About Police Take Home Pay

Who publishes this site

The site is published by ARENA, a French single-member limited company (EURL) trading as Exam Arena. ARENA builds exam-preparation and career tools, including Join The Cops, a preparation site for people applying to join the police in the UK.

ARENA took over policetakehomepay.co.uk in 2026 from its original, independent author. Before that, the site had been written up by Police Professional and discussed on r/policeuk, where serving officers flagged edge cases in the calculations.

We are not affiliated with the National Police Chiefs' Council, the Police Federation of England and Wales, the Scottish Police Federation, the Police Federation for Northern Ireland, the Home Office, or any police force.

How the figures are produced

Every figure starts from a primary source:

• Pay: the Police Remuneration Review Body (PRRB) reports and the Home Office's response to them, the pay scales published by the Police Federation of England and Wales (PFEW), and Police Scotland's published pay and grading structure.
• Tax, National Insurance and student loans: HMRC's published rates and thresholds.
• Pensions: the Police Pension Scheme 2015 regulations and Home Office contribution rates, and the Scottish Public Pensions Agency (SPPA) for Police Scotland.
• Promotion content: the College of Policing's National Police Promotion Framework (NPPF).

Every pay scale is dated: each calculator shows the date from which the scale it uses applies. When a value is derived rather than copied from a published table, it is labelled as such. For example, when a pay award has been announced as a percentage but the new scale has not yet been published, applying that percentage to the previous published scale gives a calculated figure, not an official one.

The other calculators follow the same rules: Scottish pay uses the devolved Scottish income tax rates; Northern Ireland adds the Northern Ireland Transitional Allowance (NITA); PCSO figures use the Local Government Pension Scheme bands; and the pension projection applies the PPS 2015 (CARE) rules. How each one works is explained on the How it works page.

Corrections

If you spot an error (a wrong pay point, an incorrect pension rate, a result that does not match your payslip), email contact@policetakehomepay.co.uk. When an error is confirmed, we correct it within 48 hours of the report and say on the page what was changed.

Independence

Some partners may pay us in the future. They will never change a calculation, and every such link will be labelled. Today no partner pays us for anything on this site. Links to Join The Cops go to a site we also publish.

We do not serve adverts.

What this site doesn't do

The calculators are not a substitute for your force's payroll team. They use standard assumptions (tax code 1257L, no other income) and cannot account for personal deductions that don't appear on a standard payslip. If your take-home consistently differs from the estimate, the most likely causes are a non-standard tax code, a legacy pension arrangement, or a force-specific allowance not covered by the national pay scales.

This is not financial, tax, or pension advice.For advice specific to your circumstances, speak to a qualified financial adviser or your force's pension team.

Privacy

The calculators run entirely in your browser: no salary figures or inputs are sent to a server. Google Analytics is only loaded with your consent, and email alerts are handled by beehiiv. We only send you offers if you separately ask for them.

Read the full privacy policy →

Figures disclaimer

All figures are estimates for guidance only, based on:

• Tax code 1257L (standard personal allowance, no adjustments)
• The pay scales shown on each calculator, with their effective date
• The current tax year's HMRC income tax rates
• Police Pension Scheme 2015 contribution rates in force
• Separate calculators cover Scotland (Scottish income tax), Northern Ireland (PSNI, incl. NITA), PCSOs and a pension projection

Your actual take-home may differ due to a non-standard tax code, other income sources, additional deductions, or force-specific allowances not covered by the national pay scales.