Applying for Unemployment Benefits as a New Graduate
If you’re unemployed (ledig) after completing your education, you may be eligible for unemployment benefits (dagpenge). The date you can start receiving benefits depends on whether you were a student member of the unemployment insurance fund (a-kasse).
deadline, you are eligible for unemployment benefits from your first day of unemployment after finishing your studies.
If you weren’t a student member but instead applied for membership of Akademikernes A-kasse within the 14-day deadline, you’ll be eligible for benefits after one month of unemployment.
Guide for Graduates
You can find everything you need to know about unemployment insurance fund membership in our guide for new graduates.
Unemployment benefit rates and eligibility periods
As a new graduate, you’re entitled to unemployment benefits for at least one year within a two-year period. You’ll receive benefits at the rate applicable to new graduates (dimittendsats), which varies depending on whether you have children – you can read more about this below.
We pay unemployment benefits in hours; one year equals 1,924 hours. If you work during this period, your one-year benefit period can be extended by up to six months. One month of unemployment benefits corresponds to 160.33 hours.
See unemployment benefit rates
Read about unemployment benefits and benefit cards
How to apply for unemployment benefits
Once you’ve either changed your status to new graduate or joined as a new graduate member, you need to do two things:
- register as unemployed on your first day of unemployment
- complete and submit your application for unemployment benefits (ledighedserklæring) to us
Fill out an application for unemployment benefits
We pay out the money at the end of the month, unlike student grants (SU), which you’re used to getting in advance.
It may take a few days to process your application for unemployment benefits, but your first payment will be backdated to the date you registered as unemployed (ledig) on jobnet.dk and became eligible for unemployment benefits (dagpenge).
Timeline if you have been a student member
- Say you receive your final grade on 11 June and complete your studies.
- One day later, on 12 June, you register as unemployed and apply for unemployment benefits.
- The last day you can change your status is 14 days after you receive your final grade, i.e. on 25 June.
- On the last working day of the month, 30 June, you receive your first unemployment benefits payment.
Timeline if you haven’t been a student member
- You receive your final grade on 11 June and complete your studies.
- The last day you can apply for membership is 14 days after you receive your final grade, i.e. 25 June.
- One month plus one day after you receive your final grade, on 12 July, you register as unemployed and apply for unemployment benefits.
- You receive your first unemployment benefits payment on the last working day of the month.
Different rules apply if you’ve completed a PhD.
Read about your options as a PhD graduate
If you’ve been a student member for less than a year
Registering as unemployed on jobnet.dk is a requirement for receiving unemployment benefits.
If you’ve been a student member for between 1 and 11 months, you must register as unemployed exactly one month and one day after receiving your final grade. That’s the date your unemployment benefits can start from. However, you must still change your status to new graduate no later than 14 days after receiving your final grade.
If you’ve been a student member for between 11 and 12 months, please contact us. You may be eligible for benefits a little earlier. However, you must still change your status to new graduate no later than 14 days after receiving your final grade.
Preliminary approval: Apply for unemployment benefits before receiving your final grade
In some programmes, the studies are completed with a written assignment and it may take several weeks before the external examiner and supervisor can give their final assessment of the assignment.
However, you can ask for preliminary approval where your supervisor and examiner confirm that you’ve passed your exam and received your final grade – even if the final assessment and grade aren’t ready yet.
You can apply for unemployment benefits with a pre-approval before receiving your final grade
Student and part-time jobs
You can continue with your part-time student job while unemployed. In that case, you can apply for supplementary unemployment benefits.
Be aware that you risk receiving a 3-week (111 hours) quarantine without benefits if you resign from your student job.
Read more about student jobs
Read more about supplementary unemployment benefits and part-time work
You’ve accrued holiday pay from your student job
If you had a student job, you’ve accrued holiday pay. Holiday pay reflects how you’ve worked, so you may have accrued many holiday days but might only receive a small amount for each day off. You can see how many holiday days you have accrued on Borger.dk.
If you’re unemployed and want to receive your holiday pay, your unemployment benefits will be reduced by the number of days the holiday pay covers. You cannot receive holiday pay and unemployment benefits at the same time.
Consider having your holiday pay paid out for a holiday taken before you completed your studies and registered as unemployed.
Example 1
You are unemployed as of 1 November 2021 and have accrued 20 days of holiday pay, corresponding to an amount of DKK 2,000. You haven’t taken any holidays before you became unemployed. If you want to receive your holiday pay while receiving unemployment benefits during the holiday period, we will deduct the corresponding number of days from your payment.
Example 2
You are unemployed as of 1 November 2021 and have accrued 20 days of holiday pay, corresponding to an amount of DKK 2,000. You took 20 holiday days in April 2021. You can apply for and receive your holiday pay while unemployed as you can retrospectively report the holiday period to FerieKonto. In this case, your holiday pay won’t be deducted from your unemployment benefits.
Language requirement for new graduates
New graduates must meet a language requirement if unemployed and applying for unemployment benefits for the first time. This applies to all new graduates, regardless of citizenship. The language requirement means you must have:
- passed Danish Language Test 2 or another Danish test at an equivalent or higher level;
- completed at least sixth grade in a Danish primary school; or
- completed a higher education programme taught in Danish.
If you don’t meet the language requirement, you may still qualify for unemployment benefits by meeting the affiliation requirement (tilknytningskravet). You meet this requirement if you’ve worked at least 600 hours before registering as unemployed.
The hours must be spread over 12 of the past 24 months, but they don’t need to be within 12 consecutive months.
You can use paid work hours outside your membership period, but the hours must be reported to the Danish Tax Agency (Skattestyrelsen).
You can also count work hours from another EEA country, but at least 150 of the hours must be from work in Denmark that took place afterwards. The 600-hour requirement (tilknytningskravet) must be met again if you apply for unemployment benefits as a new graduate in the future.
Education programmes that count as fulfilling the language requirement