The university has submitted its response to the Universities UK (UUK) consultation with university employers on the Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS), which seeks views on UUK’s alternative set of proposals to ensure a valuable, affordable, inclusive, and sustainable scheme for their staff for the long term.

The response also includes the results of the university’s survey of USS scheme members, or those who are eligible to be members, to reflect your views on the future of the scheme.

You can read a copy of the consultation response and the results of the staff survey here.

The Russell Group of leading research-intensive universities has also published a statement of principles agreed by all members of the Group in support of the UUK alternative proposals. You can read the statement in full here.

Background

In March 2021 the USS Trustee, the body which manages the pension scheme on behalf of university employers, announced that the cost to maintain current benefits would need to increase substantially to maintain its current benefits.

Currently, members contribute 9.6% of their salary into the scheme, and the university as employer contributes a further 21.1.%. Under the USS proposals, it is likely that total contributions will need to rise by a combined minimum of 11% to retain current benefits for the future.

UUK’s alternative proposals

Universities UK has outlined alternative proposals for tackling the scheme’s increasing costs, sizeable deficit, and high member opt-out rate. If adopted by the USS Trustee, this should reduce headline costs and provide scheme members with valuable pension benefits at sustainable and affordable contribution rates.

The UUK proposals include employers offering additional financial backing, known as ‘covenant support,’ to lessen the rise in contributions which, considered alongside other reforms, could enable a significant defined benefit element to be preserved at current contribution levels. The proposals would also introduce a new, short-term flexible option for the growing number of early career staff who are currently being priced out of the scheme.

The University of Nottingham’s employer response is supportive of the UUK alternative proposal in its entirety, provided that it can be delivered without any further increase in contribution rates for members and employers.

As stated in the consultation response, the UUK proposal requires all parties to compromise to reach agreement: USS to revisit its valuation assumptions; employers to support debt monitoring; and employers and members to accept some benefit reform.

Supplementary information is also available on the USS 2020 valuation webpages.