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There are two different types of workplace pension – a defined benefit pension (like the Retirement Income Builder), which guarantees you an income for life once you retire, and a defined contribution pension (like the Investment Builder), where contributions are invested into your own savings pot. USS has both, making us a hybrid pension scheme.
To find out more visit a pensions overview. Or for more on how USS works, visit your pension explained.
Contributions are paid by active members and their employers. Visit what you’ll pay, for more information on what the contribution rate is.
If you have pension savings elsewhere that you haven’t started taking yet and your previous scheme is registered with HMRC, you could transfer them to USS.
The funds you transfer will go into your Investment Builder pot, which is the defined contribution (DC) part of USS. Visit transferring in to USS for more information.
Your member number can be found in your welcome letter or on your Annual Member Statement, if you’ve received this. Please note that you typically won’t receive your first Annual Member Statement until the Autumn after you join. But it could be longer.
If you’ve not received either of these yet, you can get in touch with our Member Service Team on 0333 300 1043. Lines are open 9am - 5pm, Monday to Friday.
Your previous employer will send us a leaver notification and, if you’re eligible for a USS pension in your new role, your new employer will send a joiner notification. You’ll then be able to continue building your pension.
Depending on when your employers submit their notifications, you may not start paying in until the month after your new role starts.
If you want to continue making additional contributions, you’ll need to set these up again in My USS. More information can be found in your welcome letter.
If your employer offers salary sacrifice, you can agree to give up the part of your salary that you would pay towards your pension, and your employer will pay your contributions for you. Then, you (and your employer) could pay lower National Insurance contributions.
However, there are reasons why this may not be right for you. For example, if you’re with USS for less than two years, and you use salary sacrifice, you’ll still be able to choose to keep pension benefits in USS or transfer them to another scheme, but you won’t have the option to get a refund of contributions when you leave. It may also affect the amount you’re eligible to borrow, if you’re looking for a mortgage or other finance. You should speak to your employer for more details.
You can re-join USS at any time – speak to your employer first. They'll then send a joiner notification to us. You’ll then be able to continue saving for your future.
If you’re considering leaving USS, it’s worth having a think about the benefits you’ll be missing out on that are exclusive to members who are building their pension with us.
To find out more about leaving USS, take a look at thinking of leaving.
How much we refund you will depend on various things like how long you’ve been paying in and if you contributed via salary sacrifice. Even if you don’t get a refund, you can still take your pension at retirement or you may be able to transfer your pension elsewhere.
For more details on when a refund will and won’t be possible, take a look at getting a refund.
Once you leave USS you’ll stop building your pension with us. Watch our short video on What happens when you leave USS?, to find out what your options are and how to keep your details up to date if you leave.
You can find the value of your benefits at your date of leaving in My USS or on your leaver statement. Enter these into the Deferred Pension Increase Modeller to see what they could be when you reach the Normal Pension Age.
Yes – you can still do this in My USS. But you can’t make any more additional contributions.
You can update your address in My USS. Or you can complete and return the Notification of change in details form for any other updates.
Log in to My USS to complete the Registration of potential dependant form online or download the Registration of potential dependant form to print and return to us. We recommend that you update this at least every three years so we know it’s up to date, even if your wishes haven’t changed.
For more information, take a look at what happens when you die.
Log in to My USS to complete the Expression of Wish form online or download the Expression of Wish form to print and return to us. We recommend that you update this at least every three years so we know it’s up to date, even if your wishes haven’t changed.
For more information, take a look at what happens when you die.
If you’re moving overseas, you can ask your new scheme whether you can transfer your USS pension over to them.
We won’t transfer to an overseas scheme unless it’s a Recognised Overseas Pension Scheme (ROPS). So we’ll check this before completing the transfer. You can also check this for yourself using the Recognised Overseas Pension Schemes notification list.
If your new scheme doesn’t meet certain conditions, you may be charged an Overseas Transfer Charge (OTC). It’s a 25% tax charge taken from your transfer. Even if you don’t need to pay this right away, you may need to pay it later if circumstances change within five years.
For more information on moving overseas, see our Working or retiring overseas factsheet.
This may be if you’ve left within two years of joining USS. Your Annual Member Statement assumes that you’ll be with us for at least two years and shows your benefits on your earnings to reflect this.
You’ll need to speak with your employer first and agree your retirement date. They’ll then submit a retirement form to us on your behalf.
Take a look at our retirement timeline for what you need to do and when.
We’re happy to help you fill in your form.
Watch our short video on your retirement options on our understanding your options pages, where you can also find more information.
If you no longer have a UK bank account, Citibank offers a service where your pension can be paid directly to an overseas bank account.
Find out more about working or retiring overseas.
Retiring flexibly allows you to take up to 80% of your pension whilst continuing to work, as long as you drop your hours and salary by at least 20%. Each time you take part of your pension, it’s known as a flex. It means you can ease yourself into retirement – and still carry on building for the future.
Visit your options at different ages and stages for more information.
The earliest you can start taking your benefits and savings is age 55 (rising to 57 in 2028), unless you’re retiring due to ill health.
Visit your options at different ages and stages for more information.
If you’re still paying in to USS, you must take your benefits by age 75.
But if you’re no longer paying in to USS, you need to take your benefits at the Normal Pension Age.
Once you let us know that you want to retire, we’ll ask you for your UK bank or building society details. Your monthly income will then be paid on the 21st of each month.
