Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS)
Employees who are on academic or academic-related pay scales (generally grade 6 or above) are usually offered membership of USS
USS is administered from the scheme’s offices in Liverpool. However all enquiries from current employees should initially be made through the University Pensions Office.
Pensions Office working from home
Please note that Pensions Office staff work mainly from home, but are normally in the Office on Wednesdays. All written communications should be sent by email as it is likely that post sent to the Office will only be collected weekly. University staff who are members of USS should email uss@admin.ox.ac.uk Pensions Office staff will be monitoring their own email accounts as well and answering their phones.
This page gives more information about the scheme and contains links to key pages on the USS website. To understand the advantages of contributing to the scheme see what you'll get as a member.
USS valuations 2017 and 2018 & USS Employer Consultation on Scheme Changes
More information on the review of funding and benefits as part of the 3 yearly actuarial valuations and the USS Employer Consultation can be found on the USS Pensions Hub.
Employees who are members of USS automatically join the USS Retirement Income Builder. In this type of defined benefit pension scheme your benefits are based on each year’s salary throughout the period of membership.
As a member you will accrue a pension of 1/75 of your salary and a cash lump sum of 3/75 of your salary for each year of service. At the end of each year, your benefits for that year are calculated and added to previous years. This is then revalued every year in line with standard pension increases.
You will also gain access to the USS Investment Builder, the new defined contribution section of the scheme.
To make your investment and contribution choices quickly and easily on-line, you will need to access MyUSS.
You’ll need your USS membership and National Insurance numbers. If you don’t have your USS membership number please ring the USS Helpline – 0333 300 1043.
USS has provided information on their USS Investment Builder, an optional defined contribution section you can join in addition to the career revalued benefits section, the Retirement Income Builder. For the 2024/25 contribution year if you earn over £70,296.00 per year, you'll join this automatically.
Current USS members can pay additional contributions or change selections via My USS at any time. Register here.
New joiners to USS will need to make an election for additional contributions and the match through My USS. Elect for additional contributions here.
The Pensions Office will notify USS of new joiners a week after the salary payment. You may register for My USS after this and make your election.
At the start of each calendar month, the Pensions Office will be notified by USS of any changes to elections and additional contributions made in the previous month. These contributions will deducted in the current month’s salary payment.
Employees, new to the University and transferring between employers, who made additional contributions will need to make new elections on joining the University. As with other new joiners elections for additional contributions and the match should be made through My USS. Log in here.
This can be done a week after your first salary payment, after the Pensions Office has notified USS about joiners. The same time scales for other new joiners and amendments apply. Your My USS log on email address and password will be unchanged.
You can still elect the 1% on MyUSS, but from 1 April 2019 this is no longer matched by the employer.
First Time users of MyUSS should Register here.
Existing members can make changes to their elections via MyUSS.
The Pensions Office will notify USS of new joiners a week after the salary payment. You may register for My USS after this and make your election.
At the start of each calendar month, the Pensions Office will be notified by USS of any changes to elections, including new elections, for the match and additional contributions made in the previous month. These contributions will deducted in the current month’s salary payment.
Employees, new to the University and transferring between employers, who made additional contributions or paid the match will need to make new elections on joining the University. As with other new joiners elections for additional contributions and the match should be made through MyUSS.
This can be done a week after your first salary payment, after the Pensions Office has notified USS about joiners. The same time scales for other new joiners and amendments apply. Your MyUSS log on email address and password will be unchanged.
The USS scheme is administered for the University (and other institutions) by an external company, USS Ltd.
The USS website provides full details of the scheme.
First three calendar months
Members wishing to opt out within the first three calendar months of membership, please select the 'Notice to opt out of pension saving form' from the USS website.
More than three calendar months
Members wishing to withdraw after more than three calendar months membership, please select the 'Normal withdrawal form' from the USS website.
Completed forms should be returned direct to the Pensions Office, either as an attachment via e-mail or by post.
USS produce the Annual Member Statements (AMS) as at 31 March each year. AMS will include details of members’ USS Retirement Income Builder benefits, USS Investment Builder benefits and member Annual Allowance (AA) usage and Lifetime Allowance (LTA) value.
AMS are produced and sent to members’ home addresses in late Autumn. Copies will also be available on MyUSS in the “My Documents” section.
If you require AA figures for tax planning purposes so that you can meet the Voluntary Scheme Pays deadline of 15 December each year, please contact the Pensions Office as soon as possible. Please note late notifications may be refused by USS.
The below link will take you to the USS website modelling and illustration tools which include, 'USS benefit illustrator' and 'Benefit conversion tool'.
The USS team in the Pensions Office is happy to help USS members at the University with any queries. Contact details are on the right. Please contact us in advance if you would like to visit us in person.
We regret we cannot help USS members who only work at one of the colleges.
USS University contact details
: Pensions Office
Finance Division
University of Oxford
23-38 Hythe Bridge Street
Oxford, OX1 2ET
: uss@admin.ox.ac.uk
: 01865 (6) 16067
