Annual Member Statement

To register for My USS you’ll need your USS member number (you can find this on emails and correspondence you receive from us), your National Insurance number, and an email address (we recommend you use a personal one). With this information, you can create a password and security question to create your account on My USS. It will only take a few minutes.

You can reset your password or PIN – just visit the My USS log in page and select Forgotten details?. You can also watch our video on how to reset your password or PIN.

Once you’ve reset your details, you’ll receive the following emails within five minutes:

• Confirmation that you’ve requested to reset your details.
• Your temporary password and/or PIN. If you reset both, you will receive a separate email for each.

We’ll send them to the email address you use to sign into My USS. This may be different to the one you use to receive USS communications. If you don’t get these emails within five minutes, check your spam, junk or promotions folders.

If you’ve forgotten the email address you used to register with, you’ll need to contact our Member Service Team on 0333 300 1043. Lines are open 9am – 5pm, Monday to Friday.

Here are some things you can do in My USS:

• See the benefits you’ve built up in the Retirement Income Builder
• Review any Investment Builder savings and make investment choices that are right for you
• View or change your Target Retirement Age (TRA) if you have savings in the Investment Builder
• Top up your retirement savings with additional contributions (only for members paying in to USS)
• Complete your forms so we know who you’d like to receive your benefits when you die
• Update your details – like your contact email address, your communications preferences and your password and PIN.

If you joined since 31 March 2024, you won’t receive a statement this year. If you can’t see your statement in the documents section of My USS, then there could be several reasons why you may not have received a statement at the same time as your colleagues. If you haven’t received your statement, please contact us.

If you’d like to update your personal details please get in touch with your employer’s pension contact in the first instance.

However, if you have a query on any of the figures referred to in your Annual Member Statement contact us via the contact us section within My USS or you can speak to the Member Service Team on 0333 300 1043 (lines are open 9am-5pm Monday-Friday). You can also write to us at Universities Superannuation Scheme Limited, Royal Liver Building, Liverpool, L3 1PY.

Contributions paid to the Retirement Income Builder are not shown in your statement or My USS because your Retirement Income Builder benefits are calculated based on your length of service, salary, and pension accrual rate, rather than the amount of money you contribute. However, you can see the total contributions you make to your USS pension in your employer payslips.

Your employer currently pays a monthly contribution equal to 14.5% of your salary, while you pay 6.1% (or your employer may pay this on your behalf via salary sacrifice).

If you earn above the salary threshold, set at £70,296 for 2024/25, you and your employer will contribute automatically. For more information on what you and your employer pay, visit what you pay and what you’ll get.

The statement is a snapshot of your benefits up to and including 31 March 2024 only. It will not show more recent contributions. You will be able to see your contribution transaction history for additional contributions, transfers in to USS, and any regular contributions above the salary threshold by logging in to My USS, the online portal for managing your membership.

The value of your Investment Builder in the statement is as at 31 March 2024, so it’s worth also checking the current value of your Investment Builder savings which you can see in your My USS account.

The value of your Investment Builder savings still may be less than what you’ve paid in as the value of your investments may go up as well as down. Investment returns are not guaranteed. In the short-term, growth of some of the funds and returns in the Investment Builder may be volatile and fluctuate in value, however, we invest for long term returns.

Please note: In line with the statutory requirements and relevant guidance applicable from 1 October 2023, we’ve changed the way we calculate your Investment Builder (defined contribution – DC) projection in your 2024 statement compared to 2023 statements issued before 1 October 2023.

Yes. If you have more than one job that entitles you to membership with USS, the benefits from all those jobs will be combined on your statement.

Your Annual Member Statement includes the value of all the benefits you have built up to 31 March 2024, including any transfers in, added years AVCs, CRB benefit AVCs and any other additional contributions you may have made.

This figure won’t be shown if you’re:

• within two years of your Target Retirement Age (TRA),
• over the age of 66, or
• a low fund value and haven’t made any contributions to it this year.

Details of what benefits your savings will give you on retirement will be provided to you when you come to take your benefits.

In line with the statutory requirements and relevant guidance applicable from 1 October 2023, we’ve changed the way we calculate your Investment Builder (defined contribution – DC) projection in your 2024 statement compared to 2023 statements issued before 1 October 2023. To see what’s changed, read the investment growth assumptions in our assumptions document.

