Understanding Social Security status and UK status retention review

HMRC is conducting research on the current certification agreements and usage around recent applicants requiring continued liability to UK social security whilst abroad in the EU and Europe.

The UK has a number of bilateral and multi-lateral social security co-ordination agreements, which, amongst other things, determine which country’s social security scheme a worker in a cross-border situation pays contributions into. The aim is to ensure workers (and their employers if they have one) only pay into one social security scheme at a time. The most used of these are the 2 agreements with the EU that provide for social security coordination: the Withdrawal Agreement and the Trade and Cooperation Agreement.

In order for workers to demonstrate to a host country that they are only liable to pay contributions into their home country’s scheme under one of the agreements, they must apply to their home country’s social security institution (HM Revenue and Customs in the UK) for a certificate to verify this. Depending on their circumstances and the terms of the agreement, this may be as a detached worker or a multi-state worker. These are through the A1 and CA3822 processes.

A detached worker is someone who is:

• an employee who works for an employer in one country (their home country) and is sent to work temporarily in another country (the host country)
• a self-employed person who normally carries out an activity in one country (their home country) who temporarily carries out a similar self-employed activity in another country (the host country)

In contrast, a multi-state worker is someone who works regularly (either alternately or simultaneously) in more than one country. A multi-state worker normally pays into the social security scheme where they reside if they carry out a substantial activity there.

HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) commissioned Kantar Public UK to conduct a piece of research on their behalf to better understand current customer awareness, understanding, use and experience of certificates in order to improve the customer experience of applying for one. The overall aim of this research was to understand when and how customers are using the social security certificate in practice and the customer experience of applying for certificates.

From August to September 2021, Kantar Public UK conducted 50 in-depth qualitative interviews with recent applicants for certificates across 3 specific audiences:

• self-employed or sole traders who complete applications themselves
• employers who complete applications on behalf of employees and employees who receive these certificates
• and agents who complete applications on behalf of their customers, split during analysis into low-volume/non-specialist agents, high-volume/non-specialist agents, and high-volume/specialist agents

Full details can be found here:

Usage and experience of the certification process for continuing liability to UK social security contributions - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

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