National Insurance rates and deductions in 2026/27

For 6 April 2026 to 5 April 2027, Category A employee National Insurance is worked out on each pay period. Nothing is deducted on earnings at or below £242 in a week, or £1,048 in a month. Earnings above that point, up to and including £967 in a week or £4,189 in a month, are charged at 8%. Earnings above the upper limit in the same period are charged at 2%.

A week of £1,000 in Category A is £58.66. That is the worked example on the GOV.UK contribution-rates page. A month of £5,000, calculated from the same bands, is £267.50. That monthly figure is not an HMRC worked example.

These are employee deductions. The employer also pays secondary Class 1 contributions. Those are not taken off the employee's pay.

For Category A, the employer rate is 15% on earnings above the secondary threshold. In 2026/27 that threshold is £96 a week, £417 a month, or £5,000 a year. The 15% does not apply to the whole gross salary. £96 times 52 is £4,992, and £417 times 12 is £5,004, so a payroll uses the weekly or monthly threshold rather than a share of £5,000.

Some category letters are 0% until a higher employer threshold. An eligible employer can also reduce its own annual National Insurance bill by the Employment Allowance, which is £10,500 for 2026/27. This guide does not calculate employer contributions or that allowance. Other employee letters use different rates. The figures below are Category A employee contributions only.

The sections below give the weekly and monthly bands, then show why dividing an annual limit by 12 is the wrong payroll test.

What employees pay

Class 1 National Insurance on a job has two parts. The employer deducts the employee's contribution from pay. The employer also pays a separate contribution, which is not taken off the employee. The category letter decides the employee's rate.

GOV.UK describes the 8% and 2% rates as the Class 1 rates for most people in 2026/27. It also says the deduction is lower for a married woman or widow with a valid certificate of election, and for someone deferring National Insurance because they have more than one job. The letter on the payslip is the one that applies. This guide does not estimate those other letters.

The employer takes the employee's contribution from wages before they are paid, with Income Tax. The payslip shows the contribution. Income Tax and National Insurance remain different charges.

Someone who is self-employed may pay Class 4 National Insurance on profits, and may choose to pay Class 2. Those are not deductions an employer takes from a salary, and they are not calculated here. A company director can have a different earnings period. Director National Insurance is not calculated here either.

When the employee deduction starts

The 2026/27 employee limits for Class 1 are:

On the contribution-rates table, Category A is 0% from the lower earnings limit to the primary threshold, 8% from £242.01 to £967 a week (£1,048.01 to £4,189 a month), and 2% above that.

A week of exactly £242 is £0.00. A month of exactly £1,048 is £0.00. A week of £241.99 and a month of £1,047.99 are also £0.00, because the earnings have not gone above the primary threshold.

The lower earnings limit sits inside that 0% stretch. £129 times 52 is £6,708, and £559 times 12 is £6,708, so the weekly, monthly and annual lower limits match.

GOV.UK says an employee earning from £129 to £242 a week from one job usually pays no National Insurance. That employee may still qualify for certain benefits and the State Pension, because the contributions are treated as having been paid to protect the National Insurance record. The monthly 0% band runs from £559 to £1,048. That pair is the monthly threshold, not a second official treated-as-paid rule. The overview's treated-as-paid wording is the weekly range from one job. Being treated as having paid is not a guarantee that the year counts, and it is not a full State Pension. A new State Pension depends on the whole record. GOV.UK's new State Pension page says that someone whose National Insurance record started after April 2016 needs 35 qualifying years for the full rate. It says someone who was contracted out will usually need more than 35 qualifying years. Credits, voluntary contributions and earlier years all affect the result. The way to check a particular record is a State Pension forecast. This guide does not quote a weekly State Pension amount.

The weekly bands

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Category A employee National Insurance for one week in 2026/27

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The bar stops at £967. Its first slice is £242 wide and its second slice is £725 wide. £967 minus £242 is £725. The 2% rate has no upper end, so it is named beside the bar.