Your Target Retirement Age (TRA) is important for a couple of reasons. It tells us when to move any investments you have in the Investment Builder to lower risk funds as you get closer to taking them – we do this for members in the USS Default Lifestyle Option and the USS Ethical Lifestyle Option (Do It For Me Options). We also use the TRA when we send you your annual projection of what your Investment Builder funds could be worth at retirement.

If you joined the Investment Builder on or after 6 October 2020, and you didn’t set a TRA it’ll automatically be set to the Scheme’s Normal Pension Age of 66. If you joined the Investment Builder before 6 October 2020, and you did not set a TRA, it will have been set as age 65 automatically. If you joined the Investment Builder before 6 October 2020 and set a TRA, the TRA you chose will remain in place.

It's worth periodically reviewing your TRA to ensure it fits with your retirement plans. You can update it in My USS. If you have set your TRA, it will remain in place.

For a projection of your benefits at your Normal Pension Age or to see how retiring earlier or later might affect your benefits, you can use our Benefit Calculator in My USS. The calculator can support you in a number of ways depending on what stage of the USS journey you’re at. It can also help you to explore the options you have when you take your benefits and savings and see how making changes or saving more could impact what you get.

To request up to date pension information, log in to My USS to see the value of your benefits or please use the contact us form.

The earliest you can start taking your benefits from the Retirement Income Builder and savings from the Investment Builder is age 55 onwards (rising to 57 for some members), unless you’re retiring because of ill health.

Check out your options and different ages and stages for more information relating to early retirement and the other options you have when it comes to accessing your benefits. To see how changing when you retire could impact your retirement benefits, you can also use the Benefit Calculator in My USS.

You can contact USS via the Make an enquiry section within My USS. Alternatively, you can speak to the Member Service Team on 0333 300 1043 (lines are open 9am-5pm Monday-Friday). Choose Option 1. You can also write to us at Universities Superannuation Scheme Limited, Royal Liver Building, Liverpool, L3 1PY.

This will depend on a number of things, such as the rate of income tax you pay, any tax relief to which you’re entitled and whether you’ve exceeded the Annual Allowance. For more information on pension tax, visit our pension tax page or go to gov.uk/tax-on-pension.

If you’ve incurred an Annual Allowance tax charge, you may be able to use Scheme Pays, depending on the amount of the charge. With Scheme Pays, USS pays the Annual Allowance charge direct to HMRC from your USS benefits on your behalf.

If your Annual Allowance tax charge is paid via Scheme Pays, it will be funded through your Investment Builder in the first instance. If those funds are insufficient, a pension reduction will be applied to your benefits in the Retirement Income Builder. Should you incur an Annual Allowance tax charge, you should think carefully about the option to use Scheme Pays.

For more information, including deadlines and terms and conditions, check out our pension tax web pages.

When you are informing the HMRC via your tax return of your intention to use Scheme Pays, you will need to give them the USS tax reference number of 00330004RR. For more information on Scheme Pays, including deadlines and terms and conditions, check out our Scheme Pays web page.

You can contact USS via the make an enquiry section within My USS. Alternatively, you can speak to the Member Service Team on 0333 300 1043 (lines are open 9am-5pm Monday-Friday). You can also write to us at Universities Superannuation Scheme Limited, Royal Liver Building, Liverpool, L3 1PY.

If you exceeded the standard statutory Annual Allowance (AA) of £60,000 (or if applicable the Money Purchase Annual Allowance of £10,000) for the period 6 April 2023 to 5 April 2024, we’ll send you a separate statement. The statement only accounts for the value of your USS benefits and savings, it doesn’t include any other pension savings you may have outside of USS.

You have received a Statutory Money Purchase Illustration Statement which shows a snapshot of your savings as at 31 March 2024. As you had savings with us at that date, you have received this statement for that date.

If you are retired and still have savings in the Investment Builder, you have some options on how to access and use these savings. You can, take cash payments from us (known as Uncrystallised Funds Pension Lump Sums - UFPLS), use your pot to provide a flexible retirement income, known as flexi-access drawdown or use your pot to buy a guaranteed income for life, known as an annuity.

Take a look at using your Investment Builder pot for more on your Investment Builder options.