Uni offers shift from AVCs to salary sacrifice.....

[NearlyAlwaysInsane]

So my university has 'offered' to allow a change from AVCs into USS, to salary sacrifice. I currently make AVC contributions on top of regular USS contributions.

I am trying to figure out whether it makes any sense - as far as I can see it would mean a saving of a couple of hundred quid max, a year, but only until 2029 when new rules come in.

I can see it from the employer's perspective - it lowers their NI bill. But shifting to salary sacrifice also effectively lowers my salary, which may have other impacts (e.g. if I want to (!) get another mortgage if I move houses).

I am thinking there's little reason to make a change, unless I am feeling particularly nice about my employer. Am I overlooking something?

I was offered salary sacrifice at one university but decided against it as I felt it was cheating my civic duty as a taxpayer.

Although, really, nowadays who bloody cares about that?

Yes that was something else I thought about. On the other hand, presumably they are trying to spur people to do their civic duty by saving for retirement and associated costs and therefore being less of a cost to the state later on.

When it comes to mortgages, I am not sure how adding AVC through salary sacrifice would be any different than without salary sacrifice. I assume all you need to show for a mortgage application would be your bank statements, which shows your earning in your current account.

If anything, salary sacrifice will increase your take home pay like per like for the same amount of AVC compared to without salary sacrifice because your NI contribution is lessened. I do use salary sacrifice for my AVC and the USS calculator shows that I gain 29% more by doing AVC via salary sacrifice.

I currently put in 48.5% on top the usual USS contribution and plan to increase it every year with annual salary increase; essentially making the most of salary sacrifice before it ends in 2029.