Human Resources

As a member of our staff you have access to excellent pension benefits. After pay, pension is arguably the most valuable benefit for us all, even though retirement may seem a long way off. Think about how important your pay is to you today; that's how important your pension will be to you when you retire.

You might want to join a pension scheme because:

• it’s an income for life when you retire;
• the pension will increase annually in line with inflation (with the exception of the DC Plan where you can choose the type of pension you want);
• you get a tax free cash sum on retirement;
• there are early retirement options;
• you get automatic life assurance cover based on your current salary;
• there’ll be a pension for your spouse or dependant and/or children on your death (with the exception of the DC Plan where you can choose whether or not you want to include this benefit);
• there are ill health early retirement benefits if you become too ill to work;
• the University pays significant employer contributions; 
• you’ll  be able to increase scheme benefits by paying extra contributions (additional voluntary contributions (AVCs));
• you might be able to transfer benefits from previous pension schemes to increase the benefits you get.

The cost to you isn’t as much as you might think:

• You get tax relief at your highest rate on your employee contribution;
• If you contribute through the salary sacrifice (Pensions+) route your national insurance contributions are reduced even more.

In addition, you might also receive the basic state pension; more details can be found on the gov.uk website at https://www.gov.uk/new-state-pension/overview.

Your retirement might seem like a long way off, but you should also consider the cover the pension scheme provides for your family if anything happened to you.

Which pension scheme you're eligible to join will depend on your type of contract of employment.

There are three main pension schemes offered to staff:

• The Universities Superannuation Scheme;
• The University of Leeds Defined Contribution Plan;
• The University of Leeds Pension & Assurance Scheme. 

Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS)

This is a national scheme for academic and academic related (professional and managerial) staff. If you’re eligible, you’ll automatically join the scheme from your first day of employment.

University of Leeds Defined Contribution Plan (DC Plan)

If you’re a member of support staff and you meet the eligibility criteria, you’ll automatically be put into this scheme. You can find more information on our DC plan page.  

University of Leeds Pension & Assurance Scheme Career Average Section (PAS CARE)

This is an alternative pension scheme for support staff at the University. You won’t automatically join this scheme, but you can opt to do so if you meet certain criteria.

You can find more detailed information about the scheme benefits on our PAS CARE page.  

University of Leeds Pension & Assurance Scheme Final Salary Section (PAS FS)

This section of PAS has now closed to new members. Existing members can find further details on our PAS final salary page.

For details on how your data is used, you can download the PAS Fair Processing Notice and Mercer and Scheme Actuary processing activities as data controller below.

NHS

If you’re employed in a clinical role at the University and have been a previous member of the NHS scheme in the last 12 months, you may be able to join the NHS pension scheme. You’ll find more information about the NHS pension scheme on their website.

Please contact the Pensions department for further details on 0113 343 4146.

The Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS) is a national scheme for academic and academic-related (professional and managerial) staff. All eligible new staff will be enrolled into the scheme from the first day of employment. 

Full details of the scheme and its benefits can be found on the USS website.

Scheme Benefits

The scheme offers valuable benefits for your future as well as providing protection for your beneficiaries while you are a member of the scheme. 

Contribution rates

The contribution rate is paid as a percentage of your pensionable salary. The current employer rate is 14.5%, and the employee rate is 6.1%.

If you wish to increase your benefits, you can opt to pay contributions to the Investment Builder section of the scheme. 

Opting out

It is possible to opt out of the scheme once you’ve been enrolled.  The process and forms are available on the USS website.

Access further information - MyUSS

To complete the scheme nomination forms and view further details of your benefits, we would encourage you to register for the MyUSS account.

If you're a member of support staff and you meet the eligibility criteria, you'll automatically be put into the Defined Contribution Pension Plan (DC Plan) if you're not already in a pension scheme. If you're a new member of support staff, this'll happen three months after you join the University.

About the scheme

The DC Plan is a defined contribution scheme. You and the University pay a percentage of your salary into the scheme, and the money’s invested by The People’s Pension to give you a pot of money when you retire.

More details can be found in the Plan booklet which you can download below, and from The People’s Pension website.

Main benefits of joining

• The DC Plan can provide you with an income for life when you retire; 
• You can get a tax free cash sum on retirement;
• There are early retirement options;
• You benefit from automatic life assurance cover of 5 times your pensionable salary;
• There’ll be a return of your investment pot if you die before retirement;
• There’s an income protection scheme if you become too ill to work;
• The University pays employer contributions;
• You’ll  be able to increase scheme benefits by paying extra contributions;
• You could be able to transfer benefits from previous pension schemes to increase the benefits you get.

