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Becoming a parent

Find out how your parental and family leave can affect your pension

What this means for your pension

Adding a new addition to your family is certainly an exciting time. You may be thinking about taking a little – or a lot – of time off before and after your child arrives. So it’s useful to understand the impact this will have on your pension.

Find out everything you need to know about how maternity, paternity, adoption and family leave will affect your pension in the Parental and family leave factsheet.

Taking care of your child when you die

Your child may be eligible for a child’s pension when you die if:

  • they’re 18 or under
  • they’re under 23 and in full-time education
  • they’re not able to support themselves financially due to a physical or mental disability.

To find out more about what happens to your pension when you’re no longer here, see what happens when you die.

Keep your Expression of Wish up to date

Once your child arrives, you may want to update your Expression of Wish form. This will tell us who you’d like us to pay a lump sum to when you die.

We recommend you update this form every three years so we know it's up to date, even if your wishes haven't changed. Log in to My USS to complete online or download the Expression of Wish form to print and return to us.