Civil Service HEO Salary 2026/27
HEO covers deputy team leads, technical specialists and middle managers. Cabinet Office does not publish an HEO-only median: HEO and SEO are reported as one combined band, which stood at £43,930 across the Civil Service as at 31 March 2026 and ranged from £38,020 to £54,730 by department. Take-home below is calculated on 2026/27 tax rates.
Typical pay & take-home
- Median gross
- £43,930
- Typical range
- £38,020–£54,730
- Take-home at median
- £35,149 England, no pension applied — use the salary calculator for your scheme.
At the median for this profession, you earn about 13% above the UK full-time median (£39,039), placing you in the top 42% of UK earners.
See exact take-home for £43,930 →
Published medians for each grade, the Senior Civil Service ranges, and how far the nine departments covered here sit either side: Civil Service pay 2026/27, every grade and department →
What influences civil service higher executive officer (heo) pay
The published figure covers HEO and SEO together, so it sits above what an HEO alone typically earns and below a settled SEO. Cabinet Office combines the two grades in its statistics, and there is no official split to quote.
Departmental spread is wide even within the combined band: £38,020 (Ofgem) against £54,730 (Ofsted). Pay is delegated, so the grade label alone does not fix the salary.
The alpha contribution at this band is 5.45%, the tier covering pensionable earnings from £36,200 to £56,000 in 2026/27. It is a net pay arrangement: full Income Tax relief on the contribution, no NI relief.
The contribution is deducted before Income Tax, which pushes the 40% band up the scale but does not clear it at the top of this range. On this tier gross pay has to reach £53,168 before any Income Tax is charged at 40%. The £43,930 median leaves £41,536 of taxable pay, £8,734 below the £50,270 higher-rate threshold. At the £54,730 top of the range, though, the same contribution leaves £51,747, which is £1,477 above the £50,270 threshold, so £591 of Income Tax is charged at 40%. National Insurance is charged on the full gross, so £4,460 of that salary falls in the 2% NI band.
SEO / HEO median pay by department
Civil Service pay is delegated, so the same grade pays differently across departments. These are published medians for the SEO / HEO responsibility level, as at 31 March 2026 - the most recent departmental breakdown Cabinet Office publishes. They pre-date the 2026/27 pay remit, so treat them as relative positioning between employers rather than current salary.
| Department | SEO / HEO median | All grades |
|---|---|---|
| Home Office | £46,270 | £39,000 |
| Ministry of Defence | £45,550 | £39,120 |
| HM Treasury | £45,200 | £60,670 |
| Ministry of Justice | £43,840 | £35,530 |
| Dept for Education | £42,810 | £49,000 |
| Dept for Transport | £41,940 | £31,600 |
| HMRC | £40,520 | £37,680 |
| DWP | £39,600 | £32,140 |
| Cabinet Office | £38,600 | £47,670 |
The source publishes SEO / HEO as one combined band, so a median for either grade on its own is not available.
Source: Cabinet Office - Civil Service Statistics 2026, Table 25 . Annual awards since the snapshot are set per department under the Civil Service Pay Remit Guidance 2026/27 .
Career progression
- AA / AO: £28,020 median.
- EO: £32,140.
- SEO / HEO: £43,930 - published as one combined band.
- Grade 6 / Grade 7: £65,830, also published combined.
- Senior Civil Service: £95,540.
Frequently asked questions
- What does a Civil Service HEO take home 2026/27?
- On the £43,930 combined SEO/HEO median with the 5.45% alpha contribution, take-home is about £33,234 a year or £2,769 a month, after £2,394 pension, £5,793 Income Tax and £2,509 National Insurance. At the £54,730 top of the departmental range it is about £40,511.
- Can I salary-sacrifice into alpha pension?
- No - alpha is a net-pay arrangement, not salary sacrifice. You get Income Tax relief on contributions but no NI saving. Additional Voluntary Contributions (AVC) to a separate DC pot are available via partnership schemes.