National Insurance

VHS1

Hi,
I work in the NHS in a full time job (£22,549) a year, and I have taken a second job in a different department but still in the NHS (£3000) a Year. I have 2 different payroll numbers and I just wanted to know if I should be paying National insurance on the much lower paying 2nd Job? Thanks in advance.

Savvy_Sue

Almost certainly not: see https://www.gov.uk/guidance/rates-and-thresholds-for-employers-2022-to-2023#tax-thresholds-rates-and-codes and scroll down to NI. 

Tax and NI are treated in different ways: your taxable income from all sources is added together, and you pay tax on the total. NI is treated independently for each job, so it is possible to have 2 or 3 'small' jobs and pay no NI at all, but still be liable for some tax. 

General_Grant

VHS1 said:

Hi,
I work in the NHS in a full time job (£22,549) a year, and I have taken a second job in a different department but still in the NHS (£3000) a Year. I have 2 different payroll numbers and I just wanted to know if I should be paying National insurance on the much lower paying 2nd Job? Thanks in advance.

Savvy_Sue said:

Almost certainly not: see https://www.gov.uk/guidance/rates-and-thresholds-for-employers-2022-to-2023#tax-thresholds-rates-and-codes and scroll down to NI. 

Tax and NI are treated in different ways: your taxable income from all sources is added together, and you pay tax on the total. NI is treated independently for each job, so it is possible to have 2 or 3 'small' jobs and pay no NI at all, but still be liable for some tax. 

The question is about NI rather than income tax.

If the "different department" is still with the same entity/employer (eg the same hospital trust not simply a different provider offering NHS services), then you should have your pay aggregated.

If the same employer is giving you two different payslips because they have managed to allocate two payroll numbers then they should correct this. I would expect that HMRC could pick up on this.

If the second job is truly with a different employer then you may well not pay NI if that is below relevant thresholds in all pay periods.  If you worked extra time and for one month you received more then you could be due to pay NI for that month.

chrisbur

General_Grant said:

VHS1 said:

Hi,
I work in the NHS in a full time job (£22,549) a year, and I have taken a second job in a different department but still in the NHS (£3000) a Year. I have 2 different payroll numbers and I just wanted to know if I should be paying National insurance on the much lower paying 2nd Job? Thanks in advance.

Savvy_Sue said:

Almost certainly not: see https://www.gov.uk/guidance/rates-and-thresholds-for-employers-2022-to-2023#tax-thresholds-rates-and-codes and scroll down to NI. 

Tax and NI are treated in different ways: your taxable income from all sources is added together, and you pay tax on the total. NI is treated independently for each job, so it is possible to have 2 or 3 'small' jobs and pay no NI at all, but still be liable for some tax. 

The question is about NI rather than income tax.

If the "different department" is still with the same entity/employer (eg the same hospital trust not simply a different provider offering NHS services), then you should have your pay aggregated.

If the same employer is giving you two different payslips because they have managed to allocate two payroll numbers then they should correct this. I would expect that HMRC could pick up on this.

In some circumstances the employer may still treat the NI calculations separately.  If the employer claims that  "it’s not reasonably practicable to do so" then they are allowed to treat each employment separately
Some details here..
https://www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-manuals/national-insurance-manual/nim10009.