You can find the value of your benefits at your date of leaving in My USS or on your leaver statement. You can also use the Benefit Calculator in My USS to estimate the value of your benefits when you retire.
What happens to your benefits and savings?
The benefits you’ve built up so far in the Retirement Income Builder will always belong to you. And they’ll carry on going up in line with official pensions which means the value is protected.
If you have savings in the Investment Builder, these will remain invested until you decide to take them.
Less than two years
If you leave before 1 April 2022
You must take your Retirement Income Builder benefits at the Normal Pension Age (NPA).
If you leave on or after 1 April 2022
From age 55 (rising to 57 in 2028*) – but your monthly pension payments will be reduced to make up for them being paid out earlier than the Normal Pension Age (NPA).
You must take your Retirement Income Builder benefits by the NPA. Your monthly pension won’t be reduced if it’s taken at this age.
For more on how your benefits are calculated if you retire early, visit our factors page.
* If you were a member of USS on or before 3 November 2021 you may have a Protected Pension Age (PPA) of 55. If you have a PPA this means that you retain the right to take your USS benefits from age 55 even after the rise in the Minimum Pension Age on 6 April 2028.
If you joined USS on or after 4 November 2021 you will not have a PPA on benefits accrued into USS, but you may have a PPA on benefits that you have transferred into USS.
If you leave before 1 April 2022
The amount you paid in (including any amount your employer paid in for you under salary sacrifice but excluding The Match).
You’ll also get a one-off cash lump sum (which is tax-free up to a certain limit) of three times the annual rate of your pension.
If you leave on or after 1 April 2022
The amount of benefits you’ve built up in the Retirement Income Builder. For more on how you build these benefits, see what you pay and what you’ll get.
You’ll also get a one-off cash lump sum (which is tax-free up to a certain limit) of three times the annual rate of your pension.
You can see what you’ve built up in My USS.
These will remain invested until you’re ready to take them.
You can carry on managing your investments in My USS, but you can’t pay any more in.
Visit taking your benefits and savings for more information.
More than two years
From age 55 (rising to 57 in 2028*) – but your monthly pension payments will be reduced to make up for it being paid out earlier than the Normal Pension Age (NPA).
You must take your Retirement Income Builder benefits by the NPA. Your monthly pension won’t be reduced if it’s taken at this age.
For more on how your benefits are calculated if you retire early, visit our factors page.
* If you were a member of USS on or before 3 November 2021 you may have a Protected Pension Age (PPA) of 55. If you have a PPA this means that you retain the right to take your USS benefits from age 55 even after the rise in the Minimum Pension Age to age 57 on 6 April 2028.
If you joined USS on or after 4 November 2021 you will not have a PPA on benefits accrued into USS, but you may have a PPA on benefits that you have transferred into USS.
For anything you built up before 31 March 2016: Any Final Salary or Career Revalued Benefits (CRB) you’d built up.
And everything after 31 March 2016: The amount of benefits you’ve built up in the Retirement Income Builder. For more on how you build these benefits, see what you pay and what you’ll get.
You’ll also get a one-off cash lump sum (which is tax-free up to a certain limit) of three times the annual rate of your pension.
You can see what you’ve built up in My USS.
These will remain invested until you’re ready to take them.
You can carry on managing your investments in My USS, but you can’t pay any more in.
Visit taking your benefits and savings for more information.
Working past the Normal Pension Age (NPA)
If you work past the NPA and then leave your job, you’ll need to start taking your pension right away.
Your benefits are protected against inflation
Even when you stop paying in, your pension and one-off cash lump sum will still increase every April. This is based on increases in official pensions, which currently go up in line with inflation. This is from the date you stop paying in until the date you start taking your pension and is subject to USS standard pension increase limits.
Just so you know, we won’t lower your benefits if inflation is less than zero.
Once you leave, you can use the Benefit Calculator in My USS to estimate this inflation and the value of your benefits when you reach the Normal Pension Age.
Remember - the benefits you’ve built up are also protected by law and the Scheme Rules. If there are any changes to USS in the future, it won’t affect what you’ve already built up.
Some benefits other than your pension will change
Once you leave, some of your benefits will change:
- if you have to retire because of ill health, you’ll only get the pension and lump sum you’ve built up without any enhancements
- if you die, the pension for your spouse or child won’t be enhanced and your life cover will be based on three times the pension you’ve built up, rather than three times your salary
- contributions from your employer will stop.
Visit thinking of leaving and read I'm just not sure I want to carry on building my pension with USS for more information.
Or take a look at what you pay and what you’ll get for a quick look at what you get when paying in.
Taking your pension
If you are a deferred member, you are required to take your USS pension at Normal Pension Age. You need to be aware that if you do not provide us with details to pay your USS pension within six years of the Normal Pension Age, you will lose certain rights and options. To clarify:
- You will be entitled to standard USS retirement benefits only, and will lose the right to your retirement lump sum;
- You will lose some of your benefits. This is because under the USS scheme rules, you do not have a right to any benefits that have not been paid within six years of the date they became payable
- You will not lose your right to future pension and would still be entitled to six years’ worth of arrears.
Got a question?
Document download
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Notification of change in details form docx (36kb)
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Notification of change in details form pdf (137kb)