Buy and Sell NHS Annual Leave Calculator

For NHS staff whose trust offers to let them buy extra leave or sell some back: enter your pay and the hours, and see the real effect on take-home pay, pension and student loan. FrontlinePay is independent.

Short answer

For a Band 5 nurse on £32,073, buying a week (37.5 hours) by salary sacrifice cuts take-home pay by about £402.03, not the £615.10 of salary given up, because tax, National Insurance and pension contributions fall too. Selling a week pays about £442.87 after tax and National Insurance. Buying can also reduce the pension you build, by about £11.39 a year of pension, unless your trust's scheme protects pensionable pay.

Your scheme and your pay

For your contracted hours, not the full-time equivalent. It is the figure on your payslip over a year.

One week of your contracted hours is 37.5 hours.

Salary sacrifice lowers pensionable pay unless the trust says otherwise. Check the policy.

Annual leave plus public holidays. Our annual leave calculator gives it. Used to check the legal minimum.

What buying leave really costs

Enter your pay and hours

You will see the effect on take-home pay after tax, National Insurance, pension and student loan, and the pension you give up.

Get NHS leave and pay updates by email

We will email when leave rules, tax rates or NHS pay change. Free, unsubscribe any time.

No spam. Unsubscribe with one click any time.

Worked examples at two salaries

All figures use 2026/27 England rates and one week of full-time hours (37.5), with no student loan.

CaseGross valueTax and NI effectPension contribution effectTake-home effect
Buy a week, £32,073, pensionable pay reduced£615.10£162.02 saved£51.05 saved£402.03 lower
Buy a week, £32,073, pension unaffected£615.10£172.23 saved-£442.87 lower
Buy a week, £60,000, pensionable pay reduced£1,150.68£434.03 saved£123.12 saved£593.53 lower
Sell a week, £32,073, not pensionable£615.10£172.23 paid-£442.87 higher

Buying costs less of each pound in take-home pay when the sacrificed pay would have been taxed at the higher rate, as in the £60,000 row. Selling is worth correspondingly less after tax. For the policies behind these assumptions, see our guide to buying and selling annual leave in the NHS.

How we calculate: method, assumptions and sources

Rules. The Handbook (version 63, Section 13) has no scheme to buy or sell leave. The assumptions come from two published trust policies we read for our guide: Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust (buy up to two weeks by salary sacrifice, sell up to one week as a taxable, non-pensionable lump sum, no selling below the legal minimum) and Salisbury NHS Foundation Trust (an advance on salary repaid by deductions, with pension contributions at full pay). We did not re-check those policies for this page, and your trust's wording governs.

Value of an hour. Your actual annual pay divided by your weekly hours and 52.143 weeks. Hours bought or sold are valued at that rate.

Buying. The salary given up is taken off your gross pay. Income tax, employee National Insurance, student loan and, if you choose that your pensionable pay is reduced, the NHS pension contribution are recalculated on the lower pay using the same 2026/27 engine as our pay calculator, and the difference in take-home pay is the cost. NHSBSA's knowledge base confirms that salary sacrifice reduces pensionable pay and so reduces the pension 2015 Scheme members build in that year. The pension given up is a 54th of the pay sacrificed.

Selling. The extra gross pay is added to your pay and taxed at your marginal rates, with National Insurance and student loan, and the NHS pension contribution if you say it is pensionable.

Assumed. One tax year equals one leave year, the whole amount falls inside it, and your pay is otherwise steady. Spreading a sacrifice over twelve instalments gives the same yearly result.

⚠What it does not cover

It does not model advance-and-repay schemes, minimum wage checks, effects on sick pay or maternity pay, mortgage affordability, or the position if you leave part-way through the year (unpaid instalments are normally recovered from final pay). Scottish and Northern Irish pension tiers differ; the calculator uses the England and Wales tiers for the pension contribution. It is not tax or financial advice: check with payroll, HR or a regulated adviser.

Sources. NHS Terms and Conditions of Service Handbook, Section 13; NHSBSA, what is salary sacrifice?; gov.uk, holiday entitlement. Last checked 19 October 2026. See our editorial policy.

Frequently asked questions

Can I buy or sell annual leave in the NHS? +
Only if your trust has a scheme. The NHS Terms and Conditions of Service Handbook sets leave in Section 13 and contains no provision for buying or selling it, so any scheme is a local, discretionary trust policy. Check your intranet for a policy called buying and selling annual leave, additional annual leave or similar.
How much does buying a week of leave cost? +
On a Band 5 salary of £32,073 in England, buying 37.5 hours by salary sacrifice means giving up £615.10 of gross pay, but take-home pay falls by about £402.03 because you pay less tax, National Insurance and NHS pension contribution. That is about 65p in the pound.
How much does selling a week of leave pay? +
Selling the same 37.5 hours adds £615.10 of gross pay, taxed in the normal way, so about £442.87 reaches your bank account if it is not pensionable. It also costs you a week off that you cannot buy back.
Does buying leave reduce my NHS pension? +
It can. A salary sacrifice reduces your pensionable pay, and NHSBSA says that for 2015 Scheme members lower pensionable pay reduces the pension built up in that year. Some trust schemes avoid it: one published scheme repays an advance on salary and says pension contributions stay at full pay. Read your own policy, then choose the matching option in the calculator.
Is the money from selling leave pensionable? +
In the Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust policy we read, no. Other trusts may differ, so the calculator lets you choose.
What is the least leave I must keep? +
gov.uk sets statutory leave at 5.6 weeks a year, capped at 28 days for most full-time workers and pro rata for part-time, and bank holidays can count towards it. Agenda for Change gives more than that, so for most staff the practical cap is the trust's own limit. The calculator checks the statutory floor if you enter your leave in hours.
Why is the cost not simply the salary I give up? +
Because the salary you give up would have been taxed. At a 20% tax rate, 8% National Insurance and a typical NHS pension contribution, roughly a third of each pound sacrificed would not have reached you anyway, so take-home pay falls by only the rest. The saving is bigger when the pay would have been taxed at the higher rate.
Could buying leave affect a mortgage or maternity pay? +
The Leicestershire Partnership policy we read warns that a lower contractual salary for the year may be noticed by lenders and can affect schemes calculated on contractual pay, such as maternity pay. If either is coming up, ask payroll for the effect in writing before you buy.

Related tools and guides

Buying and Selling Annual Leave in the NHS

Two real trust schemes compared.

NHS Annual Leave Calculator

Your entitlement in days and hours.

NHS Salary Sacrifice Pension Impact Calculator

The pension cost of any salary sacrifice.

Cycle to Work and Other Salary Sacrifice Schemes

How the same mechanism works elsewhere.

NHS Annual Leave Entitlement Explained

Service tiers, public holidays and pro rata.

NHS Pay Calculator

Take-home pay for your band and point.