University of Reading Employees' Pension Fund (UREPF)

About The Fund

Membership of The University of Reading Employees’ Pension Fund (UREPF) in one form or another has been available to eligible employees at the University of Reading since 1938. Due to mounting financial pressure on the Fund, the University proposed various pension changes and a consultation with employees and Trade Unions was launched in March 2011. From 1 August 2011, the Fund has been closed to new entrants and the benefit structure changed from a final salary basis to a Career Average Revalued Earnings (CARE) type basis in order to ensure the continued viability of UREPF for existing members.

The Fund’s Benefit Structure

UREPF is a defined benefit scheme. This means that members' benefits are determined by their salary rather than being linked to a fund of money they have paid into.

Prior to 1 August 2011, members built up pension on a final pensionable salary basis. On 31 July 2011, each member's final salary pension benefits were calculated and agreed. Members will receive increases to this element each subsequent 31 July up to their date of leaving, date of death or date of retirement. The increase will be measured in line with the Consumer Prices Index (CPI) up to a maximum of 5% each year.

From 1 August 2011 onwards, pension benefits were built up on a Career Average Revalued Earnings (CARE) basis. This means that for each scheme year (starting from 1 August and ending 31 July) members would receive an additional CARE pension credit based on 1/60th of their pensionable pay. In addition, each of the CARE pension credits accrued from previous years would be increased in line with the increase in CPI up to a maximum of 5%.

Contribution rates to UREPF are currently 6.25% of salary for employees and 23.8% for the University. A salary exchange scheme is operated by the University as this is a more effective way of paying into the scheme. Further information can be found on the Pensions+ page or in the Benefits+ handbook.

Membership of UREPF provides the following benefits:

a pension for life,
the option to take a one-off tax-free cash sum on retirement,
a tax-free lump sum if a member dies whilst paying into the Fund,
a pension for a spouse or civil partner or dependant upon death,
pensions for eligible children upon death,
early payment of retirement benefits if a member has to retire due to incapacity,
tax relief on contributions paid into the Fund.

UREPF was contracted-out of the State Second Pension (S2P) with all members of the Fund automatically contracted-out until 5 April 2016. From 6 April 2016, pension schemes are no longer able to contract out of S2P and thus members no longer pay lower National Insurance contributions. Please bear this in mind when reading the Fund's literature.

Additional Voluntary Contributions Discontinued

In the annual 2018 newsletter, it was announced that members no longer have the opportunity to pay Additional Voluntary Contributions (AVCs) to the Fund. Therefore, any further pension savings would need to be arranged through a different savings vehicle privately and the University would be unable to contribute to this.

Leaving the University

When you leave the University, Barnett Waddingham (the Fund’s administrator) will send you a leaver’s statement to your home address which will inform you of the benefits you have accrued since joining the Fund and will inform you that your pension will become deferred until retirement. Therefore, if you are due to leave the University, the Pension’s Office would recommend that you check that your home address is accurate on the Employees’ Self Service portal as this will be the address that Barnett Waddingham will use.

After you have left the University, you will no longer receive Annual Membership Statements from Barnett Waddingham. Any queries or requests regarding your pension, or any queries relating to retiring from the Fund in the future, will need to be directed to Barnett Waddingham as the University Pensions Office will lose the authority to make changes or requests on your behalf.

Retiring from the Fund

Retirement from the Fund is not automatic. If you are considering retiring from the Fund, we would recommend contacting the University’s Pensions Office three months prior to your proposed retirement date to ensure that you have enough time to: request and receive a quotation, hand in your notice, have your leaver paperwork completed by your department and sent to the Payroll Team, to complete any necessary paperwork, and to seek any financial advice if needed.

If you are interested in viewing an estimate of your pension benefits, Barnett Waddingham (the Fund’s administrator) allows members to view estimates on their BWebstream online account. If you haven’t registered yet or have lost access for any reason, then get in touch with Barnett Waddingham directly.

Please note, you will receive a provisional retirement quotation as a matter of course as you approach your 65th birthday for your consideration. You will also be asked whether you wish to still contribute to the Fund after your birthday has passed. If you wish to continue contributing, you will continue to accrue benefits within the Fund.

If you wish to consider flexible retirement from the Fund, please find further information on our flexible retirement webpage.

If you have any queries regarding retiring from the Fund, please contact the Pensions Office.

Member Nominated Trustees

Find out all about the role of the Member Nominated Trustees (MNTs) on our internal UREPF MNTs webpage.

Current Documents

If you would like to see any previous newsletters or funding statements, please see the UREPF Documents Archive webpage.

Nomination Forms

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