NHS Pension Annual Allowance Calculator
The standard UK pension annual allowance is £60,000 for 2026/27, and it tapers to as little as £10,000 once threshold income passes £200,000 and adjusted income passes £260,000. Enter your threshold income, the pension growth shown on your NHS pension savings statement, anything going into a pension outside the NHS scheme, and your tax band. Add the unused allowance from your previous three years if you have the statements to hand, and the calculator will apply carry-forward; leave it at zero and it will tell you the charge is a before carry-forward figure.
Ask a medical accountant about your figureNHS Pension Annual Allowance Calculator
The standard UK pension annual allowance is £60,000 for 2026/27, and it tapers to as little as £10,000 once threshold income passes £200,000 and adjusted income passes £260,000. Enter your threshold income, the pension growth shown on your NHS pension savings statement, anything going into a pension outside the NHS scheme, and your tax band. Add the unused allowance from your previous three years if you have the statements to hand, and the calculator will apply carry-forward; leave it at zero and it will tell you the charge is a before carry-forward figure.
Total taxable income from every source, less your own member contributions. Threshold income for annual allowance purposes leaves employer contributions out
The pension input amount on your NHS pension savings statement. It is growth in the value of your pension over the year, not what you paid in
Gross contributions to a SIPP or personal pension, Money Purchase AVCs, or the input amount from another employer's scheme. The annual allowance covers every registered scheme together, and this figure raises adjusted income. Leave at zero only if the NHS scheme is your only pension
Total unused annual allowance carried forward from the three previous tax years, taken from your pension savings statements. Optional: leave at zero and the result will tell you the charge is a before carry-forward figure
Tapering only applies when threshold income exceeds £200,000 AND adjusted income exceeds £260,000. Your position does not currently meet both tests. Adjusted income here is threshold income plus the total pension input across every scheme you entered, so a pension outside the NHS scheme can change this answer.
Check your NHS pension annual allowance and taper
A calculator gives the shape of the answer. NHS pensions, the annual allowance taper and private-practice incorporation are unforgiving in the detail. Tell us your situation and one of our medical accountants who works with doctors will confirm your exact figure and the sensible next step. Enquiring commits you to nothing.
Get the full NHS pension and annual allowance model and guide
Prefer to read first? The NHS Pension annual allowance and Scheme Pays guide is free to read, with no email needed.
The NHS Pension annual allowance model (Excel) is a spreadsheet you can download and run on your own figures.
How the pension annual allowance taper works
The annual allowance is the most your pension can grow in a tax year before a tax charge applies, and for 2026/27 it is £60,000, unchanged from 2025/26. The annual allowance calculation for a defined benefit scheme like the NHS Pension Scheme measures pension growth, not money paid in, so the annual allowance on pension contributions you actually see leaving your payslip is the wrong number to use. The pension input amount calculation compares the capitalised value of your entitlement at the end of the year with its value at the start, uplifted for inflation, and the difference is what this calculator wants in the second field.
The pension annual allowance taper reduces that £60,000 for high earners, and both of its tests have to be met. Threshold income must exceed £200,000, and adjusted income, which is threshold income with the pension input amount added back, must exceed £260,000. Above £260,000 the pensions tapered annual allowance falls by £1 for every £2 of adjusted income, stopping at a floor of £10,000. That floor is reached at adjusted income of 260,000 plus 2 x (60,000 minus 10,000), which is £360,000. Meeting only one test means no taper at all, which is why a doctor with high pension growth and modest other income often keeps the full allowance.
NHS doctors are exposed to the pension tapered annual allowance for a structural reason rather than a personal one. The NHS scheme is defined benefit, so what adjusted income adds back is the capitalised growth in the benefits you accrued that year, not any contribution rate applied to your pay. A promotion, a large pay award or a jump in pensionable service can produce a pension input amount far bigger than anything that left your payslip, in a year when your cash income barely moved, and that is what pushes adjusted income over £260,000. On an Agenda for Change band 8a salary the taper rarely bites; on a salary of £120,000 with private practice on top, the threshold income annual allowance test is often the only thing keeping you out of it.
If your NHSBSA pension savings statement shows figures in brackets, that is negative pension growth for the year, usually where inflation uplift on your opening value outran the benefit you actually accrued. Negative growth in the 1995 or 2008 sections can offset positive growth in the 2015 section in the same year, which is why a statement showing a bracketed figure may still produce no charge. Enter a bracketed figure as zero growth for that section here and get the offset checked properly, because this tool does not net sections against each other.
Standard annual allowance by tax year: 2022/23 £40,000; 2023/24 £60,000; 2024/25 £60,000; 2025/26 £60,000; 2026/27 £60,000. Minimum tapered annual allowance by tax year: 2022/23 £4,000; 2023/24 to 2026/27 £10,000. The tapered annual allowance 2025 26 minimum was £10,000 and it is unchanged for 2026/27. That annual allowance history matters because carry forward reaches back three tax years, so a 2026/27 calculation can use a historic pension annual allowance figure from as far back as 2023/24. Anyone assembling a pension annual allowance history for a carry forward claim needs the year each figure applied to, not just the current one.
