Information about USS review
A USS Joint Review Group was established at the end of 2008 to undertake a review to determine what changes should be made to USS to ensure that it remains an attractive and affordable defined benefit pension scheme, and one that will continue to be an integral part of the remuneration package to help recruit and retain high quality staff for Higher Education on an ongoing, sustainable basis.
The group comprises representatives from the Employers’ Pension Forum (representing USS employers) and UCU (representing USS members). The group has an independent chairman, Sir Andrew Cubie, who was jointly appointed by the Employers’ Pension Forum and UCU. The Review Group is formally constituted as a sub-group of the USS Joint Negotiating Committee, which will help to ensure that any emerging propositions can be more easily incorporated into the USS rules. The agreed changes will be recommended to the appropriate committees in USS with a view to deeds amending the rules being produced.
The Review Group has met on 11 occasions during 2009 and further meetings are planned during 2010. Progress has been made and in September 2009 a timetable was agreed by both sides, which involved agreement of principles by the end of October 2009 (now completed), agreement of the detail of any changes by April 2010, with implementation targeted to begin in October 2010. The “principles” are an agreed analysis of the risks that are faced by the scheme, which were set out for members in a document issued with the 2009 service statements Dealing with the funding challenges.
The discussions will remain confidential whilst options are under consideration, but during November and December 2009, Sir Andrew Cubie spoke to a wider audience of representatives of UCU and the employers, as well providing an update at the annual Institutions’ Meeting. Click here to read the text of his speech.
Members should be reassured that benefits accrued prior to the date of any changes (and changes are not inevitable) are protected and cannot be affected in any outcome reached by the review group.
The Review Group is keen to keep members informed of developments, and further updates will be posted to this page as and when they are available.