The 2025-27 Local Government pay settlement will be implemented with a backdated award as follows:
| Pay Frequency | Pay Date |
| Fortnightly | 11th September 2025 |
| Four Weekly | 16th September 2025 |
| Monthly (0410MO) | 25th September 2025 |
This pay award applies to all staff on NLC grades (with the exception of those on Teaching terms and conditions).
Information regarding the 2025/27 Local Government Pay Award can be found below :
Please see our FAQs below, if you have any further queries, please raise a case on myNLPortal (E&F colleagues not on the portal can email ESC-HelpDeskTeam@northlan.gov.uk).
Employees who have left the council and wish to claim arrears should complete the below form depending on if they are teaching or non-teaching –
Leavers Back Pay Form (Teaching) – 2025
Leavers Back Pay Form (Non-Teaching) – 2025
The pay uplift covers the period from 1 April 2025 to 31 March 2027:
• 4% uplift applicable from 1 April 2025
• 3.5% uplift applicable from 1 April 2026
Term time workers should note that these rates are based on the full Spinal Column Point, and payment for term time workers will be pro-rated accordingly.
2025 rates will be published here nearer the time.
Hourly rates that are shown on the Salary section of payslips in your mySelf account will update when your hourly rate is changed on the payroll system. This means that your April to August payslips will show the new hourly rate, even though it was paid at the old hourly rate. For example, someone on SCP 14 was paid at £13.7274 per hour. The ‘Salary’ detail on payslips would have shown this rate this until August. Once the rate was changed for September pay, all previous payslips from April would update to show a rate of £14.33. It is only the Salary hourly rate that updates; the hourly rate and amount of pay that was processed remains unchanged in the Payments section of the payslip. If you have signed up for an emailed payslip, the PDF version will still contain the old hourly rate.
Arrears will be shown for each element as (Back Pay) on your payslip. There may be occasions where manual intervention is required, and this will appear as Basic Pay Arrears or Overtime Arrears.
Yes, you may pay a higher contribution than normal in the period where your arrears are processed. This is because the Debtors (Scotland) Act 1987 states that deductions are based on the earnings in the period regardless of when they are earned.
Student loan deductions are calculated on the earnings in the period regardless of when they are earned, so you may find there is an increase in your student loan deduction in the pay where arrears have been processed.
There is a chance your UC claim may be affected as your earnings will be higher than normal in your qualifying period. Further guidance is available here
If you pay a percentage contribution to your AVC, your AVC amount will increase due to the new salary and any arrears that are pensionable. If you pay a fixed amount, there will be no change to your deduction unless you wish to increase it to reflect your new salary. You should contact Prudential to do this.
Working time payments uplift will be 4% in 2025 and 3.5% in 2026. You should continue to claim the current rate until after the September pay (a manual uplift will be applied until this date). New rates should be used from the first pay after the arrears have been paid and will be published here in due course.
Any unpaid leave taken from 1st April will be recalculated at the new pay award rate and the difference deducted. This adjustment plus the amount processed at the time of your leave is the total amount that would have been deducted had the pay award been applied on time.
Any absence from 1st April will be recalculated at the new rate and adjustments made accordingly.
Arrears calculations are unique to each employee and there are multiple factors which influence the amount paid, such as incremental progression within the grade, periods of unpaid absence, salary history etc, therefore it is important to remember that arrears for individuals may differ.
Anyone who has left NLC between 1st April and the implementation date are required to complete the leavers form on myNL. Payments to leavers will be made in due course, after all current employees have received their arrears. Any updates to the timescales for making these payments will appear on myNL. The Payroll & Pension Team will notify SPFO of any leavers who have requested their arrears.
If after reviewing the information contained within these FAQs you still have questions, any queries should initially be logged through the myNL portal. Education and Families colleagues who are not on the portal should do this by email on ESC-HelpDeskTeam@northlan.gov.uk.
If someone is on a preserved salary, they won’t get a pay rise until their basic pay becomes higher than the preserved amount.
For those whose preservation started before 1st April 2025:
Any increase in basic pay will reduce the preserved amount by the same value. So, even though their basic pay goes up, their overall pay stays the same until the basic pay overtakes the preserved salary.
For those whose preservation starts after 1st April 2025:
Their preserved salary will be recalculated, and they’ll be paid any arrears that are due.
Some employees may no longer receive Cash Preservation because their April salary is now higher than the preserved amount. In these cases, there will still be an adjustment to recover any preservation payments made since April.