Annual Member Statement

Your statement is ready for you to download from My USS, your online portal for managing your membership.

In My USS you can:

• See the benefits and savings you’ve built up in USS
• Review any Investment Builder savings and make investment choices that are right for you
• View or change your Target Retirement Age (TRA) if you have savings in the Investment Builder
• Top up your retirement savings with additional contributions (only for members paying in to USS)
• Let us know who you’d like to receive your benefits when you die
• Update your details — like your contact email address, your communications preferences and your password and PIN.

If you joined after 31 March 2026, you will not receive a statement this year. Otherwise, your statement should be available to download from My USS. If you have not received your statement, please contact us.

If you’d like to update your personal details, please get in touch with your employer’s pension contact.

However, if you have a query on any of the figures referred to in your Annual Member Statement contact us securely via My USS or you can speak to the Member Service Team on 0333 300 1043 (lines are open 9am—5pm, Monday to Friday). You can also write to us at Universities Superannuation Scheme Limited, Royal Liver Building, Liverpool, L3 1PY.

Your Retirement Income Builder benefits are calculated based on your length of service, salary, and pension accrual rate, rather than the amount of money you contribute. You can see the total contributions you make to your USS pension in your employer payslips.

Your employer currently pays a monthly contribution equal to 14.5% of your salary, while you pay 6.1% (or your employer may pay this on your behalf via salary sacrifice).

If you earn above the salary threshold, set at £71,484 for 2025/26 and at £74,208 for 2026/27, contributions in respect of salary over the threshold are automatically paid into the Investment Builder (13.9% for the employer’s contribution and 6.1% for your contribution). For more information on what you and your employer pay, visit what you pay and what you’ll get.

The statement is a snapshot of your benefits up to and including 31 March 2026 only. It will not show more recent contributions. You can see your contribution transaction history for additional contributions, transfers in to USS, and any regular contributions above the salary threshold on My USS.

The value of your Investment Builder on the statement is as at 31 March 2026. You can check the current value of your Investment Builder savings on My USS.

The value of your Investment Builder savings still may be less than what you’ve paid in as the value of your investments may go down as well as up. Investment returns are not guaranteed. In the short-term, growth of some of the funds and returns in the Investment Builder may be volatile and fluctuate in value, however, we invest for long term returns.

You can see an up to date breakdown of your funds on My USS.

Yes. If you have more than one job that entitles you to membership with USS, the benefits from all those jobs will be combined on your statement.

Your Annual Member Statement includes the value of all the benefits you have built up to 31 March 2026, including any transfers in, added years AVCs, CRB benefit AVCs and any other additional contributions you may have made.

This figure will not be shown if you’re:

• within two years of your Target Retirement Age (TRA),
• over the age of 66, or
• a low fund value and have not made any contributions to it this year.

Details of what benefits your savings will give you on retirement will be provided to you when you come to take your benefits.

We make some assumptions to calculate the figures in your statement. Some of these assumptions are dictated by law and can change from time to time, and others are chosen by us based on experience and industry practice. The assumptions document details how we work out what your Investment Builder benefits could be worth when you want to retire as well as other projections we make about your pension.

For a projection of your benefits at your Normal Pension Age or to see how retiring earlier or later might affect your benefits, you can use the Benefit Calculator in My USS. It can also help you to explore the options you have when you take your benefits and savings and see how making changes or saving more could impact what you get.

Your Target Retirement Age (TRA) tells us when to move any investments you have in the Investment Builder to more cautious 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 your TRA when we send you your annual projection of what your Investment Builder funds could be worth at retirement.

If you joined the Investment Builder on or after 6 October 2020, and you did not set a TRA it’ll automatically be set to the Scheme’s Normal Pension Age of 66. If you joined the Investment Builder before 6 October 2020, and you did not set a TRA, it will have been set as age 65 automatically.

It's worth periodically reviewing your TRA to ensure it fits with your retirement plans. You can update it in My USS. Once you have set your TRA, it will remain in place until you change it.

Check our website for information about your benefits and options, including topping up your retirement savings or what happens when you leave or retire.

Register for one of our free guidance webinars, covering a range of topics.

Visit our contact us section if you have any queries about your statement, or any questions that are not covered on our website or on My USS. You can also request a copy of your statement in an accessible or printed format.

If you’d like to talk to someone at USS, please contact our Member Service Team on 0333 300 1043. Lines are open 9am—5pm, Monday to Friday.

You can also write to us at Universities Superannuation Scheme Limited, Royal Liver Building, Liverpool, L3 1PY.

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 visit the government website.

You can find out how much of the Annual Allowance for 2025/26 you’ve used in USS by checking your statement. If you’ve exceeded the Annual Allowance in USS it will also show the last three years carry forward amounts.

If you have benefits and savings in other pension arrangements, you will need to factor in how much of the Annual Allowance you have used in those arrangements to work out the total Annual Allowance you have used.

Find out more in our pension tax page, or register for a pension tax webinar on our guidance webinars page.

Your Annual Allowance may be tapered down if you have a threshold income of over £200,000 and an adjusted income above £260,000 (for 2025/26). Find out more from our pension tax page, or register for a pensions tax webinar on our guidance webinars page.

For HMRC guidance on how to calculate your Tapered Annual Allowance, visit the government website.

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 benefits on your behalf.

If your Annual Allowance tax charge is paid via 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 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.

For 2025/26 the Lump Sum Allowance (LSA) was £268,275, the Lump Sum and Death Benefit Allowance (LSDBA) was £1,073,100.

You can use the Benefit Calculator in My USS for an estimate of your maximum lump sum from USS and to see whether it falls within the tax limits, or you can contact us if you want to know what you’ve built up in USS. When you take your benefits we will provide your actual LSA and LSDBA figures.

Find out more on our pension tax page or register for a pension tax webinar on our guidance webinars page.