USS v TPS university pension

kidmugsy

ec113 wrote: »

Thanks for any useful comments you may have

Buying TFLS within the TPS is such lousy value that including it is bound to bias the calculations.

hyubh

ec113 wrote: »

Thanks for any useful comments you may have

• You appear to have ignored the TPS' better revaluation rate for active members, unless I've missed something.
• The TPS also (currently) has uncapped rather than capped CPI for indexation in deferment and in payment.
• I would expect (or at least not find surprising) contribution rates and (in the USS case) the pensionable pay point at which the scheme switches from DB to DC will change over the next decade, let alone over the next two decades
• By the same token, it's not outside the realms of possibility that the TPS is a hybrid scheme in 20 years like the USS is now.
• The above doesn't make trying to do precise calculations pointless, though it does caveat them.

ec113

Thank you both for highlighting those caveats, it's very helpful. It really makes me think that I should consider carefully the direction the USS has taken - it's likely that the salary threshold will be lowered, and that it will embrace its DC component even more. The fact that TPS is still entirely DB means that hopefully they won't move to a hybrid scheme too soon in the future, or at least changes will happen more slowly than USS in that sense.