensionable pay under £60,000, 14.00% at £60,000 or more. Taken before tax.
• Tax and National Insurance: the 2026/27 UK rates, the same bands as England and Wales.
• New constable, point 1: about £2,136 a month (our estimate).
• After the first increment, point 2: about £2,203 a month (our estimate, before any new annual award).
• Top of the constable scale, point 7: about £3,129 a month (our estimate).

Every figure on this page is our estimate from the published pay scale and the published tax and pension rates. Your payslip is the authority on your own pay.

The calculator works through five steps, in this order:

1. Gross pay. Your salary for the rank and pay point you pick, plus NITA, plus CRTP if you tick it, plus any overtime you enter.
2. Pensionable pay. Salary, plus CRTP if ticked. NITA and overtime are left out.
3. Pension contribution. 13.66% or 14.00% of pensionable pay, depending on which side of £60,000 it falls.
4. Income tax. Worked out on gross pay after the pension contribution has come off.
5. National Insurance. Worked out on the full gross pay, with nothing taken off first.

Take-home pay is gross pay minus the three deductions. The monthly figure is the annual figure divided by 12, so it shows a typical month rather than any particular payslip.

New PSNI officers are enrolled automatically into the Police Pension Scheme (NI) 2015. For the scheme years from 1 April 2025 to 31 March 2027, the member contribution depends on annualised pensionable earnings:

• Under £60,000: 13.66%.
• £60,000 or more: 14.00%.

These two bands were set by the Police Pensions (Amendment No. 2) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2024, made on 17 December 2024 and in force from 1 April 2025, to cover a 0.2% shortfall found in the 2020 valuation.

In practice the band follows rank. Every constable point is under £60,000, so constables pay 13.66%. Sergeants are also under £60,000 on salary alone (the top sergeant point is £56,208). Every inspector point and above is over £60,000, so the rate is 14.00%. A newly promoted inspector at point 0 pays about £8,928 a year (our estimate).

The calculator takes the pension contribution off before working out income tax, so you get tax relief on it automatically at your top rate. It does not reduce National Insurance. For what the contributions buy, see our PSNI pension guide.

The Northern Ireland Transitional Allowance is £4,283 a year from 1 September 2025. The PRRB describes it as "a taxable non-pensionable allowance received by all police officers", unique to the PSNI, paid in recognition of the constant threat of terrorist attack that officers and their families in Northern Ireland live with.

That one description sets how it is treated in the calculator:

• Taxable: it is added to gross pay, so income tax is charged on it.
• National Insurance: it counts as earnings, so National Insurance is charged on it too.
• Not pensionable: no pension contribution is taken from it and it does not build pension.

At pay point 1, NITA adds about £3,084 a year to take-home pay on our estimate, about £257 a month. The rest of the £4,283 goes in tax and National Insurance.

Northern Ireland uses the same UK income tax bands as England and Wales. For 2026/27 the calculator uses a Personal Allowance of £12,570, then 20% on the next £37,700 of taxable income, 40% above that and 45% at the top.

Two details matter for PSNI pay:

• Tax is on pay after pension. At point 7 the pension contribution keeps taxable pay at £47,675, so a top-point constable with NITA pays no higher-rate tax on our estimate. Enough overtime can tip part of your pay into the 40% band.
• The Personal Allowance tapers above £100,000. It falls by £1 for every £2 of income over £100,000. Without overtime, only the top chief superintendent point reaches that level after pension.

The calculator assumes the standard Personal Allowance. If your tax code is different, for example because of a benefit in kind or an underpayment from an earlier year, your tax will differ.

Employee National Insurance for 2026/27 is 8% on earnings between £12,570 and £50,270 a year and 2% on earnings above that. It is charged on all gross pay, including NITA, CRTP and overtime.

Unlike income tax, National Insurance is not reduced by your pension contribution. That is why the National Insurance figure in the calculator is worked out on the gross figure, not the taxable figure.

On a payslip, National Insurance is worked out each pay period against that period's thresholds rather than across the year. With steady monthly pay the two methods give almost the same answer. A month with back pay or a lot of overtime will show more National Insurance than a normal month.

