Changes to your job

Getting promoted or starting a new job is a great feeling. And as long as you’re still with a USS employer, it means you – and your employer – will still be contributing to your pension.

If you’re now earning over the salary threshold, you and your employer will automatically start contributing to your Investment Builder pot. Even if you’re not over the threshold, a pay rise may mean you’re thinking about putting a little more away for your future. You can do this by making additional contributions to your Investment Builder pot in My USS.

An increase in your pay could affect how much tax you’ll need to pay. To find out more about your tax liability, take a look at our pension tax pages.

If you start working part-time, we’ll base your contributions on your actual salary during the year – not the full-time equivalent. And if your salary in any given month is over the monthly equivalent of the salary threshold, you and your employer will automatically contribute to your Investment Builder pot for that month.

You might become a variable-time worker, meaning you don’t have fixed hours. In that case, the benefits you build up in the Retirement Income Builder are still calculated as 1/75 of your annual salary. You can see how this works in what your pension might look like. Because we can’t predict how much you’ll earn in the year, we check your earnings for the previous 12 months against the salary threshold on 31 March. If you earned above the threshold, we’ll put part of you and your employer’s contributions into your Investment Builder pot.

There may be instances where changes to your job means your salary drops. If that’s the case, the amount that you and your employer contribute towards your pension will also decrease.

And if you were previously earning above the salary threshold but you’re not anymore, you’ll stop contributing to the Investment Builder. Any savings you already have in your Investment Builder pot will remain invested and you can carry on managing them in My USS.

If you’re still entitled to a USS pension in your new role, your new employer will take care of things for you. The benefits you build up in your new role will be linked to the ones you’ve built up already.

If you made additional contributions to the Investment Builder in your previous role, you’ll need to set these up again in My USS.

If you were paying Final Salary or Career Revalued Benefit AVCs, you'll need to let your new employer know. If the gap between your previous role and your new one is more than a month, you won’t be able to continue these Final Salary or Career Revalued Benefit AVCs.

Not eligible for a USS pension in your new role? You’ll find more information about what happens next in thinking of leaving.