Danes now get the opportunity to bring along their Danish pension agreement when settling down in the States. Opposite to many other countries, Denmark has, until now, not had a mutual agreement with USA regarding pension payments – A so-called Social Security Agreement. The Danish Ministry of Social Affairs expects the new agreement to take effect at the end of 2007.

Several Danes and Americans are losing earned social pensions when moving back and forth between the two countries. The reason for that is the fact that so far no agreement has been made on this issue. That’s why it has now been decided to make an agreement, which will, social-wise, put people in a better position when moving back and forth between Denmark and USA.

-         “We have a Social Security Agreement with a wide number of countries and of course we should also have an agreement with USA. With this agreement, we will remove the obstacles the elderly have when moving to Denmark or USA", says Minister of Social Affairs, Eva Kjer Hansen.

Within the last couple of years, the Ministry of Social Affairs has received a number of requests from Danes living in the USA, who have told that they will lose their earned American pension when moving back to Denmark. This happens because American Social Pension only can be released to people who live in one of the countries that the United States has an agreement with. The same thing goes the other way around. Until now, Americans have not been able to bring their Danish earned pension back to the USA.

A Social Security Agreement will also be considered a progress for businesses, because it will cover Danish expatriates in the United States. This means that the expatriates will not have to be enrolled in the American pension system. Instead they will stay in the Danish system, thereby keep earning Danish social pension.