Retirement Income Builder

Every member builds their pension benefits here

When you and your employer start contributing to USS, you automatically begin to build a pension in the Retirement Income Builder — the defined benefit part.

Each year you’ll pay in 6.1% of your annual salary, up to the salary threshold, and your employer will put in 14.5%.

From this, you’ll get a monthly pension of 1/85 of your salary (up to the salary threshold), plus a one-off, tax-free (up to a certain limit) cash lump sum of three times your annual pension. What you build up will also go up in line with USS standard pension increases. The increases are linked to official pensions, up to certain limits, which provides a level of inflation protection for benefits.

If you earn above the salary threshold, you’ll also automatically build up a savings pot in the Investment Builder — the defined contribution (DC) part of USS. You’ll be able to flexibly access this.

If you do not earn above the salary threshold, you can choose to make regular or one-off additional payments to the Investment Builder through My USS.

Both parts work together as a hybrid pension. Visit what your pension might look like to get an idea of what this could mean for you. You’ll also be able to see information about what happens if your employer offers salary sacrifice.

How soon can you start taking your pension?

You can start accessing your Retirement Income Builder benefits in full from the Normal Pension Age (NPA). You can take them earlier, but your benefits will be reduced as they’ll be paid out for longer.

You may wish to fully retire, or flexibly retire by taking a percentage of your benefits and continuing to work and make contributions. Find out more about your options.

If you’re flexibly retired and want to understand more about your options to retire in full, find out more on you're flexibly retired.

You’ll need to speak to your employer about retiring first.

Making your pension right for you

Once you retire, you’ll get an income for life and a one-off, tax-free (up to a certain limit) cash lump sum of three times your pension, all from your Retirement Income Builder. You can choose to have a higher monthly income and a lower cash lump sum — or vice versa. It’s up to you.

There’s a limit on the amount of benefits that can be taken as tax-free cash. We’ll tell you this limit when we send you your retirement quote. To see how taking more or less tax-free cash might affect you, use our Benefit Calculator in My USS.

If you have Investment Builder savings too, these can be used alongside your retirement income in a way that suits you. Or you could take them before or after you retire.

To find out more about what to do when you're ready to take your benefits and/or savings, see taking your benefits and savings.

Life cover

Through the Retirement Income Builder, you also receive life cover for your beneficiaries. If you die while you are actively paying in to your USS pension, your beneficiaries and dependents could receive pension payments. They could also receive a pension if you have already retired or stopped paying in to USS. You can find out more by visiting what happens when you die.

Make sure to tell us who you would like your beneficiaries to be by completing the Expression of Wish form on My USS.

Ill health benefits

If you’ve been paying in to USS for at least two years and are eligible, and have an illness or condition that stops you from working, or reduces your capacity to work, you could retire early with USS benefits. Find out more by visiting ill health retirement.