In addition to improving the social security of working workers, international social security agreements help ensure continuity of benefit protection for people who have received social security credits under the U.S. system and another country. The provisions to eliminate dual coverage for workers are similar in all U.S. agreements. Each of them establishes a basic rule regarding the location of the employment of a workforce. Under this basic «territorial rule,» a worker who would otherwise be covered by both the United States and a foreign regime is subject exclusively to the coverage laws of the country in which he or she works. International social security agreements, often referred to as «totalization agreements,» have two main objectives. First, they remove the double taxation of social security, the situation that occurs when a worker from one country works in another country and is required to pay social security taxes to the two countries with the same incomes. Second, the agreements help fill gaps in benefit protection for workers who have shared their careers between the United States and another country. The Nordic Convention on Social Security obliges Nordic countries to cooperate on vocational rehabilitation in cross-border situations.
The Nordic countries have bilateral administrative agreements on the organization of rehabilitation measures and related practices. The agreements facilitate the handling of rehabilitation cases where a person has abused the right to free movement and, therefore, works in one Nordic country and lives in another country. Finland has an agreement with Sweden, Norway, Iceland and Denmark. People who move between nordic countries are generally covered by the provisions of the EU Social Security Regulation. On the basis of the Nordic Convention on Social Security, the Community regulation also applies to people who would not otherwise be covered by the regulation. These include, for example, citizens of countries outside the EU that are outside the EU and move between Denmark and other Nordic countries. The single law provides solutions to social security agreements in a region where traditional multilateral agreements may not be feasible. Unfortunately, it has not overcome the difficulties of caring for third-country nationals, so the majority of migrant workers in the region are migrants.
The Convention meets the five objectives of the social security conventions and applies to all persons subject to the social security legislation of one of the signatory states and to their family members who confer rights on them.
About The Author
