What will you actually earn as a firefighter?
Pick your role and nation, add overtime, on-call, allowances, tax code, pension band and student loan, and see exactly where every pound goes, per month or every four weeks. Results update as you type.
About your pay
Where your gross pay goes
2026/27| Line | Per year | Per month | Every 4 weeks |
|---|---|---|---|
| Basic pay | £40,358 | £3,363 | £3,104 |
| Gross pay | £40,358 | £3,363 | £3,104 |
| FPS pension (12.59%) | −£5,081 | −£423 | −£391 |
| Income Tax | −£4,541 | −£378 | −£349 |
| National Insurance | −£2,223 | −£185 | −£171 |
| Take-home pay | £28,513 | £2,376 | £2,193 |
Illustrative planning estimate based on published rules, not financial, legal, pension or tax advice. Your payroll record, contract and scheme administrator control your actual position.
What this firefighter pay report shows
Most pay calculators give you one number. A pay report is more useful because it shows the whole journey from your contractual salary to the money that lands in your account. You start with gross pay: basic salary from the National Joint Council (NJC) table effective 1 July 2026 (or the London Fire Brigade scale if you serve in London), plus any pensionable allowances, overtime, on-call earnings and other extras. Then it takes off your pension contribution, Income Tax, National Insurance (NI) and any student loan, and converts the annual take-home into monthly, four-weekly and weekly figures so you can compare it with your bank statement, whichever way your service pays you.
It is built from the same rates as the site's main firefighter pay calculator, so the two agree on the fundamentals. The difference is depth: this page adds tax codes, student loans, on-call retainer bands, a donut of where your gross goes, a what-if panel for overtime, awards and pension, and a payslip comparison. For a plain-English walkthrough of each payslip line, read the firefighter payslip explained guide, and for the numbers behind take-home pay see firefighter take-home pay 2026.
How the calculation works, step by step
- Gross pay. Basic salary for the chosen role and stage, plus pensionable allowances, plus overtime hours × 12 × the overtime rate, plus on-call retainer, activity and disturbance payments, plus other allowances.
- Pension. For England and Scotland the tool picks the FPS 2015 contribution band that matches your pensionable pay (basic plus pensionable allowances) and applies it to that pay. Wales and Northern Ireland use the percentage you enter. Contributions come out before tax, so they reduce your taxable pay but not your National Insurance or student loan.
- Income Tax. The 2026/27 personal allowance of £12,570 comes from your tax code (1257L by default). The rest is taxed at 20%, 40% and 45%, or at the Scottish bands for Scotland. Codes such as BR, 0T, K codes and D0 are understood.
- National Insurance. Calculated on gross pay: 8% between £12,570 and £50,270 a year and 2% above that, category A.
- Student loan. 9% of gross above your plan's threshold (Plan 1 £26,900, Plan 2 £29,385, Plan 4 £33,795, Plan 5 £25,000) and 6% above £21,000 for a postgraduate loan.
- Take-home. Gross minus pension, tax, NI and loan. Divide by 12 for a monthly figure, 13 for a four-weekly figure, 52 for weekly.
Worked example: a competent firefighter in England
A competent firefighter on £40,358 with no overtime falls in the £36,130 to £45,407 pension band, which is 12.59%. Pension is £5,081.07 a year. Taxable pay is £40,358 − £5,081.07 = £35,276.93; after the £12,570 allowance, £22,706.93 is taxed at 20%, giving £4,541.39. NI is 8% of (£40,358 − £12,570) = £2,223.04. Take-home is £28,512.50 a year, or £2,376.04 a month and £2,193.27 every four weeks, about 71p in every £1 of gross.
Add ten overtime hours a month at £27.65 and gross rises by £3,318 to £43,676. Tax rises to £5,204.99 and NI to £2,488.48, so take-home becomes £30,901.46. The extra £2,388.96 a year is roughly 72p of every extra £1, because overtime is assumed non-pensionable and the marginal cost is 20% tax plus 8% NI. A development firefighter on £31,539 falls into the lowest pension band (11.09%) and takes home about £23,430 a year (£1,952 a month). The same competent firefighter in Scotland pays a higher pension band (13.63%) and different tax bands, giving £28,163 a year, a useful reminder that nation matters.
