USS'ers - anyone know this?

NTFI19081

I am in USS and also a Visiting Lecturer, this part time role involves payments into TPS. I note that if someone takes their USS pension, they cannot work for a 'USS institution'. The post-1992 HEI I do VL work for is on the USS list (on website), but as a VL I am not  actually eligible for USS, hence TPS - pretty sure more or less everyone is in TPS. Does anyone know if carrying on doing the VL work would be an issue if I took my USS pension? I dont want to take it and then ge in trouble with USS. Must be quite common with academics doing work for more than one uni, esp. in retirement. thanks 

Universidad

NTFI19081 said:

I note that if someone takes their USS pension, they cannot work for a 'USS institution'.

Where did you get that information from? It doesn't sound right to me.

NTFI19081

Universidad said:

NTFI19081 said:

I note that if someone takes their USS pension, they cannot work for a 'USS institution'.

Where did you get that information from? It doesn't sound right to me.

Somewhere on USS website, will try to find it. 

Confusedlad

Universidad said:

NTFI19081 said:

I note that if someone takes their USS pension, they cannot work for a 'USS institution'.

Where did you get that information from? It doesn't sound right to me.

I retired from a USS institution a few years back, taking my USS pension pre SPA. I was told at that time that I could not work for that or any other USS institution in the future.  While some HE institutions are TPS & would be open to employing me,  any USS institutions would not be open to offering me a job.

The other interesting thing was that I could retire and take my pension from 60 but staying employed would not have enhanced the pension due, effectively meaning I was missing out and working 1/3 of the week for nothing.  The choice was easy.

swindiff

Not totally clear, but does not say it isn't possible. The below linked Southampton Uni. USS Document suggests that there should be a break between employment of at least 1 month.

What if I want to carry on working after I retire?
You won’t be classed as retired if you intend to start another role in which you can build a USS pension (with either your current or a new employer). But if you’re retired and then offered another role, your employer may need to automatically enrol you into a pension scheme. You’ll need to speak to your employer about whether you can re-join USS.

https://www.uss.co.uk/for-members/thinking-about-your-future/start-taking-your-benefits

https://www.southampton.ac.uk/~assets/doc/finance/pensions-new-joiner-and-rejoiner-rules.pdf

Universidad

Confusedlad said:

I retired from a USS institution a few years back, taking my USS pension pre SPA. I was told at that time that I could not work for that or any other USS institution in the future. 

This absolutely might be a thing, but I know lots of people who did come back a while after retirement, and I don't think they were all taking partial/flexible retirement (which I think was only introduced as an option in 2011?) 

Maybe they came back into roles that weren't eligible for USS, and so it didn't count, or maybe there's some piece of the puzzle we're missing. 

I could certainly imagine not being able to take up a role with a USS pension, particularly since auto-enrolment laws might have conflicted with USS pensions not being open to new accruals from retirees from the scheme, but a blanket ban on any work for USS institutions doesn't (appear to) match what I've seen.

I could retire and take my pension from 60 but staying employed would not have enhanced the pension due, 

Presumably that's because you were in a position where you could take your benefits unreduced from age 60 in the FS scheme, so 60-65 would have seen no actuarial calculations changing the amount. IIRC, once you got above a certain accrual in the FS scheme you couldn't accrue any further pension, either? If so, that would indeed have been all she wrote. A good position to be in, though!

NTFI19081

I found this on the USS website:

You won’t be classed as retired if you intend to start another role in which you can build a USS pension (with either your current or a new employer). But if you’re retired and then offered another role, your employer may need to automatically enrol you into a pension scheme. You’ll need to speak to your employer about whether you can re-join USS.

It sounds like the key issue is not whether some people can access USS at the 'new' institution, but whether my role is able to access it - in my case I am offered TPS not an option to choose USS.