The USS Trustee is consulting on new arrangements for the monitoring of debt levels among USS employers, and regarding the granting of priority status on any new secured debt.
These proposals were first discussed as part of the 2018 valuation. The trustee is proposing a framework under which it will work with USS employers to monitor debt and act if necessary, to protect the pension scheme’s interests as a creditor and help support the case for a strong covenant assessment for the 2020 valuation.
Employers can ask questions throughout the consultation period by sending them to debtmonitoring@uss.co.uk.
The consultation runs until 5pm on 3 August 2020, and employer responses should be sent to pensions@universitiesuk.ac.uk (and copied to debtmonitoring@uss.co.uk) by that date. The trustee board will then consider all feedback received before it finalises the framework and its assessment of the covenant for the 2020 valuation.
The full consultation materials, including an advisory note prepared by UUK's advisers, Aon, can be downloaded below.
This page was updated on 24 September 2020 to include additional documentation.
