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WORKING IN DENMARK

Can I go on holiday while receiving unemployment benefits in Denmark?

You may think that receiving benefits when out of work in Denmark would restrict you from taking holiday and time away from the required job applications. However there are situations where this is allowed.

Published: 24 September 2024 13:06 CEST
A Denmark beach
You have the right to take holiday while receiving unemployment benefits in Denmark if you meet certain requirements. Photo by Photo by Niklas Ohlrogge on Unsplash.

There are two types of unemployment benefit in Denmark, dagpenge and kontanthjælp. Dagpenge comes from private insurance funds known as A-kasser, which has monthly fees and kontanthjælp is a more basic state benefit.

Kontanthjælp

If you receive kontanthjælp, directly translated as ‘social assistance’ and would like to go on holiday, you should contact your local job centre first.

If you receive hjemrejseydelse or integrationsydelse, which is given instead of kontanthjælp to migrants who are in the integration system, you are not permitted to take holiday.

There are a number of conditions that must be met before you have the right to take holiday while receiving kontanthjælp:

  • You must have received the benefit for 12 continuous months before the time you wish to take a holiday.
  • You must have agreed your holiday in advance with your job centre, at least two weeks ahead.

If you meet the conditions for taking a holiday, you have the right to take four weeks of holiday per year but no more than two weeks at a time.

The job centre will review the application and decide whether to approve it, taking into account factors like planned family holiday, job activation and planned training courses.

You are permitted to take the holiday outside of Denmark but if you get sick, it cannot be rescheduled.

If you have accrued holiday from a past employment, this must be used before you receive kontanthjælp during a holiday. You do not keep holiday which you have the right to from a period on kontanthjælp if you later get a job.

In February, the Danish Agency for Labour Market and Recruitment (Styrelsen for Arbejdsmarked og Rekruttering) confirmed that people on kontanthjælp could spend one night each month outside of Denmark if they inform their local municipality two days before the trip.

The rules were changed after people who live near Denmark’s border with Germany said it raised their living expenses because they were unable to cross the border to shop at cheaper stores.

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Dagpenge

There are unemployment benefits administered by private unemployment insurance funds known as A-kasser (or arbejdsløshedskasse). Around 2.1 million Danes are members of an A-kasse and there are more than 20 A-kasser in Denmark which have different membership fees, specialisations, internal rules and membership benefits. You can choose either full-time of part-time membership and members pay a tax-deductible monthly fee.

You don’t get these payments (dagpenge) automatically if you lose your job and you have to fulfil some requirements in order to be eligible, which include being a member of an A-kasse for at least 12 months. sending a set number of job applications each week and being available to take a job at short notice.

You are allowed to take holiday when on dagpenge but there are rules:

  • You must inform your local job centre and your A-kasse at least 14 days before your holiday.
  • You can’t receive dagpenge payments while on holiday.
  • You must use holiday days you have accrued, either from your last employer or as holiday dagpenge  or feriedagpenge. You accrue 2.08 days of holiday for each month you have received dagpenge. You can apply for this through your A-Kasse at least five weeks before your holiday. If you don’t use the holiday you have accrued, it can lapse.
  • If you’re using holiday accrued from your previous employer, you will get holiday payment, feriepenge.

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For members

WORKING IN DENMARK

What has Denmark’s government done so far to attract skilled foreign labour?

A shortage of skilled labour is pretty much the only thing holding back Denmark's otherwise impressively strong economy. Here's what the country has done so far to bring in more foreign skilled workers.

Published: 24 September 2024 14:44 CEST
What has Denmark's government done so far to attract skilled foreign labour?

Efforts to ease integration of foreign employees

Denmark has launched a growing number of schemes aimed at helping Danish companies recruit and retain foreign talent.

Copenhagen Municipality has set up International House Copenhagen, a one-stop shop for foreign workers and Danish companies looking to recruit them. There’s also Copenhagen Capacity, which helps companies in Greater Copenhagen find skilled international candidates, among other things through its Greater Copenhagen Career Portal. 

Aarhus Municipality has launched a special site for new international arrivals, and is launching a new “internationalisation strategy”, which it says aims to ensure “the best possible reception, attract international talent, and, most importantly, create an environment where internationals can feel at home in Denmark”. 

Aalborg has set up International House North Denmark, a one-point entry for international workers coming to the city and its surrounding region, which offers, among other things a “Spouse Space” to help the spouses of international workers find employment. 

