Make the most of your Investment Builder savings

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, and because you make additional contributions, you’re also building savings in the Investment Builder.

But the Investment Builder is more than just a way to boost your retirement income:

• You can choose to make ethical investments and invest in funds that align with your personal values and beliefs.
• 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.
• You can invest in private markets which can offer potential greater returns, better diversification, and more inflation protection.
• As with the Retirement Income Builder, you benefit from tax relief on your contributions, and investment costs are subsidised by your employer. *
• It also gives you the flexibility to take your savings before or after you retire in a variety of ways, so your Investment Builder pot can work with your lifestyle goals.
• If you transfer 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.

Use the Benefit Calculator to explore your retirement options and see how saving more or making changes now could boost your future 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.