Universities UK and the University & College Union have both welcomed the Joint Expert Panel report (JEP) published on 13 September 2018.

UUK is now conducting a period of formal consultation on the report with employers, including the University of Nottingham, and has published its consultation document.

Staff are invited to help inform the University’s response to the consultation by contributing their views by email to br-PensionEngage@nottingham.ac.uk by 12:00 noon on Friday 26 October 2018.

In brief summary, the JEP report suggests that a combination of employers taking on greater risk and the trustee updating the valuation assumption could mean that the future USS deficit could fall from £7.5 billion to £4 billion.

This could mean combined employer and member contributions of 29.2% to fund the current benefits of the scheme (minus the 1% match). This compares to the current rate of 26% (18% by employers, 8% by employees) and the rate of 36.6% proposed from April 2020 by USS, based on the valuation as it stands.

If agreed and implemented, these changes would avoid the need for the steeper contribution increases envisaged in the USS consultation on cost-sharing and create the space for the Joint Negotiating Committee to consider some of the longer-term issues and establish a stable platform for a further review of the pension scheme by the Panel.

The USS Trustee has confirmed that they are ready to engage constructively with UCU and UUK over the coming weeks as they consider their respective positions, in the hope of finding common ground that could lead to a way forward: www.ussemployers.org.uk.

The Vice-Chancellor has written to the Chair of the University’s UCU Branch, saying:

“The University of Nottingham agreed the negotiated direction of travel in setting up the JEP and we therefore take their outcomes seriously.

“As I maintained last term, my hope is that the JEP report will support positive discussions between UUK, UCU and USS and act as the first step towards a solution for the USS pension scheme that is workable, affordable for members and employers and meets UUK’s commitment to continuing to offer valuable defined benefits as part of the overall scheme.

“Of course, there are a number of challenges ahead: the views of the Pension Trustee and the Pension Regulator are as yet unknown, and the affordability of the additional contributions from both employee and employer perspective needs to be considered carefully.

“I hope that our colleagues who are members of the scheme – whether UCU members or not – take the opportunity to make their views known and that they approach renewed negotiations in the spirit of constructive discourse which I observed was a hallmark of the debate at Nottingham last spring.”