Military nurses move to two new pay spines, and RRP (Nursing) ends in October 2027

What changed on 1 October 2026

The Armed Forces' Pay Review Body's Fifty Fifth Report, published on 9 June 2026, agreed to MOD's proposal for a new pay structure for military nurses. The same day, the Defence Secretary told Parliament in a written statement that the government accepted every recommendation in the report in full.

The new spines replace the two bespoke spines nurses had been paid on since 2009, one for Nursing Officers and one for Nursing Other Ranks, agreed in response to the NHS introducing Agenda for Change.

The Nursing Professional Pay Spine

A single integrated spine for every nursing rank up to and including OF3. Rank stays, to reflect leadership, but you progress through the spine with length of service, with pay bars to reward promotion, leadership, talent and skills. MOD's stated aim is to link pay to the level at which a nurse is operating and the area of practice they work in, and to keep experienced nurses in clinical roles by paying them more without requiring promotion.

The Senior Nursing Officer Pay Spine

On promotion to OF4, a nursing officer moves from the professional spine onto this one and stays on it for the rest of their career. Progression is by annual increment, and the spine includes OF6 pay for nurses holding one star appointments.

Why MOD changed it

MOD told the review body that more nurses left than were recruited to train in 2023-24, and that voluntary outflow among Nursing Officers was highest at OF3, with limited promotion to OF4 and above a major factor. A senior cohort at the top of the old structure was, in MOD's words, becoming disenfranchised because of the lack of pay progression. It also pointed to growing competition for nurses from the NHS and private hospitals.

The review body backed the move to skills based pay. It also said it was surprised that no clear explanation was given of how the new spines relate to NHS pay, given that many military nurses work directly alongside NHS colleagues.

RRP (Nursing) ends in October 2027

RRP (Nursing) has been used to attract and retain nurses who complete specialist training. MOD proposed freezing it from 1 April 2026 and withdrawing it, with no payments from 1 October 2027, because the new spines would take over its recruitment and retention job.

The review body refused the freeze. Because the new spines would not arrive until October 2026, it recommended the payment rise by 3.6% like every other RRP, which took it to £14.73 a day from 1 April 2026. It agreed that the payment should be removed twelve months after the new spines start, which puts the end in October 2027.

What it means for your pension

This is the part the pay announcements do not spell out. MOD describes Recruitment and Retention Payments as daily payments in addition to annual salary, and states that RRP is subject to tax and National Insurance but is not pensionable. Every pound of RRP (Nursing) you have been paid has counted for nothing towards your armed forces pension.

Pay on the new spine is different. In its evidence, recorded in the review body's report, MOD says pay on the Nursing Professional Pay Spine would be pensionable. MOD also told the review body that the recruitment and retention job the RRP did would now be done by the new spines. If that value ends up in your salary rather than in a daily payment, it moves from pay that does not count towards your pension to pay that does.

Whether that happens for you, and by how much, depends on where you sit on the new spine, and those rates have not been published publicly. We are not going to estimate it. Compare your October 2026 pay statement with September's, and ask your unit HR team or JPAC if the change matters to a decision.

Which part of your pension it touches

All service from 1 April 2022 builds pension in AFPS 15, so that is where a change in pensionable pay from October 2026 lands. AFPS 15 banks 1/47th of each year's pensionable pay, so a higher salary raises the slice you build in each year from the switch onwards. You can test the effect of a different salary in the AFPS 15 calculator.

Benefits you built in AFPS 75 or AFPS 05 before moving to AFPS 15 stay linked to your final pay or rank when you leave, and the link works differently in each scheme. Our schemes guide sets out the mechanics.

The Golden Hello rises to £50,000

The Golden Hello is a single payment for direct entrants into specified shortage nursing specialisations. It had been £30,000, had not been reviewed since 2020, and MOD said it was under used, averaging two payments a year between 2014 and 2024. It rose to £50,000 from 1 April 2026. MOD proposed pairing the higher value with a five year return of service.

Pay figures: what is published and what is not

The rates for the two new spines have not been published publicly. The review body's report, the government's statement and its press release give none, and MOD's pay tables for the new spines are not on gov.uk. We will not publish figures we cannot source.

What the report does publish is the two spines being replaced, at the rates that applied from 1 April 2026 until the switch. They show the range nurses were paid on immediately before 1 October 2026.

Both figures include X-Factor, and come from Appendix 1, Tables 1.8 and 1.9 of the review body's report. The 3.6% award behind them is covered in our 2026 pay award post.