USS invests £1bn of your pension money in a water company after it has been loaded with debt by a corporate raider and given record fines for pollution caused by rundown infrastructure, and which is overseen by a regulator asleep at the wheel – what could possibly go wrong? Well, more debt, more financial instability […]
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 1st April 2024. You may […]
The University and College Union (UCU) has written a template letter to Dame Kate Barker, Chair of the USS Trustee Board, to ask that a meeting of the Board consider its position on Israeli investments and those companies that have been found to be complicit in Israel’s ‘plausibly genocidal acts’ in Gaza. The template may […]
Changes in USS investment portfolio There have been 35 changes in the ‘USS top 100 public investments’ between the list published in June 2023 and October 2023. The website itemises the top 100 public investments and there is a searchable database for smaller investments (less than £ 30 million) however the exact holding is not reported.[1] […]
We asked: 1) Do you agree that there is an urgent need for USS to divest from fossil fuels? 2) What actions would you take to make this happen if elected to General Secretary? Their responses follow.
So at last USS have sent out a survey to retired members – the first for quite a few years we believe. Pretty short and generally about whether or not we had accessed the website but there were three Climate related questions.
USS has updated their listing of their public equity holdings as of September 30th 2023. We have reviewed this and can reveal that USS held shares in 44 of the biggest fossil fuel companies in the world, with 5 of the 10 top shale companies and 3 out of 4 of the biggest fracking companies. […]
DivestUSS met with USS senior managers on October 31st to discuss our concerns about USS’s continued investment in fossil fuels. We asked three key questions: 1. What steps is USS taking to assess member’s views on divestment? 2. USS this year voted against the Boards of both Shell and BP to register concern at the lack of […]
Save Pensions and Planet have launched a petition for USS climate and ethical policy changes and governance reform. Signatories are asked to support Read more and sign here.
Data reveal that USS is currently investing in 19 of 50 leading businesses recently found to be actively involved in the illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories, as well as the majority of the top lenders to and investors in those companies. These 19 companies include AirBNB, Cisco, Motorola, Caterpillar, Puma, Expedia, Bookings and […]
A recent analysis by Thomas Da Costa Vieira, a political economist at the London School of Economics and Political Science, argues that fiduciary duty should tell USS to get out of fossil fuels. Key points: Read more here.
USS is holding its annual meeting with senior university leaders at the end of November to outline its current policies, financial standing and outlook. This will include a discussion on its response to the climate emergency. DivestUSS have produced a briefing for attendees providing a summary of the problems with USS’s actions and policies, and […]
