Flexible retirement

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.

If you’re no longer paying in to USS but remain in eligible employment, you can take flexible retirement. Visit your options at different ages and stages for more information.

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.

Read our factsheet about what happens if you die whilst paying in to USS to see how any benefits and savings you’re still building could be affected.

You can also read the What happens to my savings and benefits if I die after I’ve retired?  factsheet for information about the proportion of your pension you’re receiving.

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 bereavements@uss.co.uk.

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 (subject to HMRC limits) 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 Serious ill heath lump sum factsheet.