USS overhaul could leave staff £200,000 worse off in retirement

Many members have asked about the individual impact of the employers' proposals to end the payment of guaranteed pension benefits in USS.

UCU commissioned First Actuarial (FA) to model the changes and you can read the union's press release about the impact here and the full report is here. 

Because the employers' proposals create such uncertainty it is not possible to model every scenario but in a nutshell these hard line plans are bad for everyone.

FA find that, on a like for like basis, total retirement income will fall significantly for every one of the fourteen typical staff profiles they modelled.

A typical lecturer or equivalently graded academic related member of staff starting today is estimated to receive £208,000 less in pension payments than under the current scheme over their course of their retirement. 

Compared to the benefits enjoyed by academic staff in post-92 universities, this typical  USS member would be £385,000 worse off over the course of their retirement.

The impact for staff who already have past service is also substantial with a typical lecturer or equivalent academic related staff member with 10 years' past service would see their annual pension fall by just over £6,000 a year in retirement or £131,000 in total.