30 July 2019 
Karen Newcombe, Financial Operations Manager
Following the Financial Reporting Group meeting on 25th July and an update from UUK on the status of the USS 2017 and 2018 valuations, please note the following:
The 2018 valuation and therefore the Schedule of Contributions will not be finalised before year end, therefore the Schedule of Contributions, put in place in January 2019 following the finalisation of the 2017 valuation, is the one that applies in terms of calculating the liability for the obligation to fund the USS deficit. This requires the employer to pay 5% deficit contributions from 1 April 2020 to July 2034 with no deficit contributions for the period from 1 April 2019 to 31 March 2020. Therefore the USS modeller as currently on the BUFDG website still applies. This will of course mean that all Institutions will see a very significant increase in the liability from the prior year.
Mercer have promised to provide updated discount rate information by 7th August for the purposes of calculating the liability at the year end. This information will be uploaded on to the BUFDG website as soon as received.
It is still not clear when the 2018 valuation will be finalised and what the new deficit contributions will be although a reduction is anticipated. As the new 2018 Schedule of Contributions will not be in place by 31 July 2019, when the new Schedule is signed off it will be a non-adjusting post balance sheet event requiring disclosure in the financial statements.
Work is underway to provide sector guidance on the disclosures in relation to USS and these will be circulated in due course, ideally as soon as possible after the usual USS annual disclosure letter is sent to all employers.
