UCL UCU Notes, believes, resolves....

This brilliant post on the HE Marketisation website collects together 10 reasons why the attack on USS (and the so-called "reasons" behind it) are a scandal. Evidence from independent commentators and actuarial experts and analyses by those watching the development of this attack show that the attack can only be motivated by other reasons. See the 10 reasons here: https://hemarketisation.wordpress.com/2018/01/18/guest-post-ten-reasons-why-uss-is-a-scandal-waiting-to-bite-back/

There is no justification for this pension attack – USS’s finances are strong, argue 153 university academics  University employers have provoked the largest vote for industrial action ever seen in the higher education sector. They have done this by overseeing what they present as a financial crisis for the University Superannuation Scheme (USS), and by threatening enormous cuts to the pensions of hundreds of thousands of university staff. None of this is necessary. It is the result of the misrepresentation of USS finances, and the desire of a new breed of university managements to cut their pension liabilities and thereby ease the financing of new buildings and campuses. Successive Pension Acts have encouraged managers of private sector schemes to exaggerate the risk of default. Combined with quantitative easing, this has led to a headlong abandonment of final salary defined benefit to “defined contribution” schemes, where employees rather than employers bea...

This is what has happened to people who were induced to opt out of Defined Benefit on an individual basis (as distinct from being kicked out by the UUK + the USS chair). Everyone being kicked out of the USS Defined Benefits pensions will be in a similar boat: The Financial Times has uncovered early signs of potential major problems with the operation of the UK’s new pension freedoms. While the Financial Conduct Authority has forced a number of firms advising on transfers to suspend their activities, the FT is also aware that the regulator  is looking into reports  that members of final salary schemes are being targeted by  advisers , using high-pressure tactics to drum up business. To take advantage of the reform , an individual must convert their defined benefit, or final salary, pension rights to a lump sum, then transfer this to a personal, or defined contribution, pension. There are circumstances where this makes sense: when a person is in poor health or has ...

UCU Wrote to our Provost in September on the USS question and UCL's position on it at Universities UK. This is our letter: Professor Michael Arthur President and Provost University College London University College London UCU Branch President: Saladin Meckled-Garcia, Political Science  Secretary: Tony Brown, Information Systems Division  Enquiries: ucu@ucl.ac.uk, www.ucl.ac.uk/unions/UCU Thursday, 28 September 2017 Dear Professor Arthur I am writing briefly on behalf of UCU to explore UCL’s position on the current valuation of the USS pension scheme.  As you will recall, I wrote to you in 2014 regarding the valuation methodology at that time. I enclose that letter. Despite substantial concessions by UCU members and increased contributions from subscribing employers, we appear to be at a similar position with the current valuation as we were at the ...

Are students paying for ‘gold plated’ pensions? Fact 1: Staff costs have declined as a proportion of university expenditure The graph above shows where university income is actually spent. So-called ‘non-staff costs’ (primarily buildings) have increased steadily as a proportion of expenditure over the last ten years. The trend for the booming pre-92 University College London (a USS institution) is similar to the post-92 London Metropolitan University, which has lurched from crisis to crisis over the same period. (Source: Holmwood et al. (2016: 11),   In Defence of Public Higher Education . HE Convention.) Holmwood et al. comment: UK-average data from the Higher Education Statistics Agency shows an 8.7% growth from 41.5% of expenditure in 2004 to over 45% in 2015. UCL grew its non-staff budget by almost 20% over this period. Whereas LMU’s ratio is more volatile, the upward trend is similar. Students and taxpayers might be forgiven for asking what their fees are supp...