Your lump sum can also be paid into a UK bank or building society.
If you want your monthly income and/or lump sum paid to a non-UK bank account, take a look at working or retiring overseas to find out what you need to do.
You won’t be classed as retired if you intend to start another role in which you can build a USS pension (with either your current or a new employer). But if you’re retired and then offered another role, your employer may need to automatically enrol you into a pension scheme. You’ll need to speak to your employer about whether you can re-join USS.
Please note there are certain factors which will affect your pension if you retired due to ill health, but then start working again. Take a look at ill health retirement to find out more.
You can update your address in My USS. Or you can complete and return the Notification of change in details form for any other updates.
To update your name, we must see documentary evidence confirming the change, such as a certified copy of your Change of Name Deed. If you’re changing your bank details, we recommend that you leave your existing bank account open until we confirm that we’ve amended our records.
Your pension is taxed when you receive it, just like a regular income, using your tax code provided by HMRC.
You can take cash payments from us as and when you need to, this is known as UFPLS.
Find out more in our Taking cash from your Investment Builder pot (UFPLS) factsheet.
Or you could transfer your savings to another scheme that may also offer UFPLS and other options too, such as flexi-access drawdown or to buy an income for life (which is called an annuity). Find out more about this in Using your Investment Builder pot.
If you’re flexibly retired and are now looking to take more of your benefits, contact your employer. You’ll need to agree with them whether you’ll now fully retire or take another flex.
If you no longer have a UK bank account, Citibank offers a service where your pension can be paid directly to an overseas bank account.
Find out more about working or retiring overseas.
In most cases, you won’t need to pay UK income tax if you’re a resident for tax purposes overseas. But you may need to pay income tax on your pension in the country you’ve moved to. If you live in a country with a double taxation agreement (DTA) with the UK, you’ll pay tax in both countries unless you apply for UK tax relief. You can find a full list of all countries with a DTA by searching ‘double taxation agreements’ on gov.uk.
You won’t be classed as retired if you intend to start another role in which you can build a USS pension (with either your current or a new employer). But if you’re retired and then offered another role, your employer may need to automatically enrol you into a pension scheme. You’ll need to speak to your employer about whether you can re-join USS.
Please note there are certain factors which will affect your pension if you retired due to ill health, but then start working again. Take a look at ill health retirement to find out more.
We aim to send this to you by 31 May each tax year. It will show the full amount of taxable pension we’ve paid to you and the income tax you’ve paid in the relevant tax year. You’ll also be able to see these figures for 2019/20 onwards in My USS.
It’s important that you keep this safe as you may need it in the future.
This may have changed if we’ve received a new tax code for you from HMRC. You should have been told about this new tax code by HMRC too.
If you have any questions about your new tax code, contact HMRC on 0300 200 3300, quoting your National Insurance number and our PAYE reference 428/U168.
All payslips are available to view in My USS and can be downloaded and printed from there. If you haven’t already registered, you can do so and manage your membership and communication preferences in My USS.
It’ll be reviewed every April in line with our standard pension increases.
See more in i’m retired.
It’s up to you. You could take everything, nothing, or just a bit from your Investment Builder pot when you retire flexibly or fully. And if you retire flexibly, you can carry on contributing to your pot until you retire fully.
If you’d like, you can use your pot to increase your benefits from the Retirement Income Builder or take more tax-free cash (up to a limit).
For more information about what you can do with your Prudential savings too, see Using your Investment Builder pot.
Flexible retirement isn’t available if you’re no longer paying in to USS. You must take your Retirement Income Builder benefits all at once. Any Investment Builder savings can remain invested until you need them.
We’ll pay a combination of benefits to your beneficiaries as if you’d died while paying in to USS and if you’d died after you’d retired, up to a maximum limit.
The total benefits we pay won’t exceed the value of benefits you would have received if you’ve died while you’d been building your pension before the date of your first flex.
If you have any questions about what happens to your benefits when you die if you’ve taken flexible retirement, call our Bereavement Team on 0151 556 0620 or email deathbenefits@uss.co.uk.
As long as your employer consents, you can choose to flexibly retire before using EOO. However, once you’ve said you want EOO, you won’t be able to take future flexible retirement.
When you started paying added years AVCs, you would have agreed to pay a certain percentage of your full salary. But if you choose flexible retirement, you won’t be paying this percentage as you’ll need to reduce your salary/hours. So you’ll only get a proportion of the original amount you’d agreed to buy.
You’ll continue to contribute the agreed amount to buy your additional pension.
As you'll earn less after flexibly retiring, you may want to consider if this is still right for you.
When you flex, if you want to use your Prudential funds as part of your USS retirement, you have to take 100% of your funds or take them all in the future. You can’t draw just part of your fund.
You can take up to 25% of the value of your benefits as tax-free cash each time you flex. But if you don’t take your Prudential funds during your first flex, the amount of your Prudential funds you can take as tax-free cash on your next flex or when you retire fully may be impacted.
If you choose to convert your funds to secure extra USS benefits when you retire, you’ll lose any enhanced protection you have.
If you want to seek guidance or take financial advice on the options available to you, visit the guidance and financial advice page. You’ll find a range of resources to support your planning and you can also find information on how to access an independent financial adviser.
For more information about what you can do with your Prudential funds, see Using your Investment Builder pot.
Yes, flexibly retired members can fully commute the unused portion of their benefits as a full commutation lump sum. For more information, see our Commutation factsheet.
