Social security and Corona (Covid-19)

The Corona virus (Covid-19) is making an impact across all areas of global mobility and social security is also one of the elements that are likely to be affected due to the change in work patterns and home quarantines.

The Danish social security authorities along with the Ministry of Employment (“Beskæftigelsesministeriet”) have issued some guidelines on their (Danish) perception of the challanges.

The statement reads (Our translations, link to original below):

If you normally live in one country and work in another country
This information is for you, who live in one EU/EEA country and usually work in another EU/EEA country.

Due to coronavirus/covid-19, several countries have encouraged employees to stay home and work, for as long as possible. It has raised questions about how this affects the social security that is crucial to the right to health insurance and social security benefits.

Denmark is of the opinion that home work on the basis of covid-19 has no effect on social security, as home work is an important tool to slow the spread of covid-19. We therefore recommend that you do not seek A1 certificate based on changed work pattern if you are in this situation.

You must apply for an A1 certificate only if the competent authority of the other EU/EEA country explicitly asks you to do so.

We are in ongoing dialogue with our neighboring countries and can state that Germany is of the same opinion as Denmark. We are still waiting for our Nordic neighbors and will announce this when new.

If you normally work in several EU/EEA countries and have an A1 certificate
If you are normally employed in several EU/EEA countries and have an A1 certificate for this situation, a temporary change in the distribution of work in the different countries will not affect your social security. This also applies if you only work from home temporarily. Your A1 certificate will therefore remain valid during this period.

An A1 certificate for work in several countries has been issued in accordance with Article 13 of Regulation (EC) No 883/2004.

If the posting period is interrupted
Currently, many people will not use their A1 certificate because they cannot leave for another EU/EEA country due to covid-19. There are also many who have to cancel their posting period or where the posting period ends earlier than planned.

As an employer, you do not need to disclose the interruption of a posting period if your company expects the interruption to last no longer than two months and the completion of the job in the other EU/EEA country is not postponed. In this case, issued A1 certificates remain valid without modifications.

If the deadline of the assignment is postponed and the extended period is longer than two months, you, as an employer, will usually have to submit a new contract/employment contract covering the extension period.

If no continuation of the assignment is planned, you as an employer must notify you that the assignment has been completed.

This also applies to expatriates where an exemption agreement has been concluded in accordance with Article 16 of Regulation (EC) No 883/2004, or in the context of bilateral social security agreements.

Considerations related to the above

Although this is good news to many employees and employers in regards to the potential effects of the Covid-19, there are still a number of uncertainties related to the update.

  • Will there be similar measures taken in regads to bilateral agreements since the measures seems to portray EU-Act 883/2004 as background with reference to the A1 and the relevant articles?
  • For non-agreement countries, will there be a hold-off on ATP per internal legislation?
  • How to evidence that break in a posting or multi-country work-pattern is affected by Covid-19?
  • What will happen if other countries will not agree with the Danish approach – are we left with an article 16 (or similar) opportunity, where the outcome is pre-determined and will Denmark waive their rights if an agreement cannot be reached?

We are keeping an eye on the updates.

Fell free to reach out to us.

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