
Receive a guaranteed income for life
in retirement with your Retirement Income Builder
The benefits and savings you've built up in USS belong to you, and there are things you should keep an eye on.
Receive a guaranteed income for life
in retirement with your Retirement Income Builder
You’re still entitled to a one-off tax-free
cash lump sum
when you reach retirement
A dependant’s pension
could support your
loved ones
It takes minutes to register with your member number, or you can log in to your existing My USS account and:
If you’ve been paying into your USS pension for less than two years, you may be able to get a refund of your contributions. Visit our getting a refund page to find out whether or not you’ll be entitled to this, and the benefits that’ll be affected.
You may also have the option to transfer your USS pension into another HMRC-registered scheme, like a personal pension or your new workplace pension scheme.
Before you transfer your USS benefits out, it’s worth considering what you’ll be transferring out and whether it’s right for you. You may need to take independent financial advice first. Visit transferring to another scheme to find out more.
You can also choose to keep your benefits within USS until your retirement date; this will happen unless you decide to transfer or take a refund (if eligible).
Our your pension after leaving page can provide you with more information about what happens to your benefits and savings with USS once you’re no longer paying in.
Your Retirement Income Builder (defined benefit) savings provide you with a guaranteed income for life when you retire and you may have the option to take some as a one-off, tax-free cash lump sum.
Even when you stop paying in, these savings increase every April in line with inflation, subject to certain caps.
If you have Investment Builder (defined contribution) savings, you’ll also have a savings pot that you can use in a number of flexible ways to suit you.
You’ll find the value of your benefits and any savings in My USS or on your leaver statement. Use the Benefit calculator in My USS to see what they could be when you reach your Normal Pension Age (NPA).
Make sure all of your personal details are up to date in My USS so we can contact you about your benefits and savings, and write to you when they’re ready for payment.
We may need to send you information from time to time about your benefits and savings. We intend to do this electronically, so we recommend providing a personal email address to help us always keep in touch.
It’s important to let us know who you’d like to receive your USS benefits and savings when you die. Even if you’ve stopped paying in to USS, your loved ones could be eligible for benefits.
Update your Expression of Wish and Registration of potential dependant details every three years.
If you have Investment Builder savings, log in to My USS to view them.
You can update your Target Retirement Age (TRA) too. This is particularly important if you’re over the age of 50 and in later working life. If we’re managing your investments for you with the Do It For Me Option, it lets us know when to move your investments to lower risk funds as you get closer to taking them. If you’re managing your investments with the Let Me Do It Option, it tells us when we need to get in touch with you about your options.
There are different ways you can take your pension, depending on how long you’ve been paying in to USS for.
Read all about everything you need to know about your benefits and savings after leaving.
Did you know that there are two parts to your pension that work together?
Learn more about the Retirement Income Builder (defined benefit) and the Investment Builder (defined contribution).
Take a look at our FAQs on leaving USS.
This session covers topics that anyone who has left or is thinking about leaving USS before retirement may find useful.
Hear Pete Wallwork, Head of Proposition at USS, discuss the features of your hybrid scheme, how the two parts work together and the different ways the Investment Builder could work for you in our latest podcast.
Sign up to attend a free live webinar or catch up on a recorded event. You can find out about everything from leaving USS, understanding DC savings like those you might have built up in the Investment Builder, planning for retirement and more.