Do more with your Investment Builder pot

It can give you flexibility, choice, and control over your future income.

USS is a hybrid pension scheme, which means it’s made up of two parts:

• The Retirement Income Builder, the defined benefit (DB) part, gives you a guaranteed income for life, which is inflation-protected up to certain limits, and a one-off, tax-free lump sum, subject to limits, when you retire.
• The Investment Builder, the defined contribution (DC) part, is a flexible savings pot you can use in a variety of ways to suits your needs.

Everyone building a USS pension builds up benefits in the Retirement Income Builder, but you also have Investment Builder savings.

With the Investment Builder:

• You can make additional contributions to boost your retirement income or to use in another way that suits you.
• You can choose how your savings are invested, or you can let us do it for you – their value depends on how well your investments perform and they can go up or down.
• As with the Retirement Income Builder, you benefit from tax relief on your contributions, and investment costs are subsidised by your employer. *
• You can choose to make ethical investments and invest in funds that align with your personal values and beliefs.
• You can invest in private markets which can offer potential greater returns, better diversification, and more inflation protection.
• If you transfer, or have transferred, a pension from a registered or recognised overseas pension scheme to the Investment Builder, the only thing you’ll pay for is the investment fees.
• You have flexibility to take your savings before or after you retire.

Use the Benefit Calculator to see how additional contributions could affect what you get at retirement. Explore your options and see the difference even small changes could make to your future benefits and savings.

Additional resources

For more information about your USS pension and how the two parts work together, read your pension explained.

View the PLSA Retirement Living Standards for an estimate of how much expenditure you may need to achieve your desired lifestyle in retirement.

*The employer subsidy covers the investment management charges of the Investment Builder for normal and additional contributions. For benefits transferred in from other pension arrangements, except for Prudential Money Purchase AVCs (MPAVCs), you’ll pay investment management charges.