The Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS) Joint Negotiating Committee (JNC) has approved reforms put forward by Universities UK (UUK) to conclude the 2020 valuation of the scheme.
How will the changes affect my pension contributions?
From 1 April 2022, contributions will be 9.8% of salary for members and 21.6% of salary for employers – with guaranteed defined benefits remaining at the heart of the scheme. This represents a continuation of the employee contributions of 9.8% from October 2021.
In the consultation with scheme members, they identified the proposed 2.5% cap on future inflationary increases as an issue of great concern, so employers have agreed to pay an additional 0.2% of salary in contributions (on top of the 0.3% of salary increase which has applied from 1 October 2021) to defer the application of the cap until at least the next valuation.
The JNC decision will now be considered by the USS Trustee as part of the formal processes under the scheme rules.
Read the full details of the JNC agreement on the USSEmployers site here.
Last week, University and College Union (UCU) put forward a counterproposal on the USS pension scheme. The proposal was rejected by the majority of USS employers who responded to a short consultation run by UUK. You can read our response to the UCU proposal, approved by our Governing Council’s Pensions Committee and informed by discussions with our campus branch, on the Finance SharePoint site.
The following links provide useful background information to this latest agreement:
Previous SUSSED posts on pensions.
USS Employers website (USS Employers is a site owned and managed by Universities UK, the nominated formal representative for over 340 employers in the Universities Superannuation Scheme).
USS 2020 valuation (USS website).
A summary of responses received from USS members at our University following the consultation into changes to USS.
Our Equalities Impact Assessment (EIA) of the changes to the USS pension for our eligible members.
