Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people hold a visa that would make them eligible for an exemption from paying UK National Insurance contributions under the Double Contribution Convention with India.

The Double Contributions Convention (DCC) is not a visa route. It will be a reciprocal international treaty between countries which ensures that detached workers are only liable to pay social security contributions in one country at a time on the same earnings.

A detached worker is an employee who is sent by their employer to carry out a period of temporary work in another country. The definition of a detached worker does not map onto any single visa route and is a distinct test applied for National Insurance.

Around 17,000 Indian nationals (main applicants) came to the UK to work in 2024 on Skilled Worker and Global Business Mobility: Senior or Specialist Worker visas - however, only a subset of these types of workers will be eligible to be treated as a detached worker and continue paying contributions in India rather than the UK. This will be reciprocal for UK detached workers in India. Dependents are not detached workers. If a detached worker’s family members take up employment in the UK then they pay UK National Insurance.