Is NHS pension taken at source or net pay?

[Butterfly44]

My salary payslip shows gross minus Tax, NI and pension. My P60 shows annual salary, tax paid but no pension contributions. I'm confused if pension is relief at source or net pay. Answer will affect if it goes on my self assessment or not.

If this is for child benefit purposes, you generally record your gross pay minus pension contributions. It’s called something like ‘taxable pay’ or ‘taxable earnings’ on your P60, you can just take your figures from that normally. If you need help from self assessment, use their online chat function NOT their phone helpline. To circumvent the system blind chatbot, just keep typing ‘speak to a human’ and then make sure to save down a copy of the chat for evidence purposes .

The figures on your P60 that you use for your tax return are usually highlighted in some way. On mine it literally says next to them "use these figures for your tax return".

Yes it's for high benefit charge. I also worked some overtime so the gross looks right to me and doesn't include the pension taken off so assume it pays relief at source

It’s a net pay arrangement - your pension contributions are deducted before your pay is assessed for tax. The taxable pay figures on your P60 is your gross pay less your pension contributions.

It is impossible for public sector pension schemes to be relief at source. Relief at source means that pension contributions are deducted from already taxed income, and the pension provider then claims the tax relief and adds it to your pension pot. Public sector pension schemes are all defined benefit which means that you don’t have your own pot, you have a promise to pay you a certain level of benefits. Therefore there is no personal pot that they could add tax relief to for you - so it has to be done through your pay.