Yes you can make changes to your investments in My USS.
Visit our changing your investments page to watch our short video on your investment choices. You can also read A guide to investing in the Investment Builder for more information.
If you have Investment Builder savings, it’s important that you set a TRA to reflect your future retirement goals.
It allows us to automatically move any investments you have in the Investment Builder to lower risk funds as you get closer to retirement. We do this for members in the USS Default Lifestyle Option and the USS Ethical Lifestyle Option (the Do It For Me Options). If you’ve chosen to invest in our self-select funds (the Let Me Do It Option), you’re responsible for reviewing and managing your own investments. But we’ll still send you a letter to remind you of your options around six months before your TRA.
To set or change your TRA, simply log in to or register for My USS.
If you want us to manage your investments for you, you can choose the USS Ethical Lifestyle Option – one of the Do It For Me Options. This option invests in funds that meet our ethical investment guidelines.
If you’d prefer to manage your investments yourself, you can choose to invest in our self-select funds (the Let Me Do It Option). There are funds available that avoid certain investments on ethical grounds.
Our Fund Factsheets, available in My USS, or A guide to investing in the Investment Builder can provide more information.
Visit where we invest for information on the different markets we invest in.
Visit our Responsible Investment page for more information on the actions we take as part of our Responsible Investment strategy.
Visit our Investment Builder page to watch our short video on your investment choices. You can also read A guide to investing in the Investment Builder for more information.
Fund Factsheets are also available in My USS.
If you have pension savings elsewhere that you haven’t started taking yet and your previous scheme is registered with HMRC, you could transfer them to the Investment Builder.
The pension savings you transfer will go into your Investment Builder pot. Visit transferring in to USS for more information.
You just need to complete and return the Transfer out option form. Once we receive the form, we’ll aim to send you all the information you need within three weeks.
Remember that what you can transfer out depends on whether you’re still paying in to USS, you’ve already stopped, or you’re retired.
Visit transferring to another scheme for more information.
Transfers in to USS from a Recognised Overseas Pension Scheme (ROPS) may be possible. You should check with your previous overseas pension scheme whether a transfer value can be paid to a UK scheme.
You can check whether your previous pension scheme is a ROPS using the Recognised Overseas Pension Schemes notification list.
Visit transferring in to USS for more information.
For any transfers in to USS made before 2016, these will be included in the total value of your Retirement Income Builder benefits shown in your Annual Member Statement and in My USS.
For any transfers made after 2016, these will have gone in to the Investment Builder, the defined contribution (DC) part of USS. Any transfers made in the last 12 months will be shown in your Annual Member Statement, the rest will be included in the total value of your Investment Builder pot. A breakdown on your transfers can be found in My USS.
If you’re moving overseas, you can ask your new scheme whether you can transfer your USS pension over to them.
We won’t transfer to an overseas scheme unless it’s a Recognised Overseas Pension Scheme (ROPS). So we’ll check this before completing the transfer. You can also check this for yourself using the Recognised Overseas Pension Schemes notification list.
If your new scheme doesn’t meet certain conditions, you may be charged an Overseas Transfer Charge (OTC). It’s a 25% tax charge taken from your transfer. Even if you don’t need to pay this right away, you may need to pay it later if circumstances change within five years.
For more information on moving overseas, see our Working or retiring overseas factsheet.
We won’t charge to transfer other pension savings in to USS. But there will be investment management fees that you should to be aware of for pension savings transferred in to your Investment Builder pot.
Read A guide to investing in the Investment Builder for more information on the fees.
If you decide to leave USS and transfer to another scheme, you can take a Cash Transfer Sum (CTS) payment to that scheme or (if you’re aged 55* or over) an annuity provider. When you leave USS, we’ll send you a letter that explains the amount of the CTS and how to arrange for it to be paid to another scheme / annuity provider. It’s guaranteed for three months and it also includes any Investment Builder contributions you and your employer may have made.
If we don’t hear from you within three months of sending you the letter, you can request another transfer value, but this will be a Cash Equivalent Transfer Value, which will be calculated at a later date and won’t guarantee you the full value of any contributions you may have made to the Investment Builder.
* Rising to 57 in 2028.
Head over to the HMRC website where you’ll be able to find more information on how to do this.
Your pension is taxed during payment just like a regular income using your tax code provided by HMRC.
If you think that you may be affected by the Lifetime Allowance (LTA) or Annual Allowance (AA) whilst you’re paying in to USS, you could choose one of the following options to help you manage your tax charges:
In most cases, you won’t need to pay UK income tax if you’re a resident for tax purposes overseas. But you may need to pay income tax on your pension in the country you’ve moved to. If you live in a country with a double taxation agreement (DTA) with the UK, you’ll pay tax in both countries unless you apply for UK tax relief. You can find a full list of all countries with a DTA by searching ‘double taxation agreements’ on gov.uk.
Your tax code will affect how much tax you pay. HMRC will contact us directly if this needs to change.
If you have any questions about your tax code, please contact HMRC directly on 0300 200 3300 (or 0044 135 535 9022 from overseas). You’ll need to quote our tax office reference, which is 428/U168, and you’ll need your National Insurance number handy.
The Annual Allowance (AA) is the maximum amount of pension savings you can build up each year before you may incur a tax charge.
The standard Annual Allowance (AA) is £40,000 per tax year. If you’re a high earner, you’re likely to have a Tapered AA.
