NHS Salary · HCAS

NHS London Weighting (HCAS) Take-Home Pay 2026/27

High Cost Area Supplement (HCAS) tops up NHS pay in and around London — 20% Inner, 15% Outer, 5% Fringe — but each zone has a floor and a ceiling, so your supplement is rarely a flat percentage. This calculator applies the clamp, shows the supplement gross and after tax, NI and the NHS pension, and reflects that HCAS is pensionable. Pick your band and zone below.

6 min read· Updated 19 August 2026· 🇬🇧 UK

Calculator

NHS Pay

Agenda for Change band

Pay step

London weighting (HCAS)

Hours worked (WTE %) i

Your take-home pay

Where your money goes

Your result

Adjust the inputs above and press Calculate to see your personalised result.

Key takeaways

Key takeaways · 2026/27

HCAS is clamp(basic × rate, floor, ceiling) — lower bands hit the floor, higher bands the ceiling.
Inner 20% (£5,794–£8,746), Outer 15% (£4,870–£6,137), Fringe 5% (£1,346–£2,270) for 2026/27.
HCAS is pensionable and taxable, so the net uplift is only about 55–72% of the gross supplement.
It is set by your trust's location, not your home address; part-timers pro-rate the supplement and caps.

How it works

What is HCAS, and why it isn't a simple percentage

High Cost Area Supplement (HCAS) — often called London weighting — tops up NHS Agenda for Change pay for staff whose trust is in or near London. There are three zones for 2026/27: Inner London 20%, Outer London 15% and London Fringe 5%. But the headline percentage is only half the story, because each zone has a minimum and a maximum.

The supplement is clamp(basic × rate, floor, ceiling). Lower bands get floored up to the minimum; higher bands get capped down to the maximum. Only the middle bands actually receive their flat percentage.

Zone	Rate	Minimum	Maximum
Inner London	20%	£5,794	£8,746
Outer London	15%	£4,870	£6,137
London Fringe	5%	£1,346	£2,270

Worked example 1 — hitting the floor (Band 2, Inner London)

A Band 2 employee on £25,272 in Inner London: 20% is £5,054, which is below the £5,794 floor, so the supplement is floored up to £5,794. Pensionable pay becomes £31,066, landing in the 8.3% pension tier. The lowest-paid staff therefore get a proportionally larger boost than the flat 20% implies.

Worked example 2 — the flat rate (Band 5, Inner London)

A Band 5 nurse on £32,073: 20% is £6,415, comfortably inside the £5,794–£8,746 band, so they receive the full percentage. But HCAS is taxable, National-Insured and pensionable, so the net uplift is about £3,731 — roughly 58% of the gross supplement. That is the number payroll actually adds to their take-home.

Worked example 3 — hitting the ceiling (Band 8a, Inner London)

A Band 8a manager on £57,528 in Inner London: 20% would be £11,506, but that is above the £8,746 ceiling, so the supplement is capped at £8,746. Senior staff get a smaller proportional uplift than juniors — the opposite of what a flat percentage suggests.

Two things generic calculators miss: HCAS is pensionable (so it can raise your NHS pension tier), and it is set by your trust's location, not your postcode. Both change the real-world number materially.

Change the band and zone in the calculator to see your own floor/ceiling result. For the full band-by-band picture use the NHS take-home pay hub, and for nights and weekends the NHS unsocial hours calculator.

Source: NHS Agenda for Change Terms & Conditions Handbook, Annex 8 (HCAS), and the 2026/27 NHS pay circular. HCAS figures verified 19 August 2026.

NHS pay

Is a London NHS post worth it? Weighing HCAS against the cost of getting there

By CalculatorDashboard Editorial Team·Updated 3 October 2026·Reviewed 3 October 2026·3 min read

The High Cost Area Supplement is designed to make up for the extra cost of working in and around London. Whether it actually does that depends on your own circumstances: where you live, how you travel and which zone your workplace falls into. The calculator above shows the supplement and what reaches your bank account. This guide helps you decide whether the move, or the commute, is worth it.

It follows the workplace, not your home

HCAS is paid according to where your work base is, not where you live. A Band 5 who lives in Kent and works at an Inner London hospital gets the Inner London rate of 20%, while a colleague who lives in Hackney but works at a trust in the Fringe zone gets 5%. That makes the comparison between two jobs straightforward on paper. The supplement is fixed by the trust's location, and your own costs depend on your journey.

