What is AVC?
AVC stands for Additional Voluntary Contributions. It allows you to contribute extra money to your pension pot.
You can pay additional contributions into the USS Investment Builder (the defined contributions section of the scheme). The additional contributions you invest into this section of the scheme can be used at retirement to supplement your income from the USS Retirement Income Builder (the defined benefits section of the scheme).
King's does not match any additional pension contributions.
In My USS (you will need your USS Member Number 4****** to login: https://www.uss.co.uk/login) you can investigate the different options for paying additional contributions. You can select the additional amount you wish to pay and you can choose where your contributions are invested. You can pay an additional percentage/amount of your salary each month or you can pay a lump sum.
There is a video guide on the USS website on how to make additional contributions: https://www.uss.co.uk/login and on https://vimeo.com/454071058
You can increase, reduce or cease your additional contributions to the USS Investment Builder at any time.
Are there any limits on AVC?
To ensure your other PAYE deductions aren't impacted, you cannot contribute more than 80% of your salary towards AVC. This aligns with KCL's policy for all employees.
Your contributions must not exceed your salary for the tax year.
If you wish to pay an additional amount or percentage per month, you will need to elect to pay additional Monthly contributions in My USS. The deadline for electing to pay AVCs or making amendments to AVCs is the 15th of the month. If you choose to pay an additional percentage/amount of your salary each month into the Investment Builder, USS will send us a notification. It may be possible to pay as much as 80% of your monthly salary as an additional contribution each month however you cannot pay an amount that is more than your monthly salary. After the deduction of your basic contribution of 6.1% and the additional contribution, your net pay cannot be below 0.
If you wish to pay a one off lump sum into the Investment Builder you will need to elect to do this via My USS before 14th of the month – this should ensure that it will be processed that month.