Police constable take-home pay

A police constable in England and Wales takes home about £1,952 a month at pay point 1 and about £2,942 a month at pay point 7 from 1 September 2026, with no student loan. Those figures follow deductions for the Police Pension Scheme, Income Tax and National Insurance. With a Plan 2 student loan the figures are about £1,930 and £2,772. They do not include overtime, allowances or London weighting.

Take-home pay at each pay point

The scale is the one the Police Federation publishes for constables appointed on or after 1 April 2013, effective from 1 September 2026. The calculation uses a 1257L tax code and the annual salary divided by twelve.

Pay point	Gross salary	Pension rate	Monthly take-home, no loan	Plan 2 loan
PP1	£32,255	12.88%	£1,951.64	£1,930.11
PP2	£33,609	12.88%	£2,021.25	£1,989.57
PP3	£34,972	12.88%	£2,091.33	£2,049.42
PP4	£36,335	12.88%	£2,161.40	£2,109.28
PP5	£39,058	13.88%	£2,275.36	£2,202.82
PP6	£44,544	13.88%	£2,553.76	£2,440.07
PP7	£52,015	13.88%	£2,941.61	£2,771.89

Before 1 September the scale was lower, so your pay for the first five months of the tax year was too. These are the rates that apply from September onwards.

The pension takes a large share

Police pension contributions are among the highest in the public sector. From 1 April 2026 the rate is 12.88% on pensionable pay up to £37,035 and 13.88% above that, up to £79,588. The tier is worked out from actual pensionable pay, not the full-time figure, and it comes from your pay in the previous scheme year, except for people who have just joined.

At PP1 that is £4,154.44 a year. The Police Federation says officers build their pension at 1/55.3 of pay each year, uprated every April, and that the normal pension age is 60. Its page also says contributions get full tax relief. Pension tax relief: net pay vs relief at source explains how that works. These calculations take the contribution off before tax, which is how most workplace schemes work, so your payslip is the final word.

The rise at pay point 5

The gap from PP4 to PP5 is £2,723 gross, which looks large. Your pension rate also moves up a tier from 12.88% to 13.88%, so the pension rises from £4,679.95 to £5,421.25 a year. Take-home pay goes up by £113.96 a month with no loan, around half of the gross rise. The later steps are kinder:

• PP5 to PP6 adds £5,486 gross and £278.40 a month of take-home pay, about 61 per cent.
• PP6 to PP7 adds £7,471 gross and £387.85 a month, about 62 per cent.

Those percentages are before a student loan. A Plan 2 borrower keeps about 9 percentage points less of each rise.

Tax at the top of the scale

At PP7 the gross salary is £52,015, but after the £7,219.68 pension contribution taxable pay is £44,795. That is below £50,270, so the whole of it is taxed at 20% once the £12,570 allowance is taken off. National Insurance is charged on gross pay, so £1,745 of the salary above £50,270 pays 2% instead of 8%.

Constables who work a lot of overtime or take extra allowances can reach higher taxable pay. Those payments are taxed through PAYE like basic pay. The take-home pay calculator lets you add them.

Student loans

Plan 2 borrowers repay 9% of pay above £29,385, which means a repayment from PP1: £258.30 a year there and £2,036.70 at PP7. Plan 5 borrowers repay on pay above £25,000, so they pay more at every point. Student loan Plan 2 repayments covers how the deduction is taken each payday.

What these figures leave out

London weighting and the London allowance, which rose with the 3.5% award, are not included, because the new cash values have not been checked here. Nor do the figures include rest-day working, overtime, or allowances set by individual forces. The police pay scales guide covers the 2026 award and the pay points, and how to become a police constable covers the entry routes.

Officers in Scotland and Northern Ireland are on separate scales, and officers who live in Scotland pay Scottish rates of Income Tax.