USS Pension: developments + rapid response tool (90 sec possible!) for the USS Consultation (email)
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 current USS position (twitter thread): https://twitter.com/Sam_Marsh101/status/1052775729765670912
Michael Otsuka’s critique of the current USS position: https://medium.com/@mikeotsuka/test-1-de-risking-is-dead-long-live-de-risking-63540ad44e84
Please do give those a read – it is particularly empowering to see how UCU members’ action, and UCU members’ analysis has shifted the debate, and gained us access to previously hidden-but-vital figures.
With best wishes and solidarity,
Vicky and Committee
This page was last updated on 25 October 2018