| Scenario | Gross | Take-home a year | Per month |
|---|---|---|---|
| Development firefighter, England | £31,539 | £23,430 | £1,952 |
| Competent firefighter, England | £40,358 | £28,513 | £2,376 |
| Competent firefighter, Scotland | £40,358 | £28,163 | £2,347 |
| Competent, England, 10 overtime hours/month | £43,676 | £30,901 | £2,575 |
| Competent, England, 16 overtime hours/month | £45,667 | £32,335 | £2,695 |
| Watch Manager Competent B, England, 10 overtime hours/month | £54,148 | £37,099 | £3,092 |
| Competent, England, Plan 2 student loan | £40,358 | £27,525 | £2,294 |
| Competent, England, BR tax code | £40,358 | £25,999 | £2,167 |
| LFB competent (£47,991), England, no overtime | £47,991 | £32,664 | £2,722 |
Tax codes: why the wrong one costs real money
Your tax code tells payroll how much of your pay is tax-free. The standard 2026/27 code, 1257L, gives the full £12,570 allowance. BR taxes everything at 20% with no allowance and is usually used for a second job or pension, so if your main firefighter pay is wrongly coded BR you lose the allowance and pay about £2,514 a year more tax. 0T also removes the allowance, and a K code adds untaxed income to your taxable pay. On a competent firefighter's pay the difference between 1257L and BR is roughly £209 a month, which is why the paid report includes a tax-code sensitivity table. See the guide to firefighter tax codes for how HMRC sets and changes them.
Student loans and overtime
Student loan repayments come from gross pay above your plan's threshold, so overtime is charged at 9% on top of tax and NI. A competent firefighter on £40,358 repays about £988 a year on Plan 2 and £1,211 on Plan 1. For someone above the threshold, each extra £100 of overtime costs £20 tax, £8 NI and £9 loan, leaving £63. The report models this automatically when you choose a plan, and the student loan guide explains how to check your plan letter and threshold.
Monthly versus four-weekly take-home
Some fire and rescue services pay monthly and some pay every four weeks. The annual money is the same, but a four-weekly payslip is annual take-home divided by 13, not by 12. For our competent firefighter that is £2,193 every four weeks compared with £2,376 a month. Four-weekly payers also get a quirk: some calendar months contain two pay dates, which can flatter a bank statement. Use the annual figure to judge how well you are doing and the payment-frequency figure to budget. If you are saving for a deposit, the overtime-to-deposit tool shows how extra shifts translate into savings.
Overtime, on-call and allowances: how each is treated
Overtime uses the NJC overtime rate where one is published (up to station manager), and you can edit the rate. Group and area managers have no national overtime rate in the table, so the tool uses their plain hourly rate; if your service pays flexible-duty or acting-up arrangements, your figure will differ. On-call earnings use the retainer bands in the Grey Book: 15% of the matching wholetime salary for full cover of 120 hours or more a week, then 12.5%, 10%, 7.5% and 5% as availability falls, plus activity at the hourly rate and the £5.31 disturbance payment. See the on-call firefighter pay guide and the on-call earnings planner for a full year model. Allowances are the wildcard: continual professional development (CPD) payments, local additions and flexible-duty payments vary by service and by whether they count as pensionable, so they are inputs, not defaults.
Wales, Northern Ireland and London
Firefighter pay is set nationally by the NJC for most of the UK, but there are three places where a one-size table would mislead. Wales sets FPS contribution rates by grade tier since 1 September 2025, with 13.0% for firefighters, so the report asks you to confirm the percentage rather than guessing. Northern Ireland has different contribution bands and a different accrual rate; the report gives you a clearly labelled placeholder that you should replace with the figure on your payslip. London Fire Brigade has its own pay scale, which is why choosing LFB uses the LFB figures and never applies NJC rates to London silently.
Common mistakes when reading a pay estimate
- Comparing gross with take-home. A £40,358 salary is not £40,358 in your account. Comparing job offers or promotions needs the net figure.
- Ignoring the tax code. If your code is not 1257L, tax will differ. Enter your code and the report recalculates.
- Assuming overtime is taxed at 40%. Tax is worked out on total income; an extra shift is only taxed at 40% if it pushes you above the higher-rate threshold.
- Forgetting arrears. The 3.8% award effective 1 July 2026 may be paid in a later month with back pay, which distorts single-month comparisons.
- Mixing up pension bands. Contribution bands depend on pensionable pay, so a higher salary can push your percentage up and slow your take-home growth.
- Forgetting the student loan. It is charged on gross pay, so overtime and allowances count in full.
What the free report does not model
The free report deliberately keeps the model transparent. It does not include salary sacrifice schemes (cycle to work, for instance, see the cycle-to-work calculator), tax on benefits in kind, high income child benefit charge, statutory payments, or protected legacy-scheme contribution rates. It assumes a full year at the chosen pay point. The paid Personal Firefighter Pay Report adds promotion timing and pay-award scenarios worked out month by month, a tax-code sensitivity table and a printable report, and the Pay Planner Pro builds a full twelve-month plan with overtime by month and a savings goal. For pension detail try the FPS 2015 pension modeller.