These are our estimates for each point on the PSNI constable scale for officers appointed after 1 September 2025, with NITA, paying into the pension, with no CRTP or overtime and the standard Personal Allowance.

Student officers appointed after 1 September 2025 enter at point 1. The first increment, to point 2, comes after twelve months from joining. The PSNI does not publish the timing of later increments on its recruitment pages.

Notice that the pension rate is 13.66% at every point. The salary figures are on our PSNI pay scales page.

The ranks above constable use the PRRB's recommended pay points from 1 September 2025. The Department of Justice confirmed the recommended 4.2% award was paid. This table shows the first and last point of each rank, with NITA.

The jump in the pension rate from 13.66% to 14.00% happens on promotion to inspector. Pick any point in the calculator to see the full breakdown, including how much income falls in each tax band. See our PSNI ranks guide for the rank structure.

The same constable at point 1 or point 7, with one thing changed at a time. The last column shows how much more or less reaches your bank account in a year.

• £3,000 of overtime adds about £2,160 a year at point 1 and £2,259 at point 7 on our estimate. You keep a little more at point 7 because National Insurance on pay above £50,270 is 2% rather than 8%, even though part of that overtime is taxed at 40%.
• CRTP adds £1,224 gross but about £821 to take-home pay at point 7, because pension is taken from it as well as tax and National Insurance.
• Opting out of the pension raises take-home pay at point 1 by about £3,405 a year, but you build no police pension for that time.

CRTP is £1,224 a year. The PRRB records that it is pensionable and still paid in Northern Ireland, though it was abolished in England and Wales.

The calculator leaves CRTP off by default because not every officer receives it. When you tick it, the calculator adds it to gross pay and to pensionable pay, so a pension contribution is taken from it. This page does not cover the eligibility rules: check your payslip or ask PSNI HR whether you receive it.

Enter overtime as a yearly amount in pounds, before any deductions. The calculator adds it to gross pay, charges income tax and National Insurance on it and does not take a pension contribution from it.

On overtime rates, the PRRB's comparison table records that in Northern Ireland:

• Casual overtime is paid at time and one third, the same as England and Wales.
• A rest day cancelled with fewer than 15 days' notice is paid at time and a half.
• Double time applies where a rest day is cancelled with fewer than 3 days' notice (changed from 5 days).
• A 4-hour minimum payment when recalled to duty is retained in Northern Ireland.

Overtime may be required at short notice, but it is not guaranteed, so it is safer to budget on take-home pay without it.

The income tax and National Insurance rules are the same either side of the Irish Sea. What differs is what goes into gross pay and how much pension comes out of it:

Two consequences for anyone comparing payslips. First, an England and Wales calculator will not add NITA and will use the wrong pension table. Second, a PSNI officer has no Unsocial Hours Allowance, so take-home pay on late and night shifts does not rise in the way it can in England and Wales.

Serving officers in England and Wales thinking about a move can read our guide to the PSNI Transferee Scheme, which reopened in October 2026.

1. Tax code. The calculator assumes the standard Personal Allowance.
2. Other deductions. Student loan repayments and any other deductions on your payslip are not included.
3. Back pay. The 2025/26 award was paid in January 2026 salaries, backdated to 1 September 2025. Arrears land in one month, so that month's tax and National Insurance look higher.
4. Overtime timing. If overtime is paid in a different month from when it was worked, one month can look very different.
5. Part-time hours. The calculator uses full-time salary.
6. Pay point changes. An increment part way through the year changes pay from that month.
7. Legacy pension schemes. The calculator uses the 2015 scheme rates. If you kept rights in an older scheme, ask PSNI Pensions Branch.

If something looks wrong, ask PSNI HR first. For pension deductions the contact is PSNI Pensions Branch.

• Taking pension from NITA. NITA is not pensionable.
• Using the England and Wales pension rates. PSNI officers pay 13.66% or 14.00%.
• Using total pay for the £60,000 test. The band depends on pensionable pay.
• Leaving NITA out. Every PSNI officer receives it.
• Counting on overtime. It is not guaranteed.
• Assuming a 2026/27 rise. None had been published at 23 October 2026.
• Using Scottish tax bands. Northern Ireland uses the UK bands.