Or if you start taking your Investment Builder savings, or any other defined contribution savings, you may be subject to the Money Purchase Annual Allowance (MPAA). This limits how much you can pay into a defined contribution arrangement before you need to pay tax. The limit is £4,000 per year.
You’ll find details of your AA on your Annual Member Statement. If you’ve gone over the standard AA, you’ll also be able to see how much AA you’ve used over the last three years. So you’ll know whether you have any unused AA to carry forward to cover your tax charge.
You can also use our Annual Allowance Modeller to work out the estimated AA used up by your USS benefits over the 2019/20 tax year.
This is any Annual Allowance (AA) you have left over from the previous three tax years that can be used if you’ve gone over the current year’s AA.
Visit your unused Annual Allowance for more information.
We’re unable to calculate any carry forward for you – you can use your Annual Member Statement to do this.
The benefits you build up in the tax year you left USS will count towards the AA for that year. Any benefits you built up in USS in previous years won’t count.
You’ll need to let HMRC know on your self-assessment tax return. You can find more information about paying your AA tax charge on the HMRC website.
You may be able to use your pension savings to cover the charge with Scheme Pays.
If you have enough unused AA to carry forward from the previous three tax years to cover the charge, you don’t need to complete a self-assessment tax return. Just keep a detailed record in case HMRC ask for more information in the future.
You may also wish to get some tax advice from a tax adviser.
If you want to seek guidance or take financial advice on the options available to you, visit the guidance and financial advice page. You’ll find a range of resources to support your planning and you can also find information on how to access an independent financial adviser.
You may be able to manage your Annual Allowance tax charge by using the Voluntary Salary Cap (VSC).
You may also be able to use your pension savings to cover the charge with Scheme Pays.
No, you can’t carry forward any unused MPAA from previous years. Find out more about the MPAA.
A Tapered Annual Allowance (AA) is lower than the standard AA and applies to those on a higher income.
Find more on our Tapered Annual Allowance page.
Tapering only applies if you have both a threshold income over £200,000 and an adjusted income over £240,000.
Visit a Tapered Annual Allowance for more information.
This is your taxable income, plus the Annual Allowance amount you have used in the tax year, less your pension contributions.
Head over to the HMRC website where you’ll be able to find more information on how to do this.
This is your taxable income from all sources less your pension contributions. If you've sacrificed any income by taking salary sacrifice on or after 9 July 2015 then add this sacrificed income back on.
This page applies to the 2020/21 tax year – if you’re working out your position for 2019/20 then you’ll need to use the previous year’s figures. For 2019/20, tapering applied if you had both a threshold income over £110,000 and an adjusted income over £150,000. The tapering worked by reducing your AA by £1 for every £2 of your adjusted income over £150,000 (subject to a minimum AA of £10,000 for adjusted incomes of £210,000 or more).
The LTA is the limit on the amount you can take from your pension savings before a tax charge applies. The LTA for 2020/21 is £1,073,100.
There are a few different things you can do to protect your benefits:
We’ll only be able to confirm how much LTA has been used by the benefits you take that were built up with USS – not with any other scheme. You’ll find your USS LTA in your Annual Member Statement.
Or if you’re no longer paying in to USS, contact our Pensions Technical Team on 0151 556 0626 and they’ll send you this information.
If you’ve retired, you’ll find your LTA on your retirement statement. We’ll confirm it with you each year too.
If you go over the LTA a tax charge will apply. We’ll make sure the charge is taken from any benefits we pay to you. The way the charge applies depends on how you take any excess benefits that are over the LTA:
See our LTA page for more information.
All pension benefits (except for the State Pension) in your name count towards your LTA.
Yes. But you’ll need to make sure your contributions don’t breach the conditions of any Lifetime Allowance protection you may have in place.
You can only do this if you’re retiring from the role in which you get your USS benefits.
Yes, but only after EOO has been in place for at least 12 months. Before you do this, consider whether building other benefits again will lead to any tax implications. Once you’ve cancelled EOO, we can’t reinstate it.
You can keep any late retirement increases that have been applied up to the date your EOO starts. However, from when it starts up to retirement, no further late retirement increases will be added.
For Fixed Protection 2016, you would have to have stopped building your pension by 5 April 2016. So if you didn’t have EOO on 1 April 2016, it’s now too late to apply for Fixed Protection 2016.
If you have Fixed Protection 2016 but you carried on building benefits, it’s your responsibility to inform HMRC that you no longer have the Fixed Protection.
EOO won’t affect your application for Individual protection 2016.
The contribution rate for EOO is 2.5%.
Your benefits will be calculated based on what you’d built up before your EOO started.
In the case of retirement before the Normal Pension Age (NPA), any reductions which apply to your pension will be the same as if you hadn’t used EOO – and you’d carried on building your pension with us.
As long as your employer consents, you can opt for flexible retirement before using EOO. However, once you’ve said you want EOO, you won’t be able to take future flexible retirement.
Yes, but you’ll need to give at least 28 days’ notice. The cancellation will start from 31 March. So your VSC will last at least a year and the latest you can give notice is 2 March.
It’s a standing agreement that continues each year on a rolling basis. You can cancel it by giving 28 days’ notice – the cancellation will take effect from 31 March. If the salary threshold catches up to your VSC, the salary threshold becomes your new VSC limit.
The lowest you can set the VSC is to the current salary threshold.