Each zone has a floor and a ceiling, so the supplement is only a straight percentage in the middle of the pay range. In Inner London it can't be less than £5,794 or more than £8,746 a year for full-time staff. Lower bands get more than 20% and higher bands get less.

A worked example: Band 6 entry, three zones

Morgan has been offered a Band 6 post at the entry rate of £39,959. In Inner London the supplement is 20% of that, about £7,992 a year. After income tax, National Insurance and the extra pension contribution, Morgan keeps about £5,128 of it, roughly £427 a month. The same post in Outer London carries a 15% supplement of about £5,994, worth around £3,846 a year after deductions. Because Morgan's pensionable pay stays in the same contribution tier in both cases, the take-home share is roughly two-thirds. That share would be lower for someone pushed into a higher tier.

Now set that against what it costs to get there. If an Inner London job means a season ticket of, say, £3,000 a year, which Morgan pays from taxed income, about £2,100 of the extra £5,128 is left. If the Outer London job is a short bus ride away, it may actually leave Morgan better off. HCAS is meant to reflect higher living costs, not commuting costs, so the comparison only works if you count both.

HCAS counts towards your pension

HCAS is pensionable, so it's included in the pay your NHS pension is based on. That has two effects. It builds more pension each year, which is part of the supplement's value that doesn't show in take-home pay. And it can push your pensionable pay into a higher contribution tier, which raises the percentage charged on all your pay. The calculator applies both, which is why the take-home gain from HCAS is sometimes noticeably less than two-thirds of the gross.

Part-time, bank and changing roles

Part-time staff receive HCAS in proportion to their hours, and the floor and ceiling are scaled down the same way. Bank staff usually receive the supplement for shifts worked in a high-cost area, though arrangements vary between trusts, so check your bank's rates before comparing them with substantive posts. If you move between trusts in different zones, your supplement changes from the day your work base changes, so a mid-year move can make your annual pay figures look uneven.

Next steps

Enter your band, step and zone above to see the supplement and its take-home value. For the full payslip, including student loans, the NHS take-home pay calculator applies HCAS alongside the pension tiers, and the compare two salaries calculator helps when weighing a London post against one outside the zones.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is HCAS pensionable?

Yes. High Cost Area Supplement is added to basic pay before the NHS pension is calculated, so it is fully pensionable — and because the pension tiers are non-marginal, HCAS can push you into a higher contribution tier. It is also taxable and subject to National Insurance, so the net uplift is smaller than the headline supplement.

Do I get HCAS if I live in London but work outside the zone?

No. HCAS is determined by the location of your employing trust, not where you live. If your trust sits outside the Inner, Outer or Fringe zones you get no supplement, even if you commute in from London. Conversely, if your trust is in the zone you receive HCAS even if you live well outside London.

What if my 20% is below the minimum?

Then you receive the minimum. HCAS is clamped: for Inner London the supplement is at least £5,794 and at most £8,746. A Band 2 employee whose 20% works out at about £5,054 is floored up to £5,794. Higher bands hit the ceiling instead — a Band 8a's 20% of roughly £11,506 is capped down to £8,746.

How much is NHS Inner London weighting worth after tax?

The gross supplement for a typical Band 5 in Inner London is about £6,415, but because it is taxed, National-Insured and pensionable, the net uplift is roughly £3,731 — about 58% of the gross. The exact figure depends on your band, because tax, NI and the pension tier all interact.

How does part-time work affect HCAS?

Both the supplement and the floor/ceiling are pro-rated by your whole-time equivalent (WTE). A 0.5 WTE employee in Inner London has their supplement and the £5,794–£8,746 caps halved. Enter your WTE percentage in the calculator to see the pro-rated figure.

Which zone am I in?

Inner London covers most central London trusts, Outer London the surrounding boroughs, and Fringe a ring of towns just outside Greater London (parts of Hertfordshire, Essex, Surrey, Kent and Berkshire). Your trust's HR or payslip states your HCAS zone; the authoritative list is in the AfC Terms & Conditions Handbook, Annex 8.

Disclaimer: Figures are estimates based on 2026/27 rates and rules and may change. Verify with HMRC, the NHS Employers pay circular or a qualified adviser before making financial decisions.