Some updates from branch committee member Claudia Uller about USS pensions:
So far, negotiations between Kingston University, USS and UCU are still taking place, and very few decisions have been taken. They are going back and forth and HR/Payroll have little information.
HOWEVER, there is some good news. Our initial planned increase in contribution as of October 2021 went down from 11% to 9.8%, which is only 0.2% above what we were contributing up until now. This is the pressure of UCU on universities and USS!
So far, we can all stay with USS. The Senior Management Team, who leads these discussions, have not taken any decision to end the USS Scheme at KU. When they do take a decision, we will be informed. There will be 2 options. First, you will be offered to keep your accrued value with USS, and join TPS as the new pension provider. Or you will be offered to transfer the amount of pension value into TPS. However, because these schemes are not identical type schemes [USS is no longer in the advance transfer club], it is not a simple matter of transferring the accrued value into TPS. TPS will evaluate how much service within USS has been accrued and offer a transfer value. It will be up to us to decide which [1 or 2] would be more beneficial.
In a nutshell – if you wish to keep USS until the SMT make a decision, you can. We are 34 KU staff in the USS pension scheme, but only a handful got back to me. If you know anyone else with USS, please let them know!