KPMG flags U.K.-India social security deal for global mobility teams

KPMG said the U.K.-India Double Contribution Convention will take effect alongside the broader free trade deal on July 15, a change that could remove duplicate social security bills from temporary assignments between London and India. For mobility, payroll and tax teams, the practical payoff is cleaner assignment planning: KPMG said the agreement should ease administrative and financial pressure by clarifying which country’s social security system applies during temporary postings.

The U.K. and the Republic of India agreed on June 17 that the DCC would enter into force at the same time as the UK-India Free Trade Agreement. The U.K. government says the convention is meant to ensure employees moving between the two countries pay social security contributions in only one country at a time. The official treaty text published by the U.K. government still says the agreement is not yet in force, underscoring why employers have to plan for the start date rather than assume the rules have already changed.

KPMG’s June mobility alert pushed the issue straight into workforce operations. The firm said transitional rules will mean the DCC will not apply to people already on assignment when it enters into force, which means companies with India-U.K. rotations will need to separate current postings from new ones in assignment letters, payroll settings and cost forecasts. KPMG also told employers to review workforce plans and planned assignments between the two countries, especially postings longer than 36 months.

The timeline matters for people teams because this deal has been in motion for years. KPMG said negotiations began in 2022, the countries reached a deal on May 6, 2025 as part of broader free trade talks, and the agreement was signed in New Delhi on February 10, 2026. In February, KPMG said the convention was expected to work on the same basic principles as other reciprocal social security deals and that assignments of no more than three years would generally remain covered by home-country social security only.

That is the kind of detail that lands directly on KPMG professionals advising multinational clients. The agreement affects project staffing, secondments, compensation equalization and employer cost modeling, while also changing the net pay employees see on India-U.K. moves. HMRC’s updated National Insurance guidance, published in early June, added another prompt for firms to revisit their controls before the July 15 start date.