USS pension revaluation shock

[CupcakesK]

I’m slightly alarmed by the suggestion in the news today that USS pension contributions may need to increase to over 50% of salaries to fund the deficit.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-56258460

This seems impossible - universities are in quite a state financially post-COVID and brexit. Should I be looking elsewhere for my pension savings now?

For background - worked in the NHS for over 10 years, so have some pension there and upon joining academia a couple of years ago signed up to USS as benefits looked comparable to NHS. So I have never thought deeply about pensions as I always assumed I was in a decent situation, but this news on USS has worried me. I’m mid 30s, so still plenty of time to get sorted.

Definitely stay in USS for the time being otherwise you will be missing out on the university contributions and benefits ( eg death in service).
I think there will be a lot of discussion regarding assumptions etc for a while and if if agreement re contributions can’t be agreed they would probably freeze the defined benefit side and move to defined contribution.

I’m interested as similar age and also moved over from nhs. I’ve never taken much notice of the pension issues (terrible I know but it seems so far away) but my goodness that’s shocking. I’m terrified for what pensions are going to be like by the time we are old.

Thanks for your replies. I’ll be keeping it for now but think I’ll get some advice to be prepared. I can foresee more strikes over this as well, unfortunately.