Buying and Selling Annual Leave in the NHS Explained

If you would like a longer summer break and you are prepared to take a pay cut for it, or you would rather have a week's pay than a week's leave, you may have heard that some NHS trusts let you buy or sell holiday. The details are rarely in one place, and they matter: how the money moves, what happens to your pension, and what is locked in once you apply. This guide explains the picture using two trusts' published policies as worked examples. It is general information, not advice for your own trust.

Is there a national right to buy or sell leave?

No. We read the full NHS Terms and Conditions of Service Handbook (the version dated April 2026) and Section 13, annual leave and general public holidays, sets the entitlement (27, 29 or 33 days according to service, plus 8 public holidays) with rules on part-time staff and hourly calculation. It contains no scheme or right to purchase or sell leave. Where a trust offers it, that is a local arrangement under the trust's own policy, sometimes described as a benefit offered through salary sacrifice.

That has three consequences. It is discretionary (managers and directors can decline), variable (limits, deadlines and money mechanics differ by trust) and can change or disappear when the trust reviews the policy. Search your trust's intranet policy list for "buying and selling annual leave", "additional annual leave" or "annual leave purchase".

Two real trust schemes, compared

These are two published policies, read in full, chosen because they use opposite approaches. They are examples, not the rule.

Sources: Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust, Buying and Selling Leave policy and Salisbury NHS Foundation Trust, annual leave policy appendix. Other trusts publish their own versions (York and Scarborough, for example, is reported to allow up to one contractual week), so check yours.

Worked example: buying one week under a salary sacrifice scheme

Assume a full-time Band 5 nurse at the bottom of the band (£32,073 in 2026/27, England), buying one week (37.5 hours) under a Leicestershire-style scheme, paying 20% income tax, 8% National Insurance and the 8.3% NHS pension contribution tier for 2026/27. These are the same rates our pay calculator uses.

The trade-off is the pension. If your pensionable pay really is reduced, 2015 scheme pension builds at 1/54 of pensionable pay each year, so giving up £615.10 of pay costs roughly £11.40 a year of pension earned that year (before revaluation), and your employer contribution falls too. Some schemes avoid that, as Salisbury's does, so confirm the pension treatment before you apply. If you are in an older section, the effect differs again.

Worked example: selling one week

The same nurse sells one week (37.5 hours), with the extra pay taxed normally and not pensionable, as in Leicestershire Partnership's policy.

So you give up a week off for roughly £443 after tax and NI, with no pension benefit from that pay. Check also that selling does not push any other element of your tax position over a threshold, for example if you are close to the £50,270 higher rate threshold. In Leicestershire Partnership's policy, the payment is a lump sum on the first payroll of the leave year, and the policy asks staff selling leave to have a reasonable attendance record. If you run out of leave later you cannot buy it back.

Effects on pension, pay and benefits

• • NHS Pension: depends on the mechanism. Salary sacrifice lowers basic pay and so the pay your pension is based on (Leicestershire Partnership). An advance on salary repaid from net pay does not (Salisbury). Sold leave pay is not pensionable in Leicestershire Partnership's policy.
• • Sick pay and maternity pay: Leicestershire Partnership's policy warns other schemes calculated on contractual pay, such as maternity pay, can be affected. Ask payroll how your trust would calculate it during the year you buy leave.
• • State benefits: the same policy says SSP, SMP and the State Pension can be affected by National Insurance contributions, but this is unlikely for most staff unless pay after sacrifice falls below the lower earnings limit.
• • Mortgage and credit applications: a lower contractual salary for the year may be noticed by lenders, according to the same policy.
• • Death in service: NHS pension life assurance is based on pensionable pay, so a lower pensionable pay lowers the lump sum for that year (Leicestershire Partnership's guidance).
• • Other pay: when bought leave is taken it attracts Agenda for Change leave pay, but in Leicestershire Partnership's scheme you cannot claim shift enhancements for the days you take it.

The tax treatment comes from the trust policies, not from a national rule. Check with your payroll team and, if the amounts matter, HMRC guidance on salary sacrifice. The Handbook's own rules on pay during leave (paragraph 13.9) apply to ordinary annual leave; see our holiday pay and regular overtime guide.

The legal floor you cannot sell below

Statutory annual leave for most workers is 5.6 weeks a year, capped at 28 days for a full-time worker, and pro rata for part-time (gov.uk), and bank holidays can be counted towards it. Agenda for Change gives more: 27, 29 or 33 days plus 8 public holidays. A trust scheme is built on top of the NHS entitlement, and Leicestershire Partnership's policy says no one may sell holiday that would take total holiday taken in a year below the legal minimum, so for most full-time staff the practical limit is the trust's own cap, not the law. A part-timer's legal floor is lower in absolute terms because it is pro rata.

Is it worth it?

There is no single answer, but a few honest points:

• Buying is cheaper than unpaid leave for the same time, because of the tax and NI saving, but it commits you for the year and can lower pension, so it works best for a specific need, such as a planned long trip or school holiday cover.
• Selling pays roughly 70p per £1 of gross at the basic rate, with no pension benefit and a permanent loss of the time off. It is more attractive if you cannot use your leave anyway, but check you are not selling leave you may need, because you cannot buy it back.
• The unknowns are in your trust's wording: pension treatment, leaving mid-year, and the window. Ask HR for the full policy and a worked example before you apply.
• If you work shifts and want a precise leave number in hours first, use the NHS Annual Leave Calculator.

Checklist before you apply

• ✓ Find and read your trust's full policy, not a summary, including the salary sacrifice appendix
• ✓ Ask HR or payroll whether bought leave reduces your pensionable pay and what that does to your section of the scheme
• ✓ Check the deadline and whether you can change your mind (usually you cannot within the leave year)
• ✓ Ask what happens if you leave, go on maternity leave or go off sick during the year
• ✓ Work out the net cost or net gain in your own tax band, not just the gross figure
• ✓ Make sure you can actually take the leave: unused bought leave cannot usually be sold back