Free calculator
Disposable income calculator
From gross salary to the money that’s genuinely yours each month - after tax, National Insurance, student loan, pension and the bills you can’t skip.
Your numbers
Put your spare £950 a month to work. Saved and invested, it moves the age you could retire.
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Updated for the 2026/27 tax year
How does this disposable income calculator work?
It starts from your gross annual salary, takes the deductions in the order UK payroll does, then subtracts your essential outgoings - leaving the money that’s genuinely yours to direct each month.
Step 1
Pension first
Your pension contribution comes out first and reduces the income your tax is calculated on - the common “net pay” workplace setup.
Step 2
Tax, NI and student loan
Income tax is charged on what remains, using the 2026/27 bands. National Insurance and any student loan are worked out on your full gross salary - they ignore pension contributions unless your employer runs salary sacrifice.
Step 3
Essentials off, disposable left
What’s left is your take-home pay; subtract housing, bills, food and transport and the remainder is your disposable income.
Everything runs in your browser - your salary never reaches our servers - and the same tested engine powers every number on this page, including the worked examples below.
What are the 2026/27 tax rates and thresholds?
The published 2026/27 rates for England, Wales and Northern Ireland, verified against gov.uk. They live in a per-tax-year data file, so next April is a data update, not a rewrite.
Personal allowance
£12,570
No income tax on the first £12,570. Scotland sets its own income tax bands, so Scottish taxpayers will see slightly different numbers.
Basic rate
20%
On income from £12,570 up to £50,270.
Higher and additional
40% / 45%
40% up to £125,140 and 45% above that.
The 60% trap
£100k-£125,140
The personal allowance tapers away at £1 for every £2 earned - an effective 60% rate on that slice.
National Insurance
8% / 2%
Employees’ class 1: 8% on earnings between £12,570 and £50,270, then 2% above.
Student loans
9% / 6%
9% over your plan’s threshold - £26,900 for Plan 1, £29,385 for Plan 2, £33,795 for Plan 4, £25,000 for Plan 5 - or 6% over £21,000 for the postgraduate loan.
Worked examples: what’s really left each month?
Three salaries, run through the same tested tax engine as the calculator above.
Amara - £38,000, 5% pension, Plan 2
£882/mo disposable
Spending £1,500 a month on essentials. Her monthly deductions: £392 income tax, £170 National Insurance, £65 student loan and £158 pension, leaving take-home of £2,382. After essentials, 37% of her take-home is hers to direct.
Jake - £28,000, 3% pension, Plan 5
£695/mo disposable
Spending £1,200 on essentials. Plan 5’s low £25,000 threshold means he repays £22 a month despite the modest salary. Take-home is £1,895.
Sofia - £85,000, 10% pension
£1,963/mo disposable
No student loan, spending £2,600. Her pension contribution of £708 a month keeps a healthy slice of her higher-rate income away from tax; take-home is £4,563 and disposable income is 43% of it.
What should you do with the spare money?
A sensible order of operations for most people: emergency fund, employer match, expensive debt, then pension and ISA.
Build an emergency fund of three to six months of those essential outgoings; take every pound of employer pension match on offer (an instant, guaranteed return); clear any expensive debt; then split what remains between pension and ISA depending on when you’ll want it. And once money is flowing monthly into investments, the question changes from “am I saving enough?” to the better one - when does work become optional? Our retirement age calculator answers exactly that, and the button above the fold carries your disposable income straight into it. If you want the target first, our guide to how much you actually need to retire in the UK sizes the pot your saving is aimed at.
Common questions
What counts as disposable income?
Here it means what’s genuinely yours to direct: take-home pay (after income tax, National Insurance, student loan and your pension contribution) minus essential outgoings like housing, bills, food and transport. Some definitions stop at take-home pay; we go one step further because the number after essentials is the one you can actually act on.
Why doesn't this match my payslip exactly?
Payslips carry details we can’t know: your exact tax code, salary sacrifice arrangements, benefits in kind, bonuses, or Marriage Allowance. We also use the income tax bands for England, Wales and Northern Ireland - Scotland sets different rates and bands, though National Insurance and student loans work the same UK-wide. Treat the result as a close estimate, not a payroll re-run.
Does paying into a pension reduce my tax?
Yes. We model the common workplace “net pay” setup: your contribution comes out before income tax is worked out, so a £100 contribution costs a basic-rate taxpayer only £80 of take-home. National Insurance and student loan deductions still apply to your full salary unless your employer uses salary sacrifice, which saves NI too.
Which student loan plan am I on?
Roughly: Plan 5 if you started an English undergraduate course after August 2023; Plan 2 for England and Wales starters from 2012 to 2023; Plan 4 for Scottish borrowers; Plan 1 for pre-2012 starters and Northern Ireland; Postgraduate loan for master’s and doctoral loans (6% above £21,000, and it stacks on top of an undergraduate plan). Your online student loan account or payslip shows it exactly.
What is a good savings rate in the UK?
There’s no magic number, but two anchors help. For general resilience, saving 20% of take-home is a strong position and 10% is a solid start. For retirement specifically, a common rule of thumb is pension contributions (yours plus your employer’s) of at least 12-15% of salary across your working life. Our retirement age calculator turns any savings rate into something more motivating: the age it buys you.
Why does the frozen personal allowance matter?
The £12,570 personal allowance and the £50,270 higher-rate threshold have been frozen for years while wages rise - so every pay rise pushes more of your income into tax, a quiet increase known as fiscal drag. It’s one reason take-home pay grows more slowly than salary, and worth knowing when you negotiate.
Is there a 60% tax trap above £100,000?
Effectively, yes. Between £100,000 and £125,140 you lose £1 of personal allowance for every £2 earned, which combines with 40% tax to an effective 60% rate on that slice (62% with NI). Pension contributions that bring taxable income back under £100,000 are unusually powerful in that band - the calculator will show it if you try it.
Is my data stored anywhere?
No. The calculator runs entirely in your browser and nothing you type is sent to our servers. If you choose to email yourself the results, we send your email address and the link to your scenario - that’s the only data that leaves the page, and only when you ask.
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<script>window.addEventListener("message",function(e){if(e.origin==="https://myretireage.com"&&e.data&&e.data.type==="myretireage:height"){var f=document.querySelectorAll("iframe");for(var i=0;i<f.length;i++){if(f[i].contentWindow===e.source){f[i].style.height=e.data.height+"px"}}}});</script>MyRetireAge provides information and guidance, not financial advice. Figures are estimates for the 2026/27 tax year based on the assumptions shown and your real payroll may differ. See our terms.