How to use your report to check a payslip
Open your latest payslip and use the Check my payslip tab: enter gross, pension, tax, NI, any student loan and net for the period and compare each line with the model. If gross differs by more than a few pounds, look for an allowance, an acting-up payment, arrears or an overtime line that is present in one and not the other. Then check the pension line against the band that matches your pensionable pay, and the tax line against your tax code. You can also run the payslip checker for a line-by-line comparison.
Frequently asked questions
How do I work out my firefighter take-home pay?
Start with gross pay (basic plus allowances, overtime and any on-call earnings), take off your pension contribution, then Income Tax on what is left and National Insurance on gross pay, and finally any student loan. What remains is take-home. This report does every step for the 2026/27 tax year and shows monthly, four-weekly and weekly figures for your role, nation and tax code.
Why is my payslip different from the report?
Usually because payroll works on pay to date rather than a full-year average. Overtime is paid in arrears, the July 2026 award may arrive with back pay, your tax code may differ from 1257L, and voluntary deductions (union, salary sacrifice, savings) or local allowances are not in a standard model. The Check my payslip tab lets you enter your own lines and see the gap by line.
Is firefighter overtime pensionable?
The report assumes overtime and on-call earnings are not pensionable, so your FPS contribution is worked out on basic pay plus any allowances you mark as pensionable. Pensionability depends on the payment and scheme rules, so check the payroll description or ask your pension administrator.
Which pension contribution rate does the report use?
For England it uses the FPS 2015 tiered bands (11.09% to 17.09%) applied to pensionable pay, and for Scotland the Scottish bands. Wales sets contributions by grade tier since 1 September 2025 (13.0% for firefighters), and Northern Ireland bands differ, so for those two you enter the percentage from your payslip. Anyone can also override the rate.
Does the report handle London Fire Brigade pay?
Yes. London Fire Brigade has its own firefighter scale under LFB Policy 558 (development £37,402, competent £47,991, competent plus £49,223), so choose the LFB pay scale rather than the NJC table. LFB overtime terms are not the NJC ones, so the overtime rate is an editable assumption.
Does the report include Welsh or Scottish tax rates?
Scotland uses the Scottish Income Tax bands. Wales and Northern Ireland use the same Income Tax bands as England. Pension contribution rates for Wales and Northern Ireland are an input because they should come from your payslip.
Can it include my student loan?
Yes. Choose Plan 1, 2, 4 or 5 (and tick postgraduate if you also have that loan). Repayments are 9% (6% postgraduate) of gross pay above the plan's 2026/27 threshold, and they are not reduced by pension contributions.
Are my details stored or sent anywhere?
The calculation runs in your browser and your answers are kept in this browser's local storage so they are still there next time. Only coarse analytics such as a broad pay bracket are recorded, never the exact figures you type.
What is the difference between monthly and four-weekly pay?
Annual take-home divided by 12 gives the monthly figure; divided by 13 gives a four-weekly figure. Services paying four-weekly have 13 pay days a year, so the same annual pay looks smaller per payment.
What do I get in the paid Personal Pay Report?
A year-ahead scenario table (pay award, promotion date, overtime up or down and all three together) worked out month by month, a tax-code sensitivity table, a pension cost-versus-benefit note, a payslip checklist with your own expected figures, unlimited AI answers about your numbers and a printable, savable report with an AI-written briefing. It is £7.99, one payment, no subscription.
Sources and assumptions
- LGA: NJC firefighter pay circulars (rates effective 1 July 2026, NJC/2/26 as held in
firePayData.ts). London Fire Brigade pay from LFB Policy 558. - GOV.UK: Income Tax rates and Personal Allowance and GOV.UK: National Insurance rates (2026/27 figures in
tax2026.ts). - GOV.UK: student loan repayment thresholds for 2026/27.
- GOV.UK: FPS member contribution structure (England) and Scottish Public Pensions Agency: firefighter pensions.
- GOV.UK: tax codes.
- Assumptions: NI category A; net-pay pension arrangement; overtime, on-call and other allowances non-pensionable; pension band applied to pensionable pay (basic plus pensionable allowances), not total gross; annualised pay at current rates for a full year; personal allowance taper above £100,000 included for the standard code only. This is an illustrative estimate, not payroll, tax or financial advice. Your payslip and payroll records control.