USS continues to publish its monitoring figures suggesting a continued improvement in the scheme’s financial health, primarily from rising interest rates.
While this is positive news, the USS Trustee, which has legal responsibility for the scheme, has made it clear that its monitoring reports should not be considered a likely outcome of an actuarial valuation, and the sheer economic instability since the turn of the year, evidenced most starkly over the past week or so, makes it very difficult to establish a long-term view.
In this uncertain and unstable economic climate, the USS Trustee insists that there is no solid evidence for interim changes to be made to the scheme ahead of a new, full valuation which is scheduled for March 2023.
The USS Trustee is responsible for determining the timing of the next valuation. Employers would support any decision to bring this forward, however the USS Trustee insists this is not wise because the economic conditions behind the improvements in the funding position are not stable enough after just a few months to make informed and evidenced decisions.
We have produced Q&As to help employers communicate with their staff on this and related matters.
This page was updated on 13 October 2022 to add associated material and on 1 February 2023 to add an updated Q&A document.