The simplified "how much you pay" table labels the 8% row as "£242 to £967 a week". The contribution-rates table and the £1,000 example are more precise: nothing is due on the first £242, and 8% starts at £242.01. The calculations in this article follow that example.

A week of £1,000

GOV.UK sets this out for Category A:

• nothing on the first £242
• 8%, which is £58, on earnings between £242.01 and £967
• 2%, which is £0.66, on the remaining earnings above £967

£58.00 plus £0.66 is £58.66 for that week.

The same arithmetic is (£967 minus £242) times 8%, which is £725 times 8% = £58.00, then (£1,000 minus £967) times 2%, which is £33 times 2% = £0.66.

Points around the weekly limits

Only the £1,000 row is an HMRC worked example. The other rows use the published thresholds and exact-percentage rounding under regulation 12(1), described below. A payroll that uses National Insurance tables instead could still differ by a penny.

The monthly bands

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Category A employee National Insurance for one month in 2026/27

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The bar stops at £4,189. Its first slice is £1,048 wide and its second slice is £3,141 wide. £4,189 minus £1,048 is £3,141. Up to the upper limit, the weekly and monthly bars have almost the same proportions. The pound amounts are different, and a salary has to be placed in the period that was actually paid.

A month of £5,000

There is no matching HMRC worked example for a month of £5,000. Using the monthly thresholds:

• nothing on the first £1,048
• 8% on the earnings from £1,048.01 to £4,189, which is £3,141 times 8% = £251.28
• 2% on the rest, which is £811 times 2% = £16.22

£251.28 plus £16.22 is £267.50.

Points around the monthly limits

Dividing the annual limit by 12 gives the wrong threshold

The employer thresholds page also prints annual equivalents: a primary threshold of £12,570 and an upper earnings limit of £50,270. A weekly or monthly payroll does not get its limits by dividing those annual figures by 52 or by 12.

£967 times 52 is £50,284, which is £14 more than £50,270. £4,189 times 12 is £50,268, which is £2 less than £50,270. £242 times 52 is £12,584. £1,048 times 12 is £12,576. Dividing £50,270 or £12,570 by 52, or by 12, does not produce the weekly or monthly limit used for the deduction.

National Insurance is due on the earnings in the pay interval when those earnings exceed the primary threshold for that interval. Adding up 52 identical weeks, or 12 identical months, is a projection. It is not an annual National Insurance assessment.

A £30,000 salary

The take-home pay calculator and the £30,000 after tax page use the same regular month for this salary. £30,000 divided by 12 is £2,500.00 exactly, so twelve months add back to the year.

£2,500 is below the monthly upper limit of £4,189. Category A on that month is (£2,500 minus £1,048) times 8% = £1,452 times 8% = £116.16. There is no 2% slice. How take-home pay is calculated puts this figure next to the Income Tax equivalent.

On the same assumptions, England, Wales and Northern Ireland Income Tax for the year is £3,486.00. The page shows £290.50 of that as the month's annual-tax equivalent. £290.50 is £3,486.00 divided by 12. That is an annual-tax equivalent. It is not produced by a PAYE payroll calculation, although a real deduction might equal it. With no pension and no Student Loan, the estimated month is £2,500.00 minus £116.16 minus £290.50 = £2,093.34.

The regular week of the same £30,000 is the nearest penny of the salary divided by 52, which is £576.92. Fifty-two of those weeks are £29,999.84, so they are 16 pence short of the annual salary. Category A on £576.92 is (£576.92 minus £242) times 8% = £334.92 times 8% = £26.7936, which is £26.79 to the nearest penny. Fifty-two times £26.79 is a projection of that one week. It is not an annual National Insurance assessment.

A £50,000 salary can stay entirely in the 8% band

£50,000 is below the annual upper earnings limit of £50,270, but that is not the test for a monthly payroll. The nearest penny of £50,000 divided by 12 is £4,166.67. Twelve of those months are £50,000.04, which is 4 pence more than the annual salary.

£4,166.67 is still below £4,189. Category A on that month is (£4,166.67 minus £1,048) times 8% = £3,118.67 times 8% = £249.4936, which is £249.49. None of that month is in the 2% band. The £50,000 after tax page uses this month.

