USS heads up for deadline

[worstofbothworlds]

A colleague and I have just sat down and pored over some thrilling pension information. We discovered that if you are interested in buying extra years in USS you only have till 29th Feb to ask for a quote. This is the same whether you are on the old fogeys final salary or newer academics average salary schemes.

I started buying extra years when I joined USS because I realised I wasn't going to accrue a full pension otherwise having started my first academic job quite late and because my dad told me to.

My DH works for a government department with a similar pension scheme and he thinks it's a bit unnecessary (I started before I met him) but I'd prefer to be a bit independent and he admits that USS is a bit less generous in other respects.

Please please explain to me the benefits of this. I know I need to know.

It's basically just as I've said. If you want to have more years on your pension than you are projected to have this is how to get it.
By the way if you are EARLY in your career but you got onto the final salary scheme this may not be for you as the years will be at your current salary but you'll be paying for them on your future salary.

If you have not many years/payrises ahead of you (like me, I'm unlikely to make professor or if I do it will be ages) OR you are on average salary scheme already you may find it worth your while.

anonooo: someone at your institution should be able to work thru it with you, the permutations depend so much on your personal circumstances, and you don't want to waste time trying to get your head around complicated options that don't even apply to you.

I went to a 2 hour talk but can only really remember my decision what to do, not all the other options.

thanks all. It is so complex. I will ask someone at work if they can talk it through with me.

At our place the pensions and payroll people are pretty helpful (way way more helpful than HR for example, and several more degrees of clue too).

The important thing to realise is that the pension scheme is changing very soon. It will still be possible to top up your pension after the changes come in, but it will be calculated in a different way so for some people it may be in their interest to do so before the changes take effect.

They have specifically said you won't be able to take out new added years contracts, so I would imagine that means you can't buy defined benefits any more, which are usually a better deal than defined contributions.