Model an irregular year
Map overtime by month instead of multiplying one busy shift across the year, and see each month's tax the way payroll works it out.
Pay Planner Pro · £12.99 one-time
One payment · no subscriptionPlan the whole year of your firefighter pay, month by month.
Set overtime by month, pick a promotion date, test a pay award, cross the April tax-year change and aim at a savings goal. The plan below already uses your own numbers.
Test dates and awards
See what a promotion in June rather than December is worth, or what a lower pay award does to the year, and where the April tax-year change lands.
Aim at a goal
Set a deposit or savings target and see the month you reach it, or how many extra overtime hours would close the gap, then export or print the plan.
Your pay basics
Role and pay scale
Pay scale
NJC rates from 1 July 2026 (circular NJC/2/26).
Sets Income Tax bands (Scotland differs) and the pension contribution rule.
Overtime
£
Published NJC rate: £27.65On-call (retained) earnings
Percentage of your wholetime basic pay, from 1 Jan 2025.
Allowances
£
Local additions your service makes pensionable£
Non-pensionable extrasTax, pension and loans
Standard code: full £12,570 tax-free allowance
2026/27 thresholds, 9% above the threshold.
You are paid
A planning tool, not a payroll promise
Pay Planner Pro takes the same rates as the free pay report (NJC from 1 July 2026, or LFB's own scale) and spreads them across twelve months, so a single busy month or a promotion date is visible instead of averaged away. Pay awards, tax codes, pensionable-pay rules and overtime eligibility can all change the amount you receive. Use the plan as a budgeting hypothesis and reconcile it with each payslip.
What is in the plan
- Overtime by month. Twelve editable inputs, with a fill-all shortcut, so you can model a summer of extra shifts or a quiet spell.
- Promotion date. Choose the target pay point and the month it starts. A comparison chart shows what each possible start month is worth over the twelve months.
- Pay-award scenario. A percentage and an effective month that are yours to set. The planner does not predict awards.
- Cumulative PAYE. Tax is worked out on pay to date, month by month, with the allowance and bands scaled to the tax month. Overtime is taxed in the month it is paid and April starts a new tax year.
- Savings goal. A target, what you have already, and the share of take-home you save. The planner shows when you reach it and how many extra overtime hours a month would close any gap by your chosen date.
- Exports. A CSV of every month, a print or save-as-PDF report with an AI-written briefing, saving to your account, and AI answers about your plan.
Where the numbers come from
Basic pay and overtime rates come from the NJC table effective 1 July 2026 (LGA circular NJC/2/26) and London Fire Brigade Policy 558. Income Tax, National Insurance, student loan thresholds and FPS 2015 contribution bands are the 2026/27 figures used across this site. The 2027/28 thresholds are not yet published, so the plan carries 2026/27 thresholds forward and applies only the confirmed Plan 1 student loan change to £28,005 from April 2027. Learn how each line works in the payslip explained and take-home pay guides, and how overtime tax works in firefighter overtime after tax.
Honest limits
The planner does not model salary sacrifice, benefits in kind, local allowances you do not enter, or payroll quirks such as delayed overtime payments. Promotion, award and overtime figures are scenarios, not forecasts. Where months before your start month fall in the same tax year, they are assumed to look like a steady month at your regular pay. If you also want a printable summary of a single year with tax-code sensitivity, see the Personal Pay Report.
Frequently asked questions
What is Pay Planner Pro?
A twelve-month planning tool for serving firefighters. You set overtime hours month by month, choose a promotion date and a pay-award assumption, and the planner works out gross, tax, National Insurance, pension, student loan and take-home for each month using cumulative PAYE, then adds a savings goal, comparison charts, a printable report and AI answers.
How is it different from the free pay report?
The free pay report shows one steady year. The planner models an irregular year: a busy summer, a quiet winter, a promotion in month seven, a pay award part-way through, and the change of tax year in April. It also tracks a savings goal against your real take-home.
Does it handle the tax-year boundary?
Yes. Each month is taxed on pay to date within its own tax year, so PAYE restarts in April. Thresholds for 2027/28 are not yet known, so 2026/27 thresholds are carried forward, with the confirmed Plan 1 student loan change to £28,005 applied, and the plan flags this clearly.
Is it a subscription?
No. It is £12.99 once. Guest checkout works and you can add a free account afterwards so the purchase and your saved plans follow you to every device.
Are my figures uploaded?
Calculations run in your browser and your plan is kept in this browser's local storage. If you save a plan to your account it is stored there, and AI questions send your plan's figures to the AI service to answer. Analytics never see exact figures.
Is the promotion or pay award a forecast?
No. They are your assumptions to test. The planner never predicts an award or a promotion date.
Does it work for London Fire Brigade and other nations?
Yes. Choose the LFB pay scale or your nation. Scotland uses Scottish tax bands; for Wales and Northern Ireland you enter the pension percentage from your payslip.