This change applies to earnings between £1,048 and £4,189 per month. Different rates apply for earnings below and above these amounts but for most people, the bulk of their National Insurance was paid at 12%, and this is reducing to 10% from 6 January 2024. Staff at the University will see this change in their January pay.
As a reminder, January payslips will be available to view online from Wednesday 24 January and this month’s payday is Friday 26 January.
Below are examples of the changes you will see, which for most colleagues will result in an increase to their net pay:
Earnings subject to NI £ | Jan 24 NI £ | Dec 23 NI £ | Monthly difference £ |
| 2000 | 95.20 | 114.24 | 19.04 |
| 3000 | 195.20 | 234.24 | 39.04 |
| 4000 | 295.20 | 354.24 | 59.04 |
| 5000 | 330.32 | 393.14 | 62.82 |
If you have reached the State Retirement Age (SRA) then you are no longer required to pay employee National Insurance contributions and will be unaffected by these changes.
Please use our net salary calculator, below, to understand how the change will impact you. Please note, the calculator will need to be downloaded to use it.
Changes to pension contributions
Colleagues who are in the USS pension will also be aware of changes to their pension contributions from this month and so the net salary calculator will also reflect this. USS pension members should have received an update from USS that from 1 January they will pay a lower member contribution rate. Employee pension contributions will reduce from 9.8% to 6.1%. Details of these changes can be found on the USS website or you can contact the Pensions team on pensionsmanager@ed.ac.uk.
Please note that none of the changes to National Insurance or pensions are related to the pay grade scale changes that were communicated last month.