UK-Switzerland: Transitional Social Security Agreement

On 31 October 2019, the UK and Switzerland agreed upon a transitional agreement for social security after the UK leaves the EU. In this blog, we provide a quick overview of this agreement and its impact.

What you should know about this Social Security Agreement

One of the major principles of the social security coordination rules set out in EU Regulation 883/2004, is to ensure people receive the full benefit of contributions they have made. If Brexit ends in ‘No Deal’, EU and Swiss workers in the UK and British workers in an EU member state and Switzerland could lose their existing social security protections under the current reciprocal agreements, essentially becoming third-country nationals overnight not eligible to benefit from free movement.

The transitional agreement guarantees that existing social security entitlements - including reciprocal healthcare - will continue until the end of December 2020 for both UK and Swiss nationals and for EU citizens who move to, travel to or work in the UK or Switzerland during this period, but will not suspend or supersede the UK-Swiss Citizens’ Rights Agreement. 

How this social security agreement will impact the UK and Swiss citizens

Following Brexit, this agreement will ensure that the UK and Swiss citizens will have access to each country’s state benefits, including cover under the European Health Insurance Card scheme. This means that these social security rights will be protected for a transitional period between exit day and the end of December 2020 in the event the UK leaves the EU without a deal, providing for aggregation of the contributions required for entitlement of the benefits and being able to export these in the UK and Switzerland.   

For any social security-related questions, please contact us at [email protected] or Siobhan Owers at [email protected] and Iskra Nikolic Uskokovic at [email protected]. 

Read our other recent blogs discussing the topic of social security in light of Brexit:

‘No Deal’ Brexit and its Implications on the Validity of A1 forms

No Deal Brexit: Social Security Cost Implications