There is also Project Onboard Denmark, launched by a professor at Copenhagen University, which gives companies access to an onboarding process and a lot of research to help them and their new international employees “turn cultural differences into collaborative strengths”. 

Supplementary Pay Limit Scheme threshold reduced 

The salary threshold for the Supplementary Pay Limit Scheme was slashed in April 2023 from 448,000 kroner per year to 375,000 kroner per year, a move that made it much easier for many companies to recruit foreign labour using this pay-based route. The lower threshold was then adjusted upwards, along with inflation, to 393,000 kroner in January 2024, and will be adjusted upwards again next January. Read about the changes here. 

Bank account rule scrapped 

On July 1st, the government scrapped the so-called ‘bank account rule’ for foreign workers given a work permit under the “researcher” scheme and four so-called “fast track” schemes. This rule, which obliged foreign workers to receive their wages in a Danish bank account had meant that foreign hires sometimes had to wait for up to six months before they could get paid, causing major inconvenience and deterring them from coming to Sweden. The Confederation of Danish Employers in 2023 led a campaign to end the bank account rule. Read about the changes here.

Workers from Danish companies’ foreign subsidiaries excused permits 

In November 2023, a new rule came into force allowing foreigners working for subsidiaries of Danish companies to work in Denmark for two 15-day periods every six months without a permit, with a minimum 14-day gap between the two periods. To be eligible, foreign workers must be employed by a foreign branch or subsidiary of a company registered in Denmark, which has at least 50 employees. Read about the change here. 

Fast-track work permit certification scheme extended to smaller companies

As part of the same package of changes which came into force in April 2023, the government also extended the fast-track work permit certification scheme to countries with as few a ten people. The Fast-track Scheme allows certified companies to employ foreign nationals with special qualifications more quickly and easily than through the standard pathway.

In short, this means that employers, by registering the scheme, can enable their foreign hires to be granted a temporary work permit so they can start their job immediately after arriving in Denmark, or – if the employee is not exempted from Danish visa rules – get them a permit including an entry visa within 10 days.

The new rules allow companies with as few as 10 employees to register for the scheme, a reduction from the minimum of 20 under the old rules.

Partnership agreements with non-EU countries  

In January 2024, the government said it had started talks with India and the Philippines over bilateral partnership deals which will make it easier to bring health workers, particularly nurses, to work in Danish hospitals. In August, the Berlingske newspaper reported that no concrete deal had yet been struck, but negotiations continue and partnership deals struck for medical staff could be followed by deals making it easier for, say, Indian computer programmers. 

Denmark’s foreign minister, Lars Løkke Rasmussen, said at the end of September that he was interested in following the example of Germany, which has struck partnership deals with India, Morocco and Georgia which make it easier for these countries’ nationals to receive work permits, but which also make the countries responsibible for ensuring their nationals return home when their permit expires of it they are rejected. 

Foreign health professionals given temporary exemption from residence requirements

In June 2024, the Danish parliament passed a bill which loosened work permit rules  for foreign healthcare professionals, excusing them from the requirement to get a residence permit while they go through the procedure to get their foreign qualifications authorised by the Danish authorities. Denmark at the same time extended the “Positive List” for skilled workers to include social and healthcare workers, with a quota of up to 1,000 people.

Returning Danes able to bring family under work permit rules

From July 1st 2024, the foreign spouses of Danes who have been working overseas for eight years (or less in some circumstances) will be able to come to Denmark under the same rules as the spouses of people awarded a work permit, so long as the Danish Agency for International Recruitment and Integration judges that the job the Dane has been offered would have been the basis for a residency permit for their spouse under the positive list for persons with higher education, the positive list for skilled workers, the pay-limit scheme, the research scheme, the fast track scheme, or the Startup Denmark scheme.

Three-year job search period for foreign grads of Danish universities

The government also in April 2023 extended the validity of the ‘establishment card’ for international students who have been awarded a Danish Professional Bachelor’s (vocational), Bachelor’s, Master’s degree or PhD degree from two years to three years. 

So long as graduates keep their Danish address and do not leave the country for longer than six months they have a three-year “job seeking period” in which they retain the right to live and work in Denmark. 

Start-up Denmark scheme for entrepreneurs extended

The Start-up Denmark scheme allows two-year work permits to be granted to foreign entrepreneurs and a team of up to three people who want to start a business together in Denmark through a joined business plan. In April 2023, the scheme was extended to cover foreign business owners who wants to open a Danish branch of an existing foreign independent business, and then in July 2024 it was extended so that Danish citizens based abroad can also use it to get permits for their accompanying family members. 

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