Hi there,
Given the flurry of voluntary redundancy schemes being announced across Universities across the UK, I don't suppose I am the only person trying to find out information about USS pensions in the context of redundancy. It is early days for me, so please bear with me as I try to work out my options. I have a few specific queries, but just for background - I am 55 and always thought I would work until at least 60, but this is making me reconsider. Would appreciate thoughts and ideas from anyone who is (or has recently been) going through the same thing.
The questions I have are very specific (and may be impossible to answer with more info) but here goes!
Our Uni guidelines say that the first £30k of the settlement can be paid tax free. Does anyone know what the tax of the remainder would be?
I'm also trying to work out how much of the leaver's payment I could pay into my USS Investment Builder? The guidelines say that I can do this, but with no detail. (In case its relevant, I'm in the 40% tax bracket and have been paying additional contributions with Salary Sac into the Inv Builder for a couple of years.) Would the amount I can pay in depend on rules within my own University, or USS rules, or tax rules?
I should add, I have asked these questions to my institution, but they are inundated and haven't yet replied. I've also been searching on the USS website, but while there is a lot of talk about "leaving USS" there isn't much about redundancy that I have found so far. (Incidentally, the uni is not using the language of "redundancy" itself, but "leavers" - I don't know if this is relevant...)
I'm going to a briefing about it tomorrow, but any tips of what questions I should be asking would be much appreciated...
Thanks!