You need to decide the overall level of your VSC and tell your employers how you want it applied. For example, if you want to cap your salary at the threshold, and you have two posts at £40,000 per annum, your VSC could apply to one employer (at £19,585.72) and there’ll be no VSC with your other employer.
You’ll be covered up to the level that you set your VSC at. You can choose to pay 2.5% above the VSC for the full cover of your pensionable earnings.
Visit Enhanced Opt Out for more information.
You may be able to use Scheme Pays to pay your AA tax charge. We’ll take funds from your Investment Builder pot to cover your AA charge. If you haven’t built up enough in your pot, your benefits in the Retirement Income Builder will be reduced to pay the charge. If you don’t want your Retirement Income Builder benefits reduced, you may want to set your VSC higher to ensure you have enough funds in your Investment Builder pot or pay some of the tax charge yourself.
You need to apply by 3 March – and your VSC will start from 1 April.
As a VSC will mean you build up fewer benefits, your adjusted income and the amount of your salary that’s assessed for Annual Allowance purposes will be reduced.
If you want the VSC to continue, you’ll need to let your new employer know, otherwise it’ll stop.
Yes, as long as the charge relates to your USS benefits.
There are two options available if you’d like to manage your tax charges:
Yes, as long as you let us know before you start taking your pension. This is so we can take off the correct amount before it starts being paid to you.
When you ask for a retirement quote, we’ll let you know what pension savings you've earned in that tax year (and the previous one if you haven’t had that information already). If your Annual Allowance (AA) tax charge is more than £1,000, you can let us know if you want to apply for Scheme Pays – we’ll send the form along with your retirement pack.
Unless you’re retired, you may not know whether you’ll need to pay an AA tax charge until the end of the tax year. You can submit your Scheme Pays notice before you retire based on the information you have at the time.
We’ll pay an estimate tax charge for you. If your charge is over this amount, you’ll need to make up the rest directly with HMRC. And if the charge is lower, you can ask HMRC for a refund.
You may be able to do this. Please contact our Pensions Technical Team on 0151 556 0626 for more information.
We can help you with details on your pension with us, but we can’t confirm details about pensions you may have with other schemes or if you have a Tapered Annual Allowance.
To cover the charge, we’ll sell parts of your Investment Builder pot.
As the value of your pot changes every day, we can’t work out exactly how many units we need to sell to cover the charge. So we’ll sell off 10% more than we may need to make sure we have enough if the value of your pot changes. Any amount remaining over the tax charge will be reinvested for you. You’ll be able to see this in My USS.
We’ll only use your Retirement Income Builder benefits to cover the charge if you don’t have enough in your Investment Builder pot. It’ll be taken from your pension and one-off, cash lump sum. If you’re retiring, you can choose either your pension or lump sum to pay it.
We’ll work it out in the same way as if you want to change your pension into extra cash or vice versa. The AA tax charge is then taken from your pension as a regular amount.
You’ll find this information in your Annual Member Statement. If you’ve gone over the standard AA, you’ll also be able to see how much AA you’ve used over the last three years. So you’ll know whether you have any unused AA to carry forward to cover your tax charge.
You can also use our Annual Allowance Modeller.
Yes, as you’ll already have received tax relief on your contributions. It also reduces the benefits HMRC use to work out your Lifetime Allowance (LTA). And if you’re over the salary threshold, your employer’s contributions to the Investment Builder will also help towards paying your charge.
You can still pay the charge through your own savings. Or if you’re retiring and taking a one-off, tax-free (up to a limit) cash lump sum, you could put aside some of the lump sum to pay the charge.
You’ll need to let HMRC know on your self-assessment tax return. You can find more information about paying your AA tax charge on the HMRC website.
You may be able to use your pension savings to cover the charge with Scheme Pays.
If you have enough unused AA to carry forward from the previous three tax years to cover the charge, you don’t need to complete a self-assessment tax return. Just keep a detailed record in case HMRC ask for more information in the future.
You may also wish to get some tax advice from a tax adviser.
If you want to seek guidance or take financial advice on the options available to you, visit the guidance and financial advice page. You’ll find a range of resources to support your planning and you can also find information on how to access an independent financial adviser.
HMRC rules give individuals a right to use Scheme Pays by the following 31 July if they get an Annual Allowance (AA) tax charge because they’ve gone over the standard AA of £40,000 and the tax charge is over £2,000.
We allow members to use Scheme Pays for AA tax charges subject to a Tapered AA or if the tax charge is over £1,000. To avoid being charged late penalties by HMRC, the tax charge needs to be paid by 31 January. So to make sure we can meet this target, we need your application by 15 December.
You can estimate your penalty for late self-assessment tax returns and payments at gov.uk.
Yes, because these benefits are based on your full salary – not just limited to your salary threshold.
If you’ve used some of your funds to pay a Scheme Pays charge in the past, we’ll take an amount off your ill health benefits or the benefits we pay out when you die.
Your member number can be found in your welcome letter or on your Annual Member Statement, if you’ve received this. Please note that you typically won’t receive your first Annual Member Statement until the Autumn after you join. But it could be longer.
If you’ve not received either of these yet, you can get in touch with our Member Service Team on 0333 300 1043. Lines are open 9am - 5pm, Monday to Friday.
Once logged in to My USS you can view and manage your savings on the ‘View or manage savings’ page in the Investment Builder section. You’ll find forms on this page that allow you to make or change your additional contributions. You’ll be able to make monthly additional contributions, pay a one-off lump sum payment or take The Match.
