EU proposes UK social-security derogations in defined individual cases

The European Commission has proposed that the European Union back a new safety valve in the EU–UK social security coordination rulesEuropa: a Member State and the United Kingdom could agree, in a specific individual case, to set aside the Protocol's rules on which State's legislation applies to a worker, but only in a closed list of predefined situations and only in the interest of the person concernedEuropa. The proposal of 15 October 2026 asks the Council to instruct the EU delegation in the Specialised Committee on Social Security Coordination to adopt a decisionEuropa inserting a new Article SSCI.17a into Annex SSC-7, the Implementing Part of the Protocol on Social Security Coordination to the Trade and Cooperation Agreement.

The derogation agreements would cover four situations. A detached worker could remain under the home State's legislation beyond the Protocol's maximum detachment period by up to twelve months where exceptional circumstances could not have been anticipated at the start of the posting, where a change of applicable legislation would damage the worker's pension rights, or where managers and specialists move within a corporate group within the meaning of Article 141 of the Trade and Cooperation Agreement.Europa A change of applicable legislation could likewise be avoided where it would harm the worker or a member of their family on health grounds. More broadly, the standard allocation rules in Articles SSC.10 to SSC.12 could be displaced where applying them to the individual's situation would produce an anomalous, unfair or unjust outcome. And coverage that was determined incorrectly could be regularised where a retroactive correction would harm the person concerned.

The proposal stresses that the envisaged act would not touch the essential elements of the Protocol: it only adds the derogation mechanism to the Implementing Part. The Specialised Committee, established under Article 8(1)(p) of the Trade and Cooperation Agreement and acting under Article SSC.68 of the Protocol, adopts decisions by mutual consent of the Union and the United Kingdom, and its decisions bind both Parties under Article 10(1) of the Agreement, with the date of effect fixed in each decision. The Trade and Cooperation Agreement entered into force on 1 May 2021, having been provisionally applied since 1 January 2021.

If the Council follows the proposal, the EU delegation will support the amendment on the basis of the draft decision annexed to the Council Decision, with room for minor technical changes without a fresh Council act; the Council Decision itself would enter into force on the day it is adopted, and the Specialised Committee's decision would be published in the Official Journal of the European Union after adoption. Legal basis: the proposed Council Decision cites Article 48 TFEU in conjunction with Article 218(9) TFEU, for a Specialised Committee decision under Article SSC.68 of the Protocol.