Household income calculator
Two salaries, combined properly. Adding two take-home figures together is the easy part. The part that catches families out is that the two rules costing them the most money are not tested on the household total at all: the Child Benefit charge looks only at the higher earner, and the £100,000 childcare cliff is tested on each parent separately.
Combined household take-home
£5,751.42 a month
£69,017 a year from £87,000 gross. The household keeps 79.3% of what it earns.
| Line | First | Second | Together |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gross salary | £55,000 | £32,000 | £87,000 |
| Income tax | £9,432 | £3,886 | £13,318 |
| National Insurance | £3,111 | £1,554 | £4,665 |
| Marginal rate on the next £1 | 42.0% | 28.0% | — |
| Take-home | £42,457 | £26,560 | £69,017 |
Two things that are not tested on the household total
This is where combining two salaries misleads people. Neither of the rules below looks at what the household earns between them. Both look at one person.
Child Benefit: tested on the higher earner only
For 2 children the household is entitled to £2,337 a year. The charge starts once the higher earner passes £60,000 and takes all of it by £80,000. On £55,000 there is no charge, so you keep all of it. A household earning £87,000 split evenly could pay no charge at all, while the same total earned mostly by one person loses it. Work the charge through.
Childcare support: tested on each parent, and it is a cliff
Tax-Free Childcare and the funded hours both stop if either parent's adjusted net income goes over £100,000. Not tapered, not halved: gone, for the whole household. Both of you are under the limit here, so the household keeps up to £2,000 per child plus the funded hours. Price the cliff.
Assumes both on the standard 1257L code with no pension or student loan, which the main calculator lets you change per person. Child Benefit rates from gov.uk, checked 2026-08-28. Childcare limit checked 2026-08-29.
Two households on £130,000, two very different outcomes
Take a couple with two children earning £130,000 between them. Split evenly at £65,000 each, they take home £96,515 and keep every penny of Child Benefit and all of their childcare support. Earned as £101,000 and £29,000, they take home £93,337, lose all of their Child Benefit because the higher earner is past £80,000, and lose Tax-Free Childcare and the funded hours outright because one parent is over £100,000. Same household income. The second family is thousands of pounds worse off, and a pension contribution of £1,001 by the higher earner would win the childcare back in full.
Which rules look at the household, and which look at you
| Rule | Tested on | Shape |
|---|---|---|
| Income tax and National Insurance | Each person | Bands |
| High Income Child Benefit Charge | The higher earner alone | Taper, £60,000 to £80,000 |
| Tax-Free Childcare and funded hours | Each parent separately | Cliff at £100,000 |
| Personal allowance taper | Each person | Taper from £100,000 |
| Marriage Allowance | Both, as a couple | One must be a basic rate taxpayer |
| Universal Credit | The household total | Taper on combined earnings |
The practical consequence is that where income sits between two earners matters as much as how much there is. If one of you is near £60,000 or £100,000, a pension contribution or a bonus sacrifice by that person is worth far more than the same money moved anywhere else. The childcare cliff calculator works out exactly how much, and Marriage Allowance is worth checking if one of you earns under the personal allowance.
Figures checked 2026-08-28 by Hadi against HMRC rates for 2026/27 and gov.uk Child Benefit rates. Universal Credit is listed for contrast only and is not calculated here.