And the cost to you isn't as much as you might think:

• You get tax relief at your highest rate on your employee contribution;
• If you contribute through the salary sacrifice (Pensions+) route your national insurance contributions are reduced.

Eligibility

You’ll automatically become a scheme member after you’ve worked at the University for 3 months if you:

• are not already a member of another pension scheme at the University;
• are over  22;
• are under state pension age;
• earn more that £10,000 a year (£833 a month).

Contribution rates

You’ll pay 3% of your pensionable salary into the DC Plan, and the University will pay an employer contribution of 6%. If you choose to pay more, the University will also increase its contribution. The maximum University contribution is 10%.

If you’d like to pay more into your pension, or talk to someone about it, e-mail the Pensions department.

Transferring a pension into the DC Plan

You may be able to transfer benefits from DC pension arrangements you’ve had before into your fund. If you’d like to do this, e-mail the Pensions department to ask for a Transfer Enquiry Form.

Opting out

Your joiner pack, which will be sent to your home address by People’s Pension when you join the DC Plan, contains details of how to opt out of the scheme. You might not get a refund of your contributions if you opt out more than a month after joining the scheme.

Rejoining

You can rejoin the scheme after opting out if you change your mind, or if your circumstances change. Contact the Pensions department and they’ll send you an application pack.

Retirement

If you're over 55, you might be able to access the funds you have built up with The People’s Pension. You’ll need to contact them to get details.

To help you decide whether to use this fund to provide an income, or whether to take it as a cash sum, you might need the help of a financial advisor, or you could use the services offered by the government website.

Life Assurance cover

If you’re an active member of the scheme and you die, your dependant(s) will get a lump sum of 5 times your pensionable salary. You can download and complete a Member Wishes Form below to tell us who you’d like to get the lump sum payment.   

Income Protection Scheme

If you’ve been in the DC Plan for more than 12 months, and you’re off work ill for more than 26 weeks, you might qualify for payments under the income protection scheme, which provides an income of 50% of your salary.  For more information please email the Pensions department.

This is an alternative to the DC Plan for support staff at the University, who can opt to join if they meet certain criteria.

About the scheme

The Career Average (CARE) section of PAS is a defined benefit scheme, where the benefits built up are worked out using a set formula.  

Joining the Scheme

You can opt to join the scheme if you meet the eligibility conditions below and you’ve been employed by the University for less than 12 months, but you won’t be put into the scheme automatically. Please e-mail the Pensions department for an opt in pack.

If you don’t join within the first 12 months of your employment, you might not be given a further opportunity to join this scheme.

You can download a summary of the main benefits of the CARE section of PAS below, and more detailed information can be found in the scheme booklet, also available to download below. Each year you will receive a statement summarising the benefits you have built up in the scheme at the end of the scheme year, which is 31 March.

Death in service benefits

If you die while you’re an active member of the scheme, a lump sum of three times your pensionable salary will be payable to your dependant nominee. Please download and complete the Member Wishes form below to provide a guide as to who you would like the lump sum to be paid to. 

A spouse’s or adult dependant’s pension may also be payable. This would automatically be paid to your spouse but, if you’re unmarried but have an adult who is financially dependent on you, you should download and complete the potential dependant form below.

Increasing your scheme benefits – additional voluntary contributions (AVCs)

To increase the value of your benefits on retirement, you can pay extra contributions to the scheme. These are known as additional voluntary contributions (AVCs).

AVCs are a very useful way of filling a gap in your pension benefits if you don’t have a lot of benefits from other sources, or you could to use AVC’s to enable you to retire early. They're also a very tax efficient way of improving benefits. They’re deducted from your pay before tax is calculated, so you get tax relief at your highest rate, eg an AVC contribution of £100 only costs £80 to a basic rate tax payer.

The AVC arrangement offered by PAS allows you a choice of investments. You can download the AVC booklet below for details.

If you're considering paying AVCs, please e-mail the Pensions department to request an AVC application form.

Pension estimate

If you’re considering retirement, you might want more details about the benefits you’ve built up in the scheme and the options available to you. Please e-mail the Pensions department, giving an idea of your planned retirement date, and they’ll provide an estimate for you.

This section of the PAS scheme is now closed to new joiners, but existing members continue to build up further benefits.

About this section of the scheme

The Final Salary section of PAS is a defined benefit scheme, where the benefits built up are worked out using a set formula based on the number of years and days you have as a scheme member and on your final pensionable salary at the date you leave the scheme.

