Civil Service SEO Salary 2026/27: What You Take Home
SEO is the senior delegated grade above HEO, usually the first management-of-managers role or a senior individual contributor. Cabinet Office reports SEO and HEO as one combined band rather than separately: it stood at £43,930 across the Civil Service as at 31 March 2026, ranging from £38,020 to £54,730 by department. A settled SEO sits in the upper part of that band.
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 senior executive officer (seo) pay
There is no published SEO-only median. Cabinet Office combines SEO with HEO in its statistics, so the £43,930 figure describes both grades together and understates a settled SEO by an amount the source does not let anyone quantify.
Departmental spread within the combined band runs from £38,020 (Ofgem) to £54,730 (Ofsted). Pay is delegated within the government pay remit, so the grade label does not fix the salary.
The alpha contribution is 5.45% on pensionable earnings between £36,200 and £56,000 in 2026/27, which covers this grade. It is a net pay arrangement, so the contribution reduces taxable pay and gets full Income Tax relief, but National Insurance is still charged on the full gross.
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 is take-home for a Civil Service SEO?
- 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.
- Is SEO above the 40% higher-rate threshold?
- At the top of the published range, yes. alpha is a net pay arrangement, so the contribution comes off before Income Tax: at £54,730 gross the 5.45% contribution leaves £51,747 of taxable pay, £1,477 above the £50,270 threshold, and £591 of Income Tax is charged at 40%. Gross pay has to reach £53,168 on this tier before that starts, so the £43,930 median and most of the band are wholly basic rate. National Insurance is charged on full gross, so the top £4,460 does fall in the 2% NI band.
- Why is there no separate SEO figure?
- Cabinet Office publishes median salary by responsibility level, and SEO and HEO are one level in that breakdown. The same is true of Grade 6 and Grade 7, and of Administrative Assistant and Administrative Officer. Any site quoting a precise SEO-only median is not taking it from this source.