page_title: Universities Superannuation Scheme
section_title: 2018 Proposed changes
hierarchical_section_title: Universities Superannuation Scheme / History / 2018 Proposed changes
caption_attribution_description: English: A plot of the USS ("Universities Superannuation Scheme") pension fund deficit across time. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universities_Superannuation_Scheme R code to create graph library(ggplot2) library(cowplot) ============================ = data read and formatting = ============================ fp = "~/Desktop/USS_pension_assets_and_liabilities.xlsx" df = gdata::read.xls(xls = fp, stringsAsFactors=FALSE, sheet="transposed") df$Year = as.Date(paste0(df$Year, "-03-01")) df$percent_funded = df$percent_funded *100 as.numeric(df$Year) ================== = Construct Plot = ================== p = qplot(Year, percent_funded, data= df) p = p + geom_smooth(method = "auto", se = TRUE) p = p + labs(title= "USS Balance sheet", x = "Year", y = "Percent of scheme funded") p = p + geom_hline(yintercept = 100, color = "red")+ theme(text = element_text(size = 13)) p = p + scale_x_date(date_breaks = "1 year", date_labels = "%Y", minor_breaks = NULL) p = p + draw_label("2011 Changes", x = 15034, y = 102, hjust = 0, vjust = 0) p = p + draw_label("2015 Changes", x = 16495, y = 90, hjust = 0, vjust = 0) p
context_page_description: The Universities Superannuation Scheme is a pension scheme in the United Kingdom with over £67 billion under management as of March 2019. It has over 400,000 members, made up of active and retired academic and academic-related staff mostly from those universities established prior to 1992. In 2006, it was the second largest private pension scheme in the UK by fund size. The headquarters of Universities Superannuation Scheme Limited are in Liverpool.
context_section_description: By 2017, the scheme had over 400,000 members. The USS scheme reported a technical deficit of £17.5 billion in July 2017, reported as the largest such shortfall in the UK at that time. Under diverse conventional accounting rules, the scheme has been in deficit for several years (see Figure). This varies depending on the rules used. For instance as of March 2010,  the actuary estimated the scheme was 91% funded (£3.1 billion deficit)  according to the scheme specific funding regime, 80% funded on an FRS17 basis, and 57% funded on a buy-out basis. 
  The USS Joint Negotiating Committee therefore made the following proposals, to be introduced after 1 April 2019:
  The defined benefits section of the scheme would close (with a possibility of reintroducing it). All future benefits (apart from death in service and ill health retirement benefits) would be transferred to the defined contribution (DC) scheme.
  Member contributions would remain at 8%. Members would gain an option of paying in only 4% while still receiving the full employer contribution. The employer match of the first 1% of any voluntary employee savings would be lost. Members’ contributions would include a contribution to finance death in service and ill-health retirement benefits.
  Employer contributions would remain at 18%. Of this 13.25% would build employee DC pension pots, with the other 4.75% used for deficit recovery (plus management and running costs).
  UCU, whose objections to these proposals had been overruled, proceeded to ballot successfully for industrial action in an attempt to secure a more favourable settlement for members, leading to the 2018 USS pension dispute.
caption: USS pension scheme fund percent funding  2008-2017.
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