How the penny is rounded

The applicable regulation for ordinary weekly and monthly exact-percentage rounding is the Social Security (Contributions) Regulations 2001, regulation 12(1), as substituted by SI 2016/352. Contributions are calculated to the nearest penny, and any amount of a halfpenny or less is disregarded. An exact halfpenny (£0.005) therefore rounds down.

This site's implemented calculation method applies that regulation to an exact percentage of the earnings in the band. It is not an independently approved payroll interpretation. Employee and employer contributions are calculated separately. The figures in this article use that method.

HMRC National Insurance tables are a separate payroll method. CWG2 2026/27 allows those tables, or the exact percentage method, for an ordinary week or month. In the irregular-pay section, the same guide says amounts of £0.005 or less are disregarded. Section 2.7.5 is about holiday pay. It tells the employer to round to the nearest penny, rounding down exact amounts of £0.005, "in the normal way", inside that holiday-pay calculation. This article does not use section 2.7.5 as the authority for an ordinary week or month. A table lookup can still land on a different penny. The rows in this article are not table lookups, and they are not a complete statement of HMRC payroll requirements.

NIM11002 says amounts of less than £0.005 are disregarded. That wording is narrower than regulation 12(1). The weekly and monthly rows use the regulation's halfpenny-or-less wording: £967.25 stays at £58.00 and £967.26 becomes £58.01. £242.07 becomes £0.01, while £242.01 stays at £0.00. Those rows are this site's exact-percentage figures. They are not HMRC table results.

Income Tax in the calculator is rounded separately. An exact half penny of Income Tax rounds up. A payslip can show a different penny from this estimate because of the pay period, the category letter, the choice between tables and the exact percentage method, or the rounding convention that payroll uses.

Which pension methods change National Insurance

A net-pay arrangement can reduce the pay charged to Income Tax. It does not reduce the earnings used for employee National Insurance. On a £35,000 salary, the regular month is £2,916.67. Twelve of those months are 4 pence more than £35,000. Category A on £2,916.67 is £149.49. Selecting a £50 net-pay contribution in that month leaves the National Insurance earnings at £2,916.67 and the contribution at £149.49.

Relief at source works the same way for National Insurance. The contribution does not reduce the earnings the percentage is applied to.

Salary sacrifice is different. The cash given up is no longer pay for this purpose, so Category A is calculated on what is left. On a Category A week of £1,000, the employee contribution is £58.66. If £100 of that week is sacrificed, the National Insurance earnings are £900. (£900 minus £242) times 8% is £52.64. The difference is £6.02, not £8.00, because £33 of the original £1,000 was already in the 2% band. £33 times 2% is £0.66, and the other £67 times 8% is £5.36.

That £100 is an illustration of the rule already used by the calculator. It is not a suggestion to sacrifice pay, and it is not an HMRC example. The £35,000 after tax page is the no-pension version of the £35,000 month used above.

A published measure would limit National Insurance relief on pension salary sacrifice from 6 April 2029. It is not used for 2026/27. The policy note, published 4 December 2025, sets the operative date and says the detailed design of the £2,000 limit is still to be set in secondary legislation.

How this differs from Income Tax

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Income Tax and Category A employee National Insurance are separate 2026/27 charges

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The two charges can fall differently in the same pay packet. A week of exactly £242 has no Category A employee National Insurance. Income Tax for that week still depends on the tax code and the PAYE tables, which this article does not reproduce. The Income Tax bands for 2026/27 guide covers the annual slices. The methodology records how the calculator treats each charge, and the sources list the official pages.

Only Category A is estimated

The calculator estimates Category A only. Categories on the official employee table include B, C, H, J, M, V and Z, among others, and several of those letters are not charged at 8% in the main band. Category C has no employee rate in that table. If the payslip shows a letter other than A, the amounts in this article do not apply.