You can download a summary of the main benefits of the Final Salary section of PAS below, and more detailed information can be found in the scheme booklet, also available to download below. Each year you'll receive a statement proving details of the estimated benefits you'll build up if you remain in the scheme until age 65.

Death in service benefits

If you die while you're an active member of the scheme, a lump sum of 3 times your pensionable salary will be payable to your dependant nominee.  You can download and complete the Member Wishes Form below to provide a guide as to who you would like the lump sum to be paid to. 

A spouse’s or adult dependant’s pension may also be payable.  This would automatically be paid to your spouse but, if you’re unmarried but have an adult who is financially dependent on you, you should complete the Potential Dependant Form below.

Increasing your scheme benefits – additional voluntary contributions (AVCs)

To increase the value of your benefits on retirement, you can pay extra contributions to the scheme.  These are known as additional voluntary contributions (AVCs).

AVCs are a very useful way of filling a gap in your pension benefits if you don’t have a lot of benefits from other sources, or you could use AVC’s to enable you to retire early.  AVCs are also a very tax efficient way of improving benefits. They’re deducted from your pay before tax is calculated and so you get tax relief at your highest rate, eg an AVC contribution of £100 only costs £80 to a basic rate tax payer.

The AVC arrangement offered by PAS allows you a choice of investments.  You can download the AVC booklet below for details.

Please e-mail the Pensions department to request an AVC application form.

Pension estimate

If you’re considering retirement, you might want more details about the benefits you’ve built up in the scheme, and the options available to you.  Please e-mail the Pensions department, giving an idea of your planned retirement date, and they’ll provide an estimate for you.   

Purpose of this statement

This implementation statement has been produced by the Trustee of the University of Leeds Pension and  Assurance Scheme (PAS) to set out the following information over the year to 31 March 2025: 

• the voting activity undertaken by the PAS’s investment managers on behalf of the Trustee over the year, including information regarding the most significant votes; and 

• how the Trustee’s policies on exercising rights (including voting rights) and engagement activities have been followed over the year.

Stewardship policy 

The Trustee’s Statement of Investment Principles (SIP) describes the Trustee’s stewardship policy on the exercise of rights (including voting rights) and engagement activities. The SIP was last reviewed in March 2024, this update included incorporating a Responsible Investment Policy into the SIP.  The SIP been made available online here: https://hr.leeds.ac.uk/downloads/file/872/pas-statement-of-investment-principles

To enable the Trustee to make high quality decisions, fact-finding and analysis related to stewardship of the PAS’s assets is delegated to the Trustee’s independent investment advisor. The investment managers research companies, identify any issues and then engaging with them as necessary based on their own stewardship policies. The Trustee has set a Stewardship Priority of Environmental and Climate issues. The Trustee will review the Stewardship Priority periodically.   

How voting and engagement/stewardship policies have been followed

Based on the information provided by the PAS’s investment managers, the Trustee believes that its policies on voting and engagement have been met in the following ways: 

• With the exception of the segregated Liability Driven Investment portfolio with Schroders, which has no voting rights and limited ability to engage with key stakeholders given the nature of the mandate, the PAS invests entirely in pooled funds, and as such delegates responsibility for carrying out voting and 
engagement activities to the PAS’s investment managers.  

• The Trustee has set an allocation of 7.5% of the PAS’s total invested assets to an actively managed Impact fund within the Equity Portfolio, the Alliance Bernstein Sustainable Global Equity Fund. This fund invests 
in an actively managed, diversified portfolio of shares in global companies that are identified as positively contributing to sustainable investment themes derived from the UN Sustainable Development Goals. This investment was made in line with the PAS’s Responsible Investment Policy, which states that “the Trustee 
will look for opportunities to include within the PAS’s portfolio investments that will have a positive and, where possible, measurable impact on society and the environment”. 

• On an annual basis the Trustee receives voting information and engagement policies from the PAS’s investment managers, which is reviewed to ensure alignment with the Trustee’s stewardship priorities.  

• The annual monitoring exercise considers alignment of voting and engagement activities with these. 

• The Trustee’s annual review of their investment managers involves considering sustainability ratings provided by its investment consultant, as a measure of how the PAS's investment managers take account of sustainability issues.  

• During the year, the Trustee’s review of the PAS’s investment managers’ approaches to ESG and engagement was carried out in August 2024, and related to activity over the year to 31 March 2024. As a result of this monitoring, the Trustee believes that the voting and engagement activities undertaken by the investment managers on their behalf have been in the members’ best interests. The Trustee subsequently carried out monitoring of the investment managers’ approaches to ESG and engagement over the year to 31 March 2025, which is to be covered at the Trustee meeting on 12 September 2024. 

