A USS pension update

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Our University was one of the institutions that wanted us to lose Defined Benefits altogether.UCU National Disputes Committee adopts a ‘No Detriment’ positionUSS letter proposes using an updated March 2018 valuation to supersede the March 2017 valuation Our University’s position on last year’s UUK proposal to end to Defined Benefits Members at Leeds may have seen the recent release of the University of Leeds’s recent responses to UUK surveys of its members over the USS pensions scheme. What these documents tell us is that our University is among the most hawkish in willing an end to your Defined Benefit pension and that, in something of a volte-face given that early verdict, they have conceded that the UUK should adopt the JEP recommendations. We link to these documents at the bottom of this page.Michael Otsuka, who has been instrumental in commenting on and explaining the various vagaries of the pensions dispute, has described our recorded university’s position as “foaming at the mouth alarmist in their claims of DB” and pointed out that our employer was one of the minority that advocated a shift to 100% defined contributions – the base cause of last year’s strike. Professor Otsuka highlights the insensitivity of our … continue reading

Minutes of general meeting 19 October 2018

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There may be formatting errors in online versions of minutes because of complex embedded list formatting Friday 19 October 2018, 12pm – 1pmMichael Sadler building LG15 Minutes of EGM 12 June 2018 Item not taken (out of time) 2. Pay and equality dispute Industrial action ballot results – pay and equality – will be out on Monday. We may need to have another emergency general meeting before the next ordinary general meeting 10 December. 3. USS pension dispute update, including motions 1and 2 University of Leeds highlighted as extreme institution in how they responded to USS consultations as far back in 2014. Motion 1 amended to remove “to spine point 49 of the nationally agreed framework salary scale (£56,950 in 2017/18) and to increase each year in line with pay for that spine point” and replace with “in line with inflation.” Motion to submit to UCU higher education special conference on USS now reads: Conference notes that: the Joint Expert Panel report on the USS valuation largely vindicates UCU’s arguments that there is no substantial deficitUniversities UK is currently consulting employers about their response to the reportthere will soon be another round of Joint Negotiating Committee negotiations about potential changes … continue reading

USS Pension: developments + rapid response tool (90 sec possible!) for the USS Consultation (email)

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Email from branch president Vicky Blake to branch members 24 October 2018 Dear Members, The situation with our USS pension has moved rapidly since our open meeting with Mark Taylor-Batty and Sam Marsh (a member of the USS Joint negotiating committee) two weeks ago. It is really vital that we all fill in responses to the USS consultation. Today’s Internal Comms email from the university does note that Sam Marsh has demonstrated that – without changing our contributions and still using the prudent measures that USS apply – the scheme will be in surplus in the time frame applied in valuations (http://sam-marsh.staff.shef.ac.uk/uss/docs/UoS_USS_discussion_document.pdf). However, the university communication also links to USS’s inadequate response to Dr Marsh’s findings, which contains inaccuracies and, remarkably, fails to use the words ‘test 1’, the mechanism that was at the heart of Dr Marsh’s critique (see the bottom of this email for links to responses to USS’s latest communication). The USS consultation with members of the scheme is still open, and we now have a recommended set of responses for you to apply. To access those responses and the link to the consultation, please go here: https://medium.com/ussbriefs/resile-and-resubmit-uss-consultation-response-template-4809945fb6bc. It’s really quick to do, and obviously even better if you can tweak and personalise responses. In a rush? Here’s a 90 second K Pop video guide to filling in the consultation ASAP: https://twitter.com/USSbriefs/status/1054388848493506560 Brilliant further reading:  Sam Marsh’s response to the … continue reading

No deficit = no detriment

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The latest development in the ongoing USS saga sees the revelation that USS themselves seem to have failed to correctly apply their own ’Test 1’, and that when this is corrected there is no deficit in the scheme as of March 2018. If there is no deficit, then there is no longer any argument for any change to our contributions or for any ‘benefit reform’, the euphemism we hear often which means changes to how much we receive in pension, and the means by which it is calculated. This seeming flaw has been exposed by Sam Marsh, a member of the Joint Negotiating Committee (JNC). ‘Test1’ and ‘self-sufficiency’ The USS have three tests which they apply in coming to a valuation.* Of these, Test 1 considers the viability of achieving a ‘self-sufficiency’ position in 20 years. ‘Self-sufficiency’ is, in effect, a position whereby all owed pensions can be paid without significant further contributions to the scheme from employers or employees. The Joint Expert Panel (JEP) expressed concern about Test 1 as “given too much weight in determining the valuation and its effects extend beyond its original purpose” (p. 8) and that specifically “Test 1 drives the investment strategy toward a … continue reading

Open Meeting on USS pensions 11 October

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Come to this meeting, open to all, to discuss our progress towards saving the USS defined-benefit pension scheme, what the next steps are and how scheme members might respond to the current USS consultation. Thursday 11 October, 2 – 3 pmDental Lecture Theatre (level 6, Worsley building) A key outcome of the historic 14-day strike by UCU members in February and March this year was the creation of a joint expert panel to review the controversial valuation of USS which had led to USS trying to close the defined-benefit scheme. The panel’s report should now totally change the landscape of the pension negotiations and may affect how scheme members want to respond to the current USS consultation. In this meeting we’ll discuss the Joint Expert Panel report and what happens next.  The meeting will be chaired by Mark Taylor-Batty, our resident pensions expert, with an appearance by Sam Marsh, Sheffield mathematician and national UCU pensions negotiator.  Members may remember Sam visiting us in February to give a wonderfully clear explanation of the USS pensions situation – see video of that talk. Bring your questions and comments.All welcome! … continue reading