USS or TPS pension scheme - that is the question?

jem16

emilygilmore wrote: »

I'm in the USS scheme at the moment and my employer matches my contributions which is obviously amazing. But I'm over 30 years off retirement and I feel like this probably won't exist at all in 30 years.

No reason to think that really. Plus what you have already contributed will still be there.

Will there be a way to get the money out?

Unless you have been in the scheme for less than 2 years it will be there till you retire.

And how do i find out what kind of interest it gets while it's in there?

It doesn't earn interest at all. It's a final salary scheme based on years of pensionable employment. Each year you contribute entitles you to a pension of 1/80ths of your final salary. If you contribute for 40 years you will receive a pension of half your final salary plus a lump sum.

I don't particularly want a pension when i'm older; If i need money i will have lodgers like I do now.

You would be happy to have a basic pension of £100pw and have to take in lodgers? Perhaps you won't feel like having lodgers when you are older.

You are in a great scheme - you would be mad to give it up for the little you would save by not being in it.

emilygilmore

Thank you, that's very helpful

kidmugsy

One thing that's worth remembering, and which the media sometimes get wrong - USS is a private sector scheme, not a public one. If its investments do badly, the membership suffers one way or another: there is no presumption that the taxpayer must run to the rescue. On the other hand, at least it does have a "pot" of investments - there is actually a fund there.

Whether these features will prove to be good or bad ... who knows?