Your Normal Pension Age is changing

Normal Pension Age is the age at which your Retirement Income Builder (the defined benefit part of the scheme) become payable in full. If you retire before that age, your benefits may be reduced because they’ll be paid for longer. But if you retire after that age, the benefits you’d earned up to that date may be increased.

In short, it won’t, so don’t worry.

Any benefits you’ve built up in the Retirement Income Builder up to 6 October 2020 aren’t affected by the changes. So, if you retire after 6 October 2020, we will calculate these in the same way as we do now.

No, if you have been a member of USS for two years, you still have the option to take early retirement from age 55 (rising to 57 in 2028), just like now. However, any benefits you build up after the 6 October 2020 to the day you retire will be reduced, if you are taking them when you are under 66.

Yes, you still have the option to take early retirement should you wish to. It just means any benefits built up from 6 October 2020 will be subject to a reduction relative to the retirement age of 66 rather than 65. This means there will be a higher reduction to your Retirement Income Builder benefits.

You may be an ‘Exempt Member’ if you were born on or before 1 October 1956 and were an active member of USS on 30 September 2011. The increase to Normal Pension Age won’t affect you if you retire before you’re 65. If you retire after that age, your benefits won’t be reduced if you retire before 66, but you’ll only get an uplift to benefits built up after 6 October 2020 if you retire after 66.

If you are over the age of 65 when you retire, any benefits built up before age 65 up to 6 October 2020, will receive a late retirement uplift. This is based on the period between your 65th birthday and the date you retire. Any benefits built up before 6 October 2020, but after age 65 will not be uplifted. Any benefits built up after 6 October 2020, but before age 66, will only receive a late retirement uplift if you retire after age 66.

Our Scheme Rules determine how benefits must be calculated and these rules link the USS Normal Pension Age to the State Pension Age. The changes to State Pension Age are determined by the government, not USS. Our Normal Pension Age is increasing in line with the State Pension Age and will remain aligned with State Pension Age for any future increases made by the government.

Not yet because it has to be accurate for those members that are retiring in the very near future. But we will update it to reflect the new Normal Pension Age before October.

If you leave USS after 6 October 2020 with less than two years’ qualifying service, your benefits, including those built up before 6 October 2020 will be paid to you at age 66, except if you remain in USS pensionable employment beyond this age. If you have two years’ qualifying service when you leave, you can ask for your benefits to be paid any time from age 55, but these may be reduced. Any savings built up pre and post 6 October 2020 would be revalued from the date you leave up to age 66.

If you leave USS after 6 October 2020 with less than two years’ service and it is before you’ve reached age 66, you may be eligible for a refund of your contributions.

If you leave USS with more than two years’ qualifying service, you have a right to request a transfer of your Retirement Income Builder benefits to another registered pension arrangement up until you are 12 months from Normal Pension Age. USS can allow members to transfer after this date and currently lets members transfer at any stage up to their Normal Pension Age. So, if you leave USS after 6 October 2020, you’ll have a right to request a transfer at any time up to age 65, and USS may allow you transfer up to age 66. The change to Normal Pension Age doesn’t affect your eligibility to request a transfer of your Investment Builder benefits – you can still do this at any time.