Register or log in to My USS. Once logged in, you’ll see your TRA on your Investment Builder page. Just select ‘Update your TRA’ to update it in line with your future plans.
Your TRA can also be updated if you choose to make an investment decision via the ‘Manage investments’ page. If you choose the Do It For Me Option, you’ll be asked to update your TRA.
You can reset your password or PIN – just visit the My USS log in page and select ‘Forgotten details?’. You’ll then be able to reset these. If you’ve forgotten the email address you used to register with, you’ll need to contact our Member Service Team on 0333 300 1043. Lines are open 9am - 5pm, Monday to Friday.
To register for My USS you’ll need your member number, your National Insurance number and a personal email address.
You can find your member number on your Annual Member Statement or your welcome letter.
If you haven’t received either of these or are still having trouble registering, call our Member Service Team on 0333 300 1043. Lines are open 9am - 5pm, Monday to Friday.
If you’re still paying in to USS, speak to your employer. They’ll be able to provide you with a form to get things started.
If you’ve stopped paying in to USS, you can contact our Ill Health Retirement Team on 0151 478 7014.
All you have to do is complete an Expression of Wish form or a Registration of potential dependant form to let us know who you’d like to receive your benefits if you die. It doesn’t always have to be a person, it could even be a charity or any other organisation capable of receiving the money.
We recommend that you update theses every three years so we know they’re up to date, even if your wishes haven’t changed.
Log in to My USS to complete these online or download the Expression of Wish form or Registration of potential dependant form to print and return to us.
You can contact our Bereavement Team on 0151 556 0620.
Log in to My USS to complete the Registration of potential dependant form online or download the Registration of potential dependant form to print and return to us. We recommend that you update this at least every three years so we know it’s up to date, even if your wishes haven’t changed.
For more information, take a look at what happens when you die.
Log in to My USS to complete the Expression of Wish form online or download the Expression of Wish form to print and return to us. We recommend that you update this at least every three years so we know it’s up to date, even if your wishes haven’t changed.
For more information, take a look at what happens when you die.
Take a look at our Divorce factsheet.
For information on maternity, paternity, shared parental leave or family leave, take a look at becoming a parent.
We’ll base your contributions on your actual salary during the year – not the full-time equivalent. And if your salary in any given month is over the monthly equivalent of the salary threshold, you and your employer will automatically contribute to your Investment Builder pot for that month.
If you’re a variable-time worker, find more information on our changes to your job page.
You get life cover whilst paying in to USS. This means if you die whilst paying in, your loved ones may be able to get a lump sum of three times your salary – and a pension too.
If you’ve stopped paying in to USS or are already retired, your loved ones may still be eligible to the benefits that you’ve built up.
Read more on our what happens when you die page.
Things change as you move through life, which could affect your pension or who you choose as your beneficiaries. Take a look at our life events pages to find out what will happen to your pension depending on what’s happening in your life.
A dependant is someone who’s fully or partly financially dependent on you, or dependent on you because of any physical or mental disability when you die.
Your pensionable service was based on how many days you'd been a member of USS. It included any additional service you'd received by paying AVCs or transferring in pension benefits from another scheme.
If you worked part-time for any period, that period of service would be multiplied by your part-time service fraction – and your pensionable salary would be based on your full-time equivalent salary.
If you were paying these AVCs after 31 March 2016, you will carry on building up an additional Career Revalued Benefit pension. These will then be increased with standard pension increases.
You can cancel your Career Revalued Benefit AVCs at any time. All you need to do is speak to your employer. This will mean you’ll only receive the benefits you’d built up. Think about this carefully first as you won’t be able to restart them once they’re cancelled.
If you were paying Final Salary AVCs and you’ve chosen to carry on paying them, you will have earned more service. After each 31 March, we add in any extra service you've earned to your pre-2016 pensionable service and recalculate your Final Salary benefits. So the benefit you get will be based on your salary on 31 March 2016, although the contributions you pay will depend on your current salary.
You can cancel your AVC whenever you like – simply speak to your employer. This will mean you’ll only receive the benefits you’d built up. This is also the case if your AVCs stop because of early retirement or you decide to leave USS.
Once you’ve cancelled your AVC, you won’t be able to restart it – so please think about this carefully first.
Yes, you can switch them to your Investment Builder pot. Complete and return the Request to voluntarily switch MPAVC funds into the Investment Builder form.
Additional contributions can only be made to the Investment Builder.
You can set these up in My USS. Visit our Investment Builder page for more on how this part of USS works.
The Investment Builder – the defined contribution (DC) part of USS – lets you save a bit extra. You can make additional contributions in My USS, which will go into your Investment Builder pot. These can be regular contributions or a one-off payment.
Visit our Investment Builder page for more information.
You’ll find this information on your Prudential annual statement. You can also visit the Prudential site or contact Prudential directly.
For a small number of our members we need to carry out additional checks and calculations on their benefits and therefore can’t produce an automatic statement. But rest assured that you continue to build up benefits in USS and this doesn’t affect your benefits.
You can use our online tools to work out what your pension could be and consider your options. If you require any further information you can contact us at any time.
As well as your savings in the Retirement Income Builder, a contribution equal to 20% of your salary over the salary threshold will go into your Investment Builder pot.
To get an idea of how much you’ll save each year, see what you’ll pay for some examples.
