EPFO News: Indian workers working abroad must know about benefits of Social Security Agreement

Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) has a Social Security Agreement or SSA with 19 countries which include Belgium, Germany, Switzerland, Denmark France, Luxembourg, South Korea and others.

A Social Security Agreement is a bilateral agreement between India and another country to ensure continuity of social security coverage of workers posted in another country. An SSA is an agreement between two countries that provides for the protection of the interests of cross-border workers.

This agreement ensures that the workers of both the host country and the home country are treated on par in terms of social security. It also avoids 'double coverage' and treats the.

It is a reciprocal arrangement and generally provides for avoidance of double coverage. India has implemented 19 SSAs.

Provisions Covered Under SSA:

1. International workers deputed to work in a country having an agreement on Social Security with their home country having an agreement on Social Security with their home country are not required to contribute to the social security system in the host country, provided they are contributing to the social security system of their home country.
2. Exportability of Pension: Provisions of payment of pension benefits directly without any reduction to beneficiary choosing to reside in the territory of home country as also to beneficiary choosing to reside in a third country as outlined in respective SSA.
3. Totalisation of Benefits: Service rendered in SSA country is added to service rendered in India to determine eligibility for pension.
4. Equality of Treatment: Equality of treatment to IWs from an SSA country with host country workers.  

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EPFO is one of the World's largest Social Security Organisations in terms of clientele and the volume of financial transactions undertaken according to claims made by the website. At present it maintains 24.77 crore accounts (Annual Report 2019-20) pertaining to its members.