Common mistakes about National Insurance

Dividing the annual upper earnings limit of £50,270 by 12 does not give the monthly limit. The monthly limit is £4,189. A £50,000 salary is below £50,270 for the year, but the monthly test is whether £4,166.67 is below £4,189. It is, so that month stays entirely in the 8% band.

Employer National Insurance is not taken off the employee's pay. For Category A it is 15% on earnings above the secondary threshold. The employee figures in this guide are the deduction from pay.

The monthly band from £559 to £1,048 is the threshold pair. It is not a second official "treated as paid" rule. That wording on the National Insurance overview is the weekly range from £129 to £242 from one job.

An exact halfpenny of a Category A contribution rounds down under regulation 12(1) on this site's exact-percentage method. That reading is not an independently approved payroll interpretation. A payroll that uses the HMRC National Insurance tables instead can still differ by a penny. Income Tax in the calculator rounds an exact halfpenny up. The two charges do not share one rounding rule.

Questions

What are the Category A employee rates for 2026/27?

Nothing is due on earnings at or below £242 in a week or £1,048 in a month. Earnings above that, up to and including £967 in a week or £4,189 in a month, are charged at 8%. Earnings above the upper limit in the same period are charged at 2%.

How much National Insurance is due on a £1,000 week?

GOV.UK's Category A example is £58.66: nothing on the first £242, £58.00 at 8% up to £967, and £0.66 at 2% on the remaining £33. Other rows in this guide are calculated from the same bands. They are not further HMRC examples.

Why is a £30,000 month not one twelfth of an annual National Insurance bill?

£30,000 divides into twelve months of £2,500.00. Category A on that month is £116.16 because (£2,500 minus £1,048) times 8% is £116.16. Adding twelve of those months is a projection of one regular month. It is not an annual National Insurance assessment.

Does a pension reduce employee National Insurance?

A net-pay or relief-at-source contribution does not. Salary sacrifice can, because the cash pay is lower before the percentage is applied. The £35,000 net-pay example keeps National Insurance at £149.49.

Does Scotland have different employee National Insurance rates?

No. Class 1 thresholds are UK-wide. Scotland's different rates are Income Tax rates on earned income. This guide does not reprint those bands.

Where is the take-home estimate?

The take-home pay calculator and the £30,000 after tax page use this Category A month. How take-home pay is calculated shows the same month with the Income Tax equivalent. The salary comparison calculator and the UK salary table use the same monthly National Insurance. With no pension and no Student Loan, the England estimate is £2,093.34. That figure also takes off an annual Income Tax equivalent. It is not an exact payslip. The methodology records the rounding.

Sources

Opened on 24 October 2026:

• National Insurance rates and categories. Employee and employer rates for 6 April 2026 to 5 April 2027, and the Category A week of £1,000 at £58.66.
• How much you pay. The simplified 8% row is labelled “£242 to £967 a week”. The certificate-of-election and deferment warning is on this page. The calculations follow the £1,000 example, which charges nothing on the first £242.
• Rates and thresholds for employers 2026 to 2027. Last updated 1 September 2026. Weekly, monthly and annual Class 1 limits, and the employer rate.
• Social Security (Contributions) Regulations 2001, regulation 12(1). Nearest penny; a halfpenny or less is disregarded.
• National Insurance. Earnings from £129 to £242 a week from one job can be treated as paid.
• What you'll get. 35 qualifying years if the record started after April 2016. Someone who was contracted out will usually need more than 35.

Opened on 25 October 2026:

• CWG2, 2026 to 2027. An ordinary week or month may use National Insurance tables or the exact percentage method. The irregular-pay exact-percentage steps say amounts of £0.005 or less are disregarded. Section 2.7.5 applies that halfpenny wording inside a holiday-pay calculation.
• NIM11002. Amounts of less than £0.005 disregarded. That wording is narrower than regulation 12(1). The rows in this article use the regulation's wording.

The boundary rows, the £5,000 month, the £30,000 and £50,000 payroll periods, and the pension illustrations were calculated from those limits. They agree with the project's Category A tests. Apart from the £1,000 week, they are not HMRC worked examples.