What 3.5%, 4.2% or 9% actually means on your pay. Police staff and PCSOs are not covered by the officers' 3.5% and the 2026 award is still being negotiated, so see what each scenario would be worth to you: gross, in your bank after tax, NI and pension, and as back pay.
Pay deal alerts for police staff
No national offer, ballot or settlement had been published when we last checked (3 October 2026). Leave your email and we will tell you when one is, with what it means for your pay.
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ExampleOn £32,000 a year: type your own salary to see yours. Extra in your bank each month:
What-ifs, not forecasts. Back pay assumes the new rate first appears in the December 2026 payslip.
Officer award
What officers got from 1 September 2026. Staff are on a separate track — this is 'if staff matched it'.
Last year (staff)
Last year's police staff award (2025/26, effective 1 September 2025).
Your scenario
Pick any rate to test an offer you have heard about.
Union claim
The unions' opening claim, whichever is greater. A claim is a starting position, not an offer.
| Figure | Officer award3.5% | Last year (staff)4.2% | Your scenario5.0% | Union claim9% or £2,700 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| New salary | £33,120 | £33,344 | £33,600 | £34,880 |
| Rise a year (gross) | +£1,1203.5% | +£1,3444.2% | +£1,6005.0% | +£2,8809.0% |
| Rise a month (gross) | +£93 | +£112 | +£133 | +£240 |
| In your bank a month | +£62 | +£75 | +£89 | +£160 |
| Back pay (3 mo) | £280 gross≈ £187 after deductions | £336 gross≈ £224 after deductions | £400 gross≈ £267 after deductions | £720 gross≈ £481 after deductions |
What-ifs, not forecasts: as at 3 October 2026 no employers' offer has been published. Uses England & Wales 2026/27 income tax and National Insurance and treats your pension as taken before tax. Your payslip will differ with your tax code, student loan, salary sacrifice and how your force pays arrears. Scottish tax bands are different.
Pay deal news
No employers' offer, ballot or settlement exists yet. Leave your email and we will write when one is confirmed, with the date it is backdated to if that is stated, so you can put the real figure into this calculator.
Sent by a person when there is news, not on a schedule. Unsubscribe any time. See our privacy policy.
Where the three fixed figures come from, how the take-home and back pay estimates are worked out, and what is still unknown.
Not nationally, as at 3 October 2026. The Police Staff Council's employer and union sides met on 19 August 2026 and adjourned to 10 September; the Local Government Association's Police Staff page says the 10 September talks were postponed, and on 1 October GMB said negotiations "have been taking place and are ongoing". We have not found a published employers' offer, a union ballot or a settlement, so every figure in this calculator is a what-if, not a forecast. One force, Thames Valley Police, has said on its careers site (1 September 2026) that its staff will get 3.5%; if your force has said something similar, its own wording applies to you.
3.5% is the award police officers received from 1 September 2026 (the review body recommended 3.9%; the Home Secretary decided 3.5%) — staff pay is negotiated separately, so it is shown as a comparison. 4.2% was the police staff award for 2025/26 (effective 1 September 2025, accepted by UNISON members in a ballot). 9% or £2,700, whichever is greater, is the joint trade union claim submitted in spring 2026 — an opening position, not an offer.
The claim is 9% or £2,700 on every pay point, whichever is more. 9% of £30,000 is exactly £2,700, so anyone earning less than £30,000 would get the £2,700 flat amount (a bigger percentage rise for lower earners), and anyone earning more would get 9%.
The calculator takes your LGPS pension contribution off first, charges England & Wales income tax on what is left, and charges National Insurance on the full gross — the same assumptions as the site's officer pay tools. The 'in your bank' figure is the difference between your take-home before and after the rise. It is an estimate: your tax code, student loan, salary sacrifice and any non-pensionable pay will change your real payslip.
You choose the first payslip that carries the new rate. Every pay run from September until then is paid at the old rate, so the gross arrears are your monthly rise multiplied by the number of months. The 'after deductions' figure scales your extra monthly take-home by the same number of months. Real payroll taxes the lump on a cumulative tax code and charges National Insurance against the single month it lands in, so treat it as a guide.
Nobody can say for 2026 yet. In the last round the 4.2% award took effect from 1 September 2025 even though it was only accepted in October. That is a precedent, not a promise — the calculator lets you test both a September-payslip and a late-payslip scenario.
It is built for police staff and PCSOs, who are civilian employees and in most forces members of the Local Government Pension Scheme. Metropolitan Police staff are in Civil Service pension arrangements instead, so enter your own contribution rate if you work for the Met. Police officers have a different, confirmed 3.5% award and different pension contributions — use the officer back pay calculator instead.
UNISON, police staff pay claim 2026 · UNISON, 2025/26 award · UNISON West Midlands Police, 1 Sept 2026 · GMB, talks update 1 Oct 2026 · Thames Valley Police careers, 1 Sept 2026 · LGA, Police Staff Council. General information, not financial advice.