Pay AuditYour contract type
Four contracts, four different ways of building your pay
Everything the app checks follows from which contract you are on. If you are not sure, the payslip usually tells you: a “Band” line means banded pay, a “Prog A” line means programmed activities, and neither means nodal points.
Resident doctor — 2016 terms
Foundation, core and specialty trainees, and most doctors in training posts.
- Basic pay
- A nodal point, fixed by training stage rather than years served.
- On top
- Additional rostered hours above 40, night enhancement, weekend frequency, on-call availability, flexible pay premia.
- Progression
- Follows the training stage. It moves when you do, not on an anniversary.
The nodal point on ESR lagging behind the stage you have actually reached, and weekend or night hours paid at the wrong frequency band.
Resident doctor — 2002 terms
Doctors still on the older contract, and some Trust grade posts.
- Basic pay
- An incremental point, with a banding supplement as a percentage on top.
- On top
- The band — 1A, 1B, 1C, 2A, 2B or 3 — reflecting intensity and antisocial hours.
- Progression
- Annual increments up the scale.
A band that was never updated after a rota change, and increments that quietly stopped. Trust grade posts are local rather than national terms, so some national checks do not apply — the app says which.
Specialty doctor and specialist grade — 2021 terms
SAS doctors appointed or transitioned to the 2021 contract.
- Basic pay
- A pay scale code, with the salary attached to the code rather than to the year.
- On top
- Programmed activities above ten, each worth a tenth of basic, plus the on-call availability supplement.
- Progression
- A code a year, but not automatic — each step needs a pay progression meeting and agreement that the standards were met.
Progression stopping because the meeting never happened, and paid PAs drifting away from the job plan in either direction.
Consultant — 2003 terms
Substantive consultants in England.
- Basic pay
- A pay threshold, reached after a stated number of years of consultant service.
- On top
- Additional programmed activities and the on-call availability supplement by category and frequency.
- Progression
- Through thresholds rather than yearly steps.
The threshold timetable is not held, so the app will not place you on it — it says so rather than estimating. Your basic against the published scale, your PAs, your tax, pension and National Insurance are all still checked.
Whichever you are on
Less than full time is handled throughout
On nodal and incremental contracts, your whole-time equivalent scales the basic. On the PA contracts the PA count is the working pattern — six PAs is 60%, not ten PAs scaled down — and the app does not apply both, which would take the reduction twice.
Your pension tier is set by whole-time equivalent pensionable pay rather than what you actually earned, which is why less than full time does not automatically mean a lower tier. That is checked too.