There are two parts to your USS pension:

Your DB is Defined Benefit (Retirement Income Builder), this provides a guaranteed monthly pension + lump sum which increases each year. This applies to all salary below the threshold currently £ 41,004 but the threshold is due to rise to £ 70,308 on 1^st April 2024.

You may also have a DC pot – Defined Contribution (Investment Builder) if you earn over the current threshold (£ 41,004 or were earning over that amount in 2022/23) and/or if you make Additional Voluntary Contributions (AVCs).  The recent cut in contribution rate means that some members are choosing to invest the savings in AVCs.

Around 100,000 USS members now have some money in their DC pot. Importantly you can choose how to invest it and what to do with it on retirement. This applies to salary above the threshold plus any funds transferred from another pension scheme +plus additional voluntary contributions. 

On the USS website you have the choice of a default fund (where your money goes if you do nothing) and a range of other funds including ethical and Sharia funds. 

We think it is important that members make a conscious choice as to where their money goes and how it is invested – but we don’t give financial advice as to which fund you should choose. USS have a page called choosing your investments where members can find useful content to guide them through their options, plus an investment guide and Quarterly Investment Reports, which help members understand their options and, particularly in the Quarterly Investment Reports, information on the funds’ latest investment performance. There is also a section in My USS under the Investment Builder page called ‘Fund information’, which includes information on how the funds are performing and interactive investment performance charts.For more information about the changes to your contributions see here.   

If you want to change where your money goes here are the simple instructionsow to Make the Change 

For DC investments (Investment Builder) USS have two options under the ‘Do it for me’ investments, these are (i) Default Lifestyle (ii) Ethical Lifestyle.  Both Lifestyle funds are managed to gradually reduce risk as you approach your target retirement age. Factsheets are availablefor both options on the USS website.

For DC investments (Investment Builder) USS have 10 funds under the ‘Let Me Do it’ investments. You can choose a mix of these funds and vary them (for example from high risk/high benchmark to low risk/low benchmark as you near retirement). These have a range of risks and approaches (e.g. Ethical, Sharia, Equity, Bonds, Global, UK). Factsheets are availablefor the options on the USS website. 

How to switch your DC pension to a different fund:

1. Register to manage your pension online with My USS. 

• Login at: https://www.uss.co.uk/members/login. Register first if you haven’t already done so (to register you’llneed your Pension Member Number (from a USS statement) and your NI number (find this on your payslip, where you can also see your pension contributions and check they agree with your accumulated pension).

• Click OK at the pop-up window to enter the My USS Dashboard.

• Click on the link near the top which says: ‘Update your investment choices, using the Manage my investments webform’.

• On the next screen, select ‘All’ from the dropdown box for the type of contribution, then ‘Next’.

• You can select either the ‘Do It For Me’ or ‘Let Me Do It’ investment option. Factsheets are available for each option and are worth reading before you make a decision.

• If you prefer the ‘Do it for me’ option, you can select the Ethical Lifestyle Fund instead of the Default Lifestyle Fund. ‘Do it for me’ means that the proportion of higher-risk investments will be decreased gradually as you get closer to your target retirement age (which you can select in the next step). 

• If you prefer the ‘Let me do it’ option, you can select the Ethical Equity Fund or a different one of your preference. ‘Let me do it’ means that you can choose to accept a higher level of risk, which may or may not result in a higher level of growth (remember higher risk can sometimes mean worse performance). After selecting ‘Let me do it’, select ‘Switch my existing funds and future contributions’ and click ‘Next’. On the next screen, in the ‘Percentage to Invest’ column type for example 100% in the ‘USS Ethical Equity Fund’ box and click ‘Next’.

• On the next (and final) screen, tick the box to say ‘I have read and agree to both the terms and conditions and the important information’ and click ‘Submit’

• Relax and have a cup of tea, knowing that at least the DC part of your pension is no longer invested in fossil fuels (and please consider getting more involved in our campaign to try to persuade USS to make the DB part ethical too!)