Remember, the value of your Investment Builder pot can go up or down depending on how your investments perform.
You can begin taking savings from your Investment Builder pot anytime from age 55 (rising to 57 in 2028) in a number of different ways, depending on your future plans. One option is to take cash payments, otherwise known as UFPLS.
With USS, you can take up to four cash payments each year from your Investment Builder pot (minimum £2,000 each). There is no charge for the first payment each year, after that charges apply.
Read more in our Taking cash from your Investment Builder pot (UFPLS) factsheet.
The Match is one way to make additional contributions to save more – you can choose to pay an additional 1% of your salary every month to the Investment Builder. If you paid The Match between October 2016 and March 2019, you would have received an extra 1% contribution from your employer too. But from 1 April 2019, the employer element of The Match was removed. You can still choose, or may still have, The Match. But your employer will no longer match the 1%.
If you want to seek guidance or take financial advice on the options available to you, visit the guidance and financial advice page. You’ll find a range of resources to support your planning and you can also find information on how to access an independent financial adviser.
Once all statements have been issued later in the year, you’ll be able to find a digital version on My USS. You can then access your statement online, whenever you want. When you have logged in, select ‘My documents’ to view and download your latest statement to 31 March 2020.
To register for My USS you will need your USS member number (you can find this on your statement), Your National Insurance number, and an email address (we recommend you use a personal one so we can get in touch if you move jobs or retire). With this information, you can create a password and security question to create your account on My USS.
There could be several reasons why you may not have received a statement at the same time as your colleagues. If you haven’t received your Annual Member Statement, please check with your employer in the first instance.
If you’d like to update your personal details or query any of the figures referred to in your Annual Member Statement, please get in touch with your employer’s pension contact in the first instance.
Alternatively, you can contact us via our online contact form, or you can contact the Member Service Team on 0333 300 1043 (lines are open 9am-5pm Monday-Friday). You can also write to us at Universities Superannuation Scheme Limited, Royal Liver Building, Liverpool, L3 1PY.
Contributions paid to the Retirement Income Builder are not shown in your statement or My USS because your Retirement Income Builder benefits are calculated based on your length of service, pensionable salary and scheme accrual rate, rather than the investment of contributions.
The statement is a valuation of your benefits up to and including 31 March 2020 only. You will be able to see your contribution transaction history for additional contributions, transfers in to USS, and any regular contributions above the salary threshold (£59,585.72 for 2020/21) by logging in to My USS, the online portal for managing your membership.
For a projection of your benefits or to see how retiring earlier or later might affect your benefits, log in to the Benefit Illustrator, with your USS member number and National Insurance number. Your USS member number can be found on your statement.
If you have not received your statement, you can still use the Benefit Illustrator non-login version and manually input your pension information to see a projection of your benefits to retirement age. To request up to date pension information, please use the contact us form.
In the first instance, please get in touch with your employer’s USS pension contact, this information can be found on your statement.
For queries regarding your Investment Builder pot, you can contact us via our online contact form, or you can contact the Member Service Team on 0333 300 1043 (lines are open 9am – 5pm Monday – Friday). You can also write to us at Universities Superannuation Scheme Limited, Royal Liver Building, Liverpool, L3 1PY.
Your employer currently pays a monthly contribution equal to 21.1% of your salary into the Retirement Income Builder, while you pay 9.6%.
This will depend on a number of things, such as the rate of income tax you pay, any tax relief to which you’re entitled and whether you’ve exceeded the Annual Allowance. For more information on pension tax, visit our pension tax page or go to gov.uk/tax-on-pension.
If you’ve incurred an Annual Allowance tax charge, you may be able to use Scheme Pays, depending on the amount of the charge. With Scheme Pays, USS pays the Annual Allowance charge direct to HMRC from your USS pension on your behalf.
If you apply for Scheme Pays, it will be funded through your Investment Builder in the first instance. If those funds are insufficient, a pension reduction will be applied to your benefits in the Retirement Income Builder. Should you incur an Annual Allowance tax charge, you should think carefully about the option to use Scheme Pays. For more information, including deadlines and terms and conditions, check out our pension tax web pages.
When you are informing the HMRC via your tax return of your intention to use Scheme Pays, you will need to give them the USS tax reference number of 00330004RR. For more information on Scheme Pays, including deadlines and terms and conditions, check out our Scheme Pays web page.
You can change your TRA in My USS on the Investment Builder page. If you have not set a TRA, for this statement at 31 March 2020, it has automatically been set to the NPA of 65. It will remain 65 unless you change it. However, if you start contributing to the Investment Builder after 30 September 2020, your TRA automatically sets to 66 in line with the increase in USS’s Normal Pension Age (NPA).
Your Target Retirement Age (TRA) is important for a couple of reasons. It tells us when to switch any investments you have in the Investment Builder to lower risk funds as you get closer to taking them – we do this for members in the USS Default Lifestyle Option and the USS Ethical Lifestyle Option (Do It For Me Options). We also use the TRA when we send you your annual projection of what your Investment Builder funds could be worth at retirement. If you already save in the Investment Builder, and you have not set a TRA, for this statement at 31 March 2020, it has automatically been set to the NPA of 65. It will remain 65 unless you change it. However, if you start contributing to the Investment builder is after 30 September 2020, your TRA automatically sets to 66 in line with the increase in the scheme’s Normal Pension Age (NPA).
