The University is about to embark on a consultation with those members of staff who would be affected by the proposed changes to USS.
Staff who are members of the Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS) will have been aware for some time of the discussions that have taken place between Universities UK and the University and College Union concerning potential changes to the benefits and structure of USS.
In January of this year the USS Joint Negotiating Committee (JNC) – which is responsible for decisions on scheme changes – decided on a package of proposed changes to USS. The scheme’s Trustee has confirmed its intention to make these proposed changes.
Participating employers, including the University of Cambridge, are now required to carry out a formal consultation with affected employees. The University’s consultation will run from 16 March to 22 May 2015.
Affected employees should have received a hard-copy letter notifying them of the consultation and a booklet providing an overview of the proposed changes to the structure and benefits of the scheme.
As from today (13 March) staff can also access a range of supporting documents from the USS consultation website. These include:
• The full consultation document, videos and Q&As
• An interactive modeller to model both past and future pensions benefits
• A portal where anonymous responses can be left and reviewed by both the University and the Trustee.
To access these materials, click on USS consultation materials in the Further Links section.
The University will also be running another series of briefing presentations on the proposed changes. For more information on these, see the panel below.
Following closure of the consultation the Trustee will consider consultation responses and refer any suggested changes to the Joint Negotiating Committee for further consideration. This is likely to happen over the summer.
Any agreed changes would be communicated to employers and affected employees in autumn of this year.