Our pension scheme is yet again seemingly under attack by the people who are supposed to be looking after it. This time even the employers’ body Universities UK have made a public statement criticising the valuation.

If you want to know more about the USS pension scheme 2020 valuation, and why everyone wants them to stop trying to put the contributions up unnecessarily, here’s a video of branch pensions rep Mark Taylor-Batty’s fantastic presentation to the branch open meeting on pensions on 11 March 2021, with an update from UCU President Vicky Blake on the national situation.

In the video Mark explains the history of the health of the scheme (spoiler – it’s actually in very good shape), and looks back over the last decade of valuation projections as the levels of ‘prudence‘ applied have got more and more excessive. Mark finishes by considering the detail of the letters that had been sent, on 10 March, to the USS and the pensions regulator by the employers’ body, Universities UK.

This was our largest meeting on pensions ever, and we were glad to see both UCU members and non-members there. Some responses in the meeting chat included: “super presentation!” “really clear explanation” “great overview” “extremely informative”. The questions and discussion were not recorded, but we’ll be putting together another web post soon with answers to your questions. Email ucu@leeds.ac.uk if you have additional questions you’d like us to include.