The Pensions Office provides support to new employees and those leaving employment, deals with transfers between pension schemes, retirements and general pensions enquiries. The Pensions Office staff also provide technical support to ensure current and future legislative changes are reviewed regularly and assess the impact these changes may have on the pension schemes, Trustees and Members.

The main schemes operated by the University are:

• Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS),
• The University of Sheffield Pension Scheme (USPS), and
• The National Health Service Pension Scheme (NHSPS)

If you are visiting the Department of Finance in person then you can find out more about how to find us and our opening times.

Automatic Enrolment for Pensions

From 1 April 2013, legislation requires the University of Sheffield to automatically enrol any eligible employees, who are not members of a qualifying pension arrangement, into a pension scheme. Eligibility for automatic membership is determined by age and earnings, but even if you do not meet these criteria, please note you can still ask to opt into membership of the pension scheme appropriate to your grade.

The legislation is part of a Government initiative to encourage more people to save for their retirement through increased pension scheme membership across the whole country. The University is obliged, under law, to put you into membership of a pension scheme if you meet the automatic enrolment criteria. The University will write to any members of staff that are automatically enrolled, to confirm that this has been done and what action, if any, the employee needs to take. You do have the option to opt out of membership, and information about of how to do this will be included with the written enrolment information.

If you have any queries regarding automatic enrolment or your eligibility to join any of our current pension schemes, please visit our web pages here.

If you would like further information on how to join a pension scheme, or have queries about your existing scheme membership, please contact the Pensions Team.

Please note that if you are under 75, work or usually work in the UK, and earn over £5,668 a year (the amount set by the Government for the 2013-2014 tax year) we must by law continue to maintain your membership of a scheme that meets certain government standards and if your membership of such a scheme ends (and it is not because of something you do or fail to do), we must by law put you into another scheme that meets Government standards straightaway.

 

Need help or more information?

Who to contact
If you have any queries then please contact the Pensions Team.