• Overall, the Trustee does not have any material concerns with the ESG and Stewardship activities of the PAS's holdings. Following the monitoring described above, the PAS will consider if the Trustee wishes to raise any queries with the PAS’s investment managers. 

• Most of the PAS’s investment managers were able to provide evidence that they are actively engaging with key stakeholders on behalf of the Trustee where possible, although the nature of some of the funds the PAS invests in means this is not always possible. The investment into these funds were made before 
the PAS’s policies on ESG, stewardship and Responsible Investment were put in place. As the investments in these funds wind down, the Trustee will take into account their policies for considering ESG and stewardship as part of determining any new funds to invest in. 

• Having reviewed the above in accordance with their policies, the Trustee is comfortable that the action of the PAS’s investment managers has been in alignment with the PAS’s stewardship policies.

Voting activity over the year to 31 March 2025 | Summary

This section provides a summary of the voting activity undertaken by the investment managers within the PAS’s Growth Portfolio on behalf of the Trustee over the year to 31 March 2025.  

This does not include the holdings in the WTW Secure Income Fund, Janus Henderson Multi Asset Credit Fund, M&G Real Estate Debt (RED) Funds, Mercer PIP V Infrastructure Fund, Mercer MGI UK Cash Fund,  or the Polus Pathfinder II Fund, as the holdings in these funds do not typically carry voting rights. This is also the case of the funds held in the PAS’s Protection Portfolio.

The Trustees of PAS are writing to you at this unsettling time to provide you with reassurance regarding your pension benefits in light of the outbreak of COVID-19.

Please be assured that we are working with our advisers to closely monitor developments. We’re sending you this update because you may be understandably concerned about the impact of the current instability on PAS.

Pension administration service

We are working closely with Jill Nimmo, Pensions Manager, and the Pensions and Payroll team at the University to make sure there is no disruption to the service you receive. For those members who are currently in receipt of a pension, your pension will continue to be paid as normal. The payroll team have contingency plans in place to ensure that payments will not be disrupted.

If you have reason to contact the Pensions team at this time, the contact details are:

Email: pensions@adm.leeds.ac.uk

Telephone: 0113 343 4146

Beware of pension scams

The Pensions and Payroll team are all working from home in line with Government guidelines. Whilst this should not lead to significant delays in processing member requests, you may be asked to provide additional information and/or asked further security questions than you would normally. This is being done to ensure that steps are taken to counter the possibility of fraudulent activity at this time. Please be patient whilst we work through the coming weeks.

Your pension

You will no doubt have seen articles in the press regarding COVID-19 and the impact that it could have on you financially and on pensions. Pension schemes have been impacted by the uncertainty that we have seen in stock markets because they hold large amounts of money in investments, such as equities, which have suffered losses.

PAS has seen falls in the value of the assets that we hold. However, as we hold a diversified range of assets, some of which are designed to help protect against risks, the funding position of PAS has been protected from the full extent of the volatility in the markets. The Trustees are conscious of the risks that continue to exist and we are working closely with our investment advisers and Scheme Actuary to ensure that we are monitoring the funding position and taking action when required.

We are also in contact with the University and aware of the robust plans that they have in place to ensure that they can continue to support PAS now and in the future. We will continue to monitor this and take action if the position changes.

We have heard reports of pension scammers trying to take advantage of pension scheme members worried about the current investment market turbulence.

Please be extremely wary of any uninvited approaches about your pension savings. These could be by telephone, email or text and may pretend to be from a legitimate source, such as HMRC.

If you are concerned about scams, please click here for more information.

May 2020

Pensions+ is a way for you to further reduce the cost of paying your pension contributions, and it can be applied to all of our pension schemes.

Pensions+ is a salary sacrifice scheme which has been given approval by HM Revenue & Customs.  It means that your pension contributions can be deducted from your salary before national insurance contributions are calculated.

You already get tax relief at your highest rate.  By contributing to the scheme through Pensions+, you can make even more of a saving on your national insurance contributions.

For examples of the savings and detailed information about the scheme, you can download the Pensions+ booklets on PAS/USS and the DC Plan below.

When you join USS or PAS, you’ll automatically pay your pension contributions through Pensions+ if you meet the minimum earnings criteria, unless you ask not to.

If you’ve joined the DC Plan, you’ll only contribute via Pensions+ once you’ve been in the scheme for more than 3 months.

IMPORTANT: If you're a member of PAS or USS and you pay into the scheme through Pensions+, you won’t be able to get a refund of your contributions if you leave within 2 years. You must opt out of Pensions+ within 3 months of joining the scheme to retain the right to a refund.