The Normal Pension Age in USS will go up from 65 to 66 from 6 October 2020. This is because our Normal Pension Age goes up automatically in line with the State Pension age, which increases to 66 at the same time. If you retire after 6 October 2020, and you’re below 66 when you do, the Retirement Income Builder benefits you build up from October 2020 may be reduced to reflect early payment.
The Normal Pension Age in USS will remain aligned with State Pension age for any future increases made by the government.
Yes. If you have more than one job that entitles you to membership with USS, the benefits from all will be combined on your statement.
Your Annual Member Statement includes the value of all the benefits built up to 31 March 2020. This includes any Final Salary benefits, transfers in, and additional contributions you may have made.
When you switch investments between funds, the amount that you switch is reflected in the figure for Total contributions made during the year. The carried forward value of your savings to 31 March 2020, is reduced accordingly.
Here are some things you can do in My USS:
Update your security details – like your password and PIN.
Check out your options and different ages and stages for more information relating to early retirement and the other options you have when it comes to accessing your benefits.
The most recently issued Annual Member Statements (31 March 2020) quote the scheme’s Normal Pension Age (NPA) which is currently age 65. This is usually the earliest age you can receive the full amount of USS benefits you’ve earned, without a reduction for early retirement.
In the past, however, individual contracts of employment could have conferred a different, lower, retirement age (but not less than age 60). This means that some individuals may have had the right to retire earlier than USS’s NPA.
Based on feedback from employers, we have quoted the NPA on the Annual Member Statement. If you have a Contractual Pension Age this will be quoted in your contract with your employer.
This figure won’t be shown if you’re:
Details of what benefits your savings will give you on retirement will be provided to you when you come to take your benefits.
USS is a hybrid occupational pension scheme, largely governed by UK domestic law. As such, the UK leaving the EU doesn’t directly affect USS benefits and the way the scheme is run.
Defined benefit arrangements, such as the Retirement Income Builder, are based on a promise to provide a defined level of pension on retirement or death, and there is no current indication that these would be directly affected by the terms of any deal with the EU.
There is also no indication of any impact on the structure of defined contribution pensions, such as the Investment Builder. Benefits in the Investment Builder are determined by the contributions paid in by you and your employer, and how well the contributions perform when invested. The value of investments (which can go up or down) could be impacted by the markets’ response to any arrangements negotiated between the UK and the EU. This is not something we can control so we encourage you to closely monitor how your investments perform during (and immediately following) this transition period and carefully consider (and take independent financial advice where appropriate) whether you should be making any changes to your investment choices. This is not something we are able to give you any advice on, as this will depend on your personal and financial circumstances.
Further information about the Investment Builder and the performance of funds can be found in the a guide to investing in the Investment Builder and our investment performance page.
In this period of uncertainty, it’s understandable that you might have some concerns about receiving your pension, particularly if you live overseas.
At USS we have members who live all over the world, and we pay their pensions on a monthly basis. We expect that we would still be able to make pension payments to EU citizens in the same way as we currently do for members living outside of the EU.
If you live in the UK, your pension payments should not be affected.
Whether you live abroad or in the UK, we’ll be monitoring the position and will provide further updates to this page as the situation develops.
Tax on pensions for UK residents is not set to change as a result of the UK leaving the EU. If you live overseas, you might have to pay UK tax on your pension as well as tax in the country you live in, depending on your tax residency status, much in the same way as today. It’s currently unclear how the UK’s future relationship with the EU will affect the amount of tax you’ll have to pay.
If you’re planning on moving overseas, you must tell HM Revenue and Customs so that you pay the correct level of tax. As tax laws are different in each country, it’s always best to seek independent financial advice if you’re unsure.
If you want to seek guidance or take financial advice on the options available to you, visit the guidance and financial advice page. You’ll find a range of resources to support your planning and you can also find information on how to access an independent financial adviser.
If you’re actively paying into your pension or you’re retired, you can’t transfer savings from the Retirement Income Builder to another scheme, but you can transfer any savings you’ve built up in the Investment Builder.
If you’re not paying in to your USS pension or receiving benefits (deferred member), you can transfer your USS pension savings to another scheme.
If you’re living or working overseas and are eligible to transfer your pension savings, you can transfer them to an overseas scheme as long as it is recognised by HM Revenue & Customs as a qualifying recognised overseas pension scheme (QROPS).
Transferring your pension overseas could change the amount you get when you retire, and you may have to pay additional charges or tax. We don’t know what these charges or taxes might be in the future or how the UK’s future relationship with the EU may impact transferring your pension overseas.
Defined benefits, such as those you receive with the Retirement Income Builder are a valuable investment. Therefore, if you’re considering transferring to another scheme, we encourage you to take independent financial advice before moving your retirement savings.
It is a legal requirement to take independent financial advice when transferring defined benefit rights from a scheme like USS to a defined contribution scheme when the defined benefit transfer is £30,000 or more.
You should consider whether a transfer out from USS is in your best interests. You may want to take financial advice, if you’re not sure. You can find information on how to access an independent financial adviser and a range of other resources on the guidance and financial advice page.
The UK’s future relationship with the EU will not impact your benefit options. However, when you’re making a decision about how you want to use your USS benefits, you may want to seek independent financial advice to see what works best for you.
You should consider whether a transfer out from USS is in your best interests. You may want to take financial advice, if you’re not sure. You can find information on how to access an independent financial adviser and a range of other resources on the guidance and financial advice page.
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