Hi all,
I work in the Civil Service and had a increase which came into force from this month.
I can see my new annual salary on this month’s payslip, but because the increase is backdated to 1 Aug (so I have 4 months’ worth of the increase on this month’s payslip - Aug, Sept, Oct, Nov), this month’s take-home pay doesn’t accurately reflect what it’ll be from next month onwards.
I’m trying to work my new monthly take-home pay using online calculators, but not sure how accurate they are after I add in my pension payments.
2 pension payments are deducted from my monthly gross salary: Alpha pension (5.45% deduction) and EPA (effective pension age - 3.7% deduction), which builds up a portion of my Alpha pension to be paid out 3 years before my normal pension age, which will be 68. Altogether, the pension deductions are 9.15% of my total gross monthly salary.
I appreciate I could just wait till next month’s payslip at the end of this month, to get an accurate reflection of my new monthly take home pay, but want to find this out beforehand if poss.
What would be the best way to work out my new monthly salary? On the online calculators, should I declare my total monthly pension deductions as 9.15%, along with entering details of other deductions (ie income tax, NI and student loan)?
Or instead, is it more accurate to take the backdated salary increase on this month’s payslip and divide it by 4 (for Aug to Nov inclusive), and take 25% of that as the increase that will apply to my take home pay each month?
I’ve tried both these methods, and the latter seems like a realistic and fairer increase (an increase of over £100, rather than the £96 increase I get with the first method of declaring 9.15% pension contribs on the online calculator). For reference, my new annual gross salary is just over £39k.
Thanks!