Because of the unique nature of the Common Travel Area and the associated rights and privileges which it provides and will continue to provide for Irish and British citizens in each other’s countries, Ireland and the United Kingdom have formalised the pre-existing CTA social protection arrangements in a legally binding agreement(opens in new tab).

Under the terms of the agreement, all existing arrangements regarding Social Insurance entitlements will be maintained in Ireland and the UK.

This means that Irish citizens living in Ireland maintain the right to benefit from Social Insurance contributions made when working in the UK and to access Social Insurance payments if living in the UK and vice versa.

E.g. workers will continue to pay into one social security scheme at a time, export of certain benefits between the UK and Ireland will continue, social security contributions paid in the two jurisdictions can be combined to help citizens meet entitlement criteria for accessing benefits in each other’s state e.g. Illness Benefit and State Pension.

Information and advice is available from the Irish Department of Social Protection: email a query to BrexitQueries@welfare.ie or call 00353 (0)71 919 3302 or 1890 66 22 44

Other information

• Border People: Common Travel Area

Page last checked on 14 November 2020

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