Adjusted income here follows the statutory build-up in Finance Act 2004 section 228ZA, worked through in HMRC's PTM057100: threshold income plus the total pension input amount across every registered scheme you belong to, not the NHS scheme alone. That is why there is a field for pension input to other schemes, and why leaving it at zero is a statement that the NHS scheme is your only pension rather than a neutral default. A SIPP or a second employer's scheme raises adjusted income pound for pound and can pull a doctor over the £260,000 line who looked clear without it.
Two limits on this tool, stated plainly. It applies one marginal rate to the whole excess, so a charge that straddles the higher and additional rate bands will be approximated. And it takes carry-forward as a single total rather than a figure per year, which gives the same answer but does not show you which year gets consumed; the downloadable workbook has a cell per year and shows that breakdown. It also has no money purchase annual allowance logic, so if you have flexibly accessed a defined contribution pot the answer here is incomplete. HMRC publishes its own annual allowance calculator for the statutory position.
Frequently asked questions
What is pension annual allowance?
- The annual allowance is a cap on how much your pension can grow in a tax year before an income tax charge applies. What is annual allowance in the NHS context is growth in a defined benefit entitlement, not contributions paid. For 2026/27 the UK pensions annual allowance is £60,000, unchanged from 2025/26, and it covers every registered scheme you hold added together, not the NHS scheme alone. Exceed it and the excess is taxed at your marginal rate.
Where do I find my annual pension growth figure?
- On the pension savings statement issued by the NHS Business Services Authority. NHSBSA must issue one where your pension growth exceeds the standard £60,000 allowance, and you can request one otherwise, which matters because tapered members are often below £60,000 and so never receive a statement automatically. The figure to use is the pension input amount for the pension input period, which runs 6 April to 5 April in line with the tax year.
What do the figures in brackets mean on an NHSBSA annual allowance statement?
- Brackets mean a negative pension input amount for that section, so the value of your entitlement fell in real terms over the year once the opening value was uplifted for inflation. It happens most often in the 1995 and 2008 sections in a year of low pay growth and high CPI. Negative growth in a legacy section can be offset against positive growth in the 2015 section for the same tax year, which can remove a charge entirely, so a bracketed figure is worth checking rather than ignoring.
What is the difference between threshold income and adjusted income?
- Threshold income is your total taxable income from every source, including private practice and investments, less your own member contributions, and it excludes anything your employer puts in. Adjusted income takes threshold income and adds back the pension input amount, which for a defined benefit member is the growth figure rather than a cash contribution. Most of the tapering bite for doctors comes from that add-back, because a year of NHS accrual capitalised at 16 times the increase in annual pension can be a large number even when take-home pay hardly changed. Take it from your NHSBSA annual allowance statement rather than working it out as a percentage of your pay.
Do employer contributions count towards annual allowance?
- Yes, for both tests. Everything paid in on your behalf counts towards the £60,000 allowance for 2026/27, and in a defined benefit scheme it is captured through the pension input amount rather than as a cash figure. Employer money is also what pushes adjusted income above £260,000 while leaving threshold income unaffected, which is exactly why the two income measures exist. It never counts towards threshold income.
What is Scheme Pays and when can I use it?
- Scheme Pays means the NHS Pension Scheme settles your annual allowance charge with HMRC and permanently reduces your pension to recover it. Mandatory Scheme Pays requires two things: the charge must exceed £2,000, and the NHS scheme's own pension input amount must exceed the standard £60,000 allowance. A charge caused only by the taper, where growth is below £60,000, is voluntary Scheme Pays and the scheme is not obliged to offer it. The election deadline is 31 July in the year after the tax year ends, so a 2026/27 charge runs to 31 July 2028.
Can I use carry-forward to reduce my charge?
- Yes. Unused allowance from the three previous tax years can be carried forward, current year used first and then oldest year first, provided you were a member of a registered pension scheme in each year you carry from. The NHS Pension Scheme qualifies. Carry forward must be assessed across every scheme you hold, and it uses each year's own allowance, so 2023/24 onwards carries £60,000 while 2022/23 carried £40,000. Reporting any remaining annual allowance HMRC charge is done through self assessment.
When does a revised statement move my Scheme Pays deadline?
- Where NHSBSA issues a revised pension savings statement on or after 2 May, the election deadline extends to the earlier of three months from the date of that statement or six years from the end of the tax year. Late and revised NHS statements are common rather than exceptional, so this limb is the one members most often need. The deadline is brought forward instead where you are about to take all your benefits, because no election is possible once they are in payment.
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