Transfer of USS to Nuvos

wallyUK

I am 32 years old and about to start a new (permanent) job with the civil service - I have decided to join Nuvos. I currently have approx 6 yrs service in a USS pension and I am trying to decide if I should transfer this to Nuvos.

I understand that USS is a final salary & Nuvos is a career average scheme so my USS bit would be transferred in as a final salary element within Nuvos. My main concern is that I am taking a pay cut of around £9k to go to the new job & I am not sure how this will relate to my USS element in my Nuvos scheme. Will I have 6 yrs at whatever my final salary is in the Nuvos scheme? Am I right in thinking this is not so bad if I eventually achieve a salary greater than my final USS salary? Or would the alternative of freezing the USS pension and allowing it to continue rising with the RPI be better? I have asked for a transfer value so I hope this will be clearer when I see that (!).

Many thanks!

Andy_L

Transferring your USS pension in will buy you X years of "generic" final salary pension (1/60ths scheme, age 65 IIRC) rather than years in Nuvos. which will be based on your civil service final salary. The X depends on any differences in scheme benefits, I suspect the ratio will be very close to 1 for 1.

If you leave it where it is it will increase in line with RPI so, your CS salary needs to increase by ~£9k over inflation before you retire for you to stay the same if you transfer it in.

You've got 33 years to go so knowing your current salary you can work out how much of a pay rise you need each year to catch up.
However bare in mind that in the CS, unlike the rest of the public sector) the annual %age pay rise includes both annual increments (spine points) and inflation (spine revalorisation).
Sice public sector pay rises are being held to, at most, RPI that means you probably need to be promoted to make up the 9k - how realistic is that in your field?