You can still be a member of a pension scheme even if you opt out of Pensions+.

Contact the Pensions department if you'd like a Pensions+ opt out form.

If you leave the University or decide to opt out of a pension scheme, you'll stop paying contributions. Contributions you've made may either be paid back to you, held as benefits in the scheme until you retire, or you might be able to move them to another scheme, depending on how long you've been a member.

You can opt out of any of our schemes at any time, and if you leave the University’s employment you’ll automatically leave the scheme and stop paying contributions. If you’re a member of the DC Plan, you can choose to continue paying your own contributions, but the University contributions will end.

Depending on which scheme you're in and how long you've been paying in, you might be able to get a refund of your contributions; otherwise you'll need to either leave the benefits where they are or move them to another suitable pension scheme.

If you're in USS or PAS and have been paying in to the scheme for:

• less than 3 months: you’ll receive a refund of your contributions, minus a deduction for tax and national insurance, or you can opt for leaving service benefits or transfer the benefits to another suitable pension arrangement;
• less than 2 years: you might be able to have a refund of your contributions minus a deduction for tax and national insurance, or you can opt for or leaving service benefits or transfer the benefits to another suitable pension arrangement;
• more than 2 years: you’ll be entitled to leaving service benefits or you can transfer the benefits to another suitable pension arrangement.

If you're a member of the DC Plan and you've been paying in for more than 1 month, you'll be entitled to leaving service benefits or you can transfer your fund to another suitable pension arrangement.

To find out more information on calculation and payment of the benefits on leaving, take a look at our scheme specific pages.

You’ll receive a letter from the scheme once you’ve left. This will show the benefits you’ve built up while you were a member and will give details of any options available to you.

How to opt out

Our scheme specific pages will give you details on how to opt out of each scheme.

Because of pensions legislation, the University might have to put you back into a scheme in the future, but you’ll be told about this in advance.

Transfer option

You might be able to transfer the benefits you’ve built up to a new employer’s pension scheme or to a personal pension arrangement. The transfer value would be the capital value of your deferred benefits at the date you transfer.

Contact details

If you’ve got any queries or need any further information, contact details for the schemes are as follows:

If you’re a PAS scheme member, contact the Pensions department either by email or by post to Pensions Department, Level 11, Worsley Building, University of Leeds, Leeds, LS2 9LU.

If you’re in the DC Plan, you’ll need to contact The People's Pension.

If you’re a USS member, you should contact USS.

For NHS enquiries, contact NHS Pensions.

There are no pre-retirement courses planned at present. This page will be updated once these recommence.

There's no longer a specific age when the University will ask you to retire, but there are certain things you'll need to do if you're considering it.

The normal retirement age under the rules of USS, PAS and the DC Plan is 65, although you may continue to work at the University beyond this age. If you do decide to go on working, you’ll still pay pension contributions, the University will continue to pay employer contributions, and you’ll build up more benefits in the scheme until you do retire.

To get your pension benefits you:

• must be over the age of 55;
• can be any age if you've been granted an ill health retirement pension;
• will need the approval of the University if you're in PAS and want to receive payment of your pension benefits before age 65.

USS and PAS: arranging for payment of your pension benefits

For both the USS and PAS schemes:

• you need to leave the service of the University to access pension benefits;
• you can ask for a retirement quote from the Pensions department before you make a final decision about your retirement date;
• to retire you need to hand in your letter of resignation to your School/Service, giving the appropriate period of notice;
• once you’ve decided what date you want to retire, you’ll need to let the Pensions department know and they’ll arrange for the payment of your benefits.

In addition, if you’re in the PAS scheme and you want to retire before you’re 65, you’ll need the University’s consent. Contact the Pensions department and they’ll make arrangements for the University to consider your retirement request; once it’s been agreed, you can decide what date you want to retire.

DC Plan: arranging for payment of your pension benefits

You can contact The People's Pension, who'll arrange for a quotation of benefits to be provided to you. You don’t have to leave the University to access these benefits, but you must be over age 55.

There’s more information on our DC Plan pages.

USS Flexible retirement

Under USS rules it is possible for you take a portion of your benefits as long as you also reduce the number of hours you work. You can take up to 80% of your benefits as long as you reduce your hours by at least 20%.

However, you need to have discussed the change in hours and had this agreed by your Head of School/Service before contacting USS about this, as it’s a change to your terms and conditions of employment and not an automatic right.

See the link below for more details about the flexible retirement benefits on the USS website.