UK National Insurance thresholds for 2026/27: where it starts and what you pay

For 2026/27, employee National Insurance starts on earnings above £12,570 a year, is charged at 8% up to £50,270, and drops to 2% on anything above that. Neither threshold has moved since 2025/26, and neither has moved since the 2021/22 tax year — a six-year freeze that the Autumn Budget 2025 has now extended all the way to 5 April 2031. Here is exactly where the lines sit, how the two rates apply, and what they add up to on a real salary.

The 2026/27 thresholds, in full

National Insurance for an employee (Class 1, category A, the category that covers most workers) is worked out against two thresholds. The first is the primary threshold, where deductions begin; the second is the upper earnings limit, where the rate drops. Both are published, in weekly, monthly and annual form, on GOV.UK: Rates and thresholds for employers 2026 to 2027.

Below the primary threshold, no employee National Insurance is due at all. The figures apply UK-wide — National Insurance is not devolved, so the same thresholds and rates apply whether the employee works in England, Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland, unlike income tax bands, which differ in Scotland.

The lower earnings limit: paying nothing but still building a record

A third figure sits below the primary threshold: the lower earnings limit, set at £129 a week, £559 a month, or £6,708 a year for 2026/27, also confirmed on the same GOV.UK rates and thresholds page. Anyone earning between the lower earnings limit and the primary threshold pays no National Insurance at all — the rate on that band is 0% — but is still treated as having paid it for the purposes of building a National Insurance record, which counts toward entitlement to the state pension and certain other contributory benefits. In practice, that means a part-time worker earning, say, £10,000 a year has nothing deducted from their pay yet still earns a qualifying year toward their state pension, provided their earnings stay at or above £6,708 for the year. Anyone earning below the lower earnings limit itself gets no automatic credit this way and may need to look at National Insurance credits instead.

The 8% main rate and the 2% rate above the limit

Two rates apply, one after the other, not one rate on the whole salary. Earnings between the primary threshold and the upper earnings limit are charged at 8%; earnings above the upper earnings limit are charged at 2%. Both figures are confirmed on GOV.UK: National Insurance rates and categories, and neither has changed since the 8% main rate took effect in April 2024, following two cuts from an earlier 12% rate. The 2% rate above the upper earnings limit has been unchanged for much longer — it has sat at 2% since 2011.

This is the same shape as income tax: only the slice of earnings inside each band is charged at that band's rate, so a payslip never applies a single flat percentage to the whole salary.

Why the numbers look the same as last year

£12,570 and £50,270 are not fresh decisions for 2026/27 — they are the same figures the primary threshold and upper earnings limit have held since 6 April 2021, deliberately kept unchanged rather than rising with inflation each year. That freeze was already due to run to April 2028; the GOV.UK policy paper on maintaining these thresholds, published alongside the Autumn Budget 2025, extended it for a further three years, to 5 April 2031. In practice, a frozen threshold pulls more people into paying National Insurance, and pulls more earnings into the 8% band, every year that wages rise — an effect often called fiscal drag, since the government raises more revenue without ever announcing a rate rise.

A worked example: National Insurance on a £35,000 salary

Take someone earning £35,000 a year, paid monthly, with no other pension or salary sacrifice adjustments. The first £12,570 of that salary carries no National Insurance at all. The remaining £22,430 sits entirely inside the 8% band, since the whole salary is below the £50,270 upper earnings limit:

That leaves £1,794.40 deducted for the year, or roughly £149.53 a month. A higher earner crosses into the 2% band once their salary passes £50,270:

Notice how little extra National Insurance the jump from £50,270 to £70,000 adds — just £394.60 on £19,730 of extra salary — because that entire slice sits in the 2% band rather than the 8% one. In practice, payroll software calculates National Insurance per pay period rather than as a single annual figure, so the exact amount taken each payday can differ slightly from a simple annual-salary-divided-by-twelve approximation, particularly for anyone whose pay varies month to month.

A note on employer National Insurance

The thresholds above apply to what comes out of an employee's own pay. Employers pay a separate charge, Class 1 secondary National Insurance, on top of gross salary, at 15% above their own secondary threshold of £5,000 a year — a much lower starting point than the employee's own £12,570 threshold, and one that does not affect what appears on a payslip. It is a cost to the employer, not a deduction from the employee, and is set out on the same GOV.UK rates and thresholds page referenced above.

Sources

• GOV.UK: Rates and thresholds for employers 2026 to 2027
• GOV.UK: National Insurance rates and categories
• GOV.UK: Maintaining Income Tax and equivalent National Insurance contributions thresholds until 5 April 2031

This is general information, not tax advice. National Insurance treatment can vary with pension contributions, salary sacrifice arrangements, multiple jobs and self-employment alongside employment. For a decision about your own pay, speak to a regulated adviser, your employer's payroll team, or check your position directly on GOV.UK.