Cabinet approves amendment to India-Netherlands SSA

The Cabinet today approved amendment of the bilateral Social Security Agreement (SSA) between India and the Netherlands by incorporating the "Country of Residence" principle into it.
The SSA has been in force since June 2010 and has benefited Indian expatriates who have been working in the Netherlands.
However, beginning January 1, 2013, the Netherlands introduced new rules on extending of social security benefits to the people from countries outside the European Union.
After the adoption of the new social security legislation, the Netherlands requested that India agree to revise the bilateral SSA since such a revision would be necessary as per their national law.

The new Dutch legislation, in ordinary circumstances, has no implications for the Indian people working in the Netherlands because it is applicable only to Dutch nationals residing outside the EU except for a very few exceptional cases.
The Indians working would largely continue to get benefits as per the existing India-Netherlands Social Security Agreement.
However, the circumstances where the "country of residence" principle will apply to a few instances of Indian nationals in case if an Indian worker dies in the Netherlands and has his/her spouse and children living in India or an Indian worker who gets disabled while working in the Netherlands and returns to India.

As on date, India has signed and operationalised SSAs with 18 countries - Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Japan, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Sweden, Switzerland and South Korea.