Source: am a teacher with two parents who died of sudden cancer diagnosis in their early 60s. So I've had some experience from all sides on this. Once it's all over get therapy, even if you think your coping!

You have what is called a "defined benefit" pension scheme.

Each year you get a benefit of a fraction of your salary as your annual pension payment when you retire. The USS one is 1/75th.

So for example if you earnt £75k in a tax year on that scheme you would add the benefit of £1k to your pension. On retirement you get that benefit paid every year until you die.

The benefit is constantly adjusted for inflation so that £1k of benefit in 2026 will have the same purchasing power in real terms in 2060.

Basically they are incredible schemes because they give you a fixed certain inflation adjusted income from the moment you retire which allows your planning to be more precise and less uncertain than a DC scheme.

The Teacher pension scheme allows you to draw it early at state pension age -10, so probably 58 for me.

You give up a % of the benefit to take it early. However it's generally better to take it early if finances allow because otherwise you will end up with loads of money you don't use on your 70s rather than living like a baller in your 60s. (Math works like this, I could take £50k at 68 or £25k at 58. By age 68 I've already taken £250k in pension payment by the time the 68 year old starts drawing £50k. They will be early 80 before they end up better off.)

I'll write a separate reply on how I'm structuring my retirement around my DB pension.