You earn the right to benefits for a period of up to 2 years. If you are not a Danish or an EEA citizen, your right to unemployment benefits depends on your work and residence permit.
See what you have to do to get benefits as newly unemployed
If you are a new graduate and want to apply for unemployment benefits, please read about the language requirements on this page.
Requirements for receiving unemployment benefits
You can get unemployment benefits if you:
- are unemployed and registered at jobnet.dk
- have been a member of an unemployment insurance fund for the past 12 months
- fulfill the income criteria, which is minimum DKK 263,232 (2024) within the last 3 years in an unemployment benefits period. You can only include DKK 21,936 (2024) per month.
- are able to apply for work and take on 37 hours per week, if you are full-time insured, and 30 hours per week if you are part-time insured.
Legal demands while you get unemployment benefits
In order to get unemployment benefits you have to:
- actively apply for jobs – 1-2 applications per week
- be ready to undertake full-time work (or part-time if you are part-time insured) within one day
- fill in your benefit card (ydelseskort) monthly, when it is ready for you in your inbox at our self-service portal, Mit AKA
- attend meetings, courses and other events scheduled by your job center or by us
- stay in Denmark
Non-EEA citizens
If you are not a citizen in an EEA country, you can only accept a job in Denmark if you can obtain a residence permit with an unlimited work permit. If you obtain a residence permit under the establishment scheme, it is a condition that you do not receive benefits from a Danish Unemployment Insurance Fund under the rules for new graduates.
Ph.D.s are considered employees
If you are a Ph.D. student, you will become a member of an unemployment insurance fund under the rules applying to ordinary wage earners. This means you can obtain the right to unemployment benefits under the rules applying to wage earners. In this a case, you can obtain a work and residence permit, even if you are getting unemployment benefits from an unemployment insurance fund.
However, it requires that you have been a paying member of the Unemployment Insurance Fund for a minimum of one year, before you complete your Ph.D. and are able to fulfill an income criterion of a minimum of DKK 263,232 (2024) within a year. You can only include a maximum of DKK 21.936 (2024) per month in a membership period.
Job search in another EEA country with benefits from Denmark
You can get Danish unemployment benefits for up to 3 months, when you are looking for jobs in another EEA country.
However, there are some requirements:
- You have to be registered as unemployed at jobnet.dk for at least 4 weeks, before your departure (called the 4-week rule). Call us if you want to know more about the 4-week rule.
- You must have the right to benefits at the time of departure. This means that you must have residence in Denmark, right up until the departure date.
Exemptions for the 4-week rule
You can apply for an exemption of the 4-week rule in the following situations:
- When you move with your spouse or partner, who has started permanent work or is beginning an education of at least 18 months in another EEA country
- When you can prove that you are going for a job interview in another EEA country
- When you have a special connection to the EEA country, where you want to look for work. If you are a citizen of the country you want to travel to, you only have to be registered as unemployed in Denmark for at least 1 week.
Apply for Danish benefits during your travel
You must fill in the PDU2 form via Mit AKA and send it to us to apply for the 3-month period of job search in another EEA country. Upon approval, we will issue a certificate (PDU2) that you must take with you to the country you want to travel to.
Go to the PDU2 form via Mit AKA
Register as unemployed when you arrive at the other EEA country
It is important that you do not cancel your registration as unemployed at jobnet.dk, until the date registered as departure date on your certificate (PDU2). After you have left Denmark, you have 7 days (your departure day counts as day 1) to register as unemployed in the country you have traveled to.
We pay your unemployment benefits while you are away
You will receive Danish benefits in the other EEA country from Akademikernes A-kasse. We will transfer the benefits to your account here in Denmark (NemKonto).
In order to receive the benefits, you must send us a benefit card (ydelseskort) every month via our self-service portal.
Go to the benefit card (ydelseskort)
You can receive up to 90 percent of your average salary
In general, the calculation of the unemployment benefit rate is based on the 12 months with the highest income within the last 2 years. You will receive 90 percent of the average salary income, minus labour market contribution (8 percent before taxes).
Your unemployment benefit rate can never surpass 90 % of your calculated daily salary, and it can never amount to more than the maximum unemployment benefit rate. There is no minimum rate, which means that if your income is low, your unemployment benefit rate will be low as well.
Your rate will be calculated every time you get a new 2-year right to unemployment benefits.
We will also calculate a new rate for you if your membership is converted from a full-time membership to a part-time membership, or the other way around.
If you are a new graduate you will have the opportunity to get a new unemployment benefit rate calculated 6 months after the day you got your right to unemployment benefits, if you have received salary for at least 3 months.
Get unemployment benefits from your first day as unemployed
You can normally get unemployment benefits from your first day of unemployment. However, your employer often has to pay your unemployment benefits for the first days - the so-called G-days. After this, Akademikernes A-kasse will pay your unemployment benefits.
If you are under a notice period, during which you can claim salary from your employer, you become unemployed after the notice period expires. This is also the case if you are not working during the notice period.
Quarantine before unemployment benefits
If you have terminated your employment yourself or if you are somehow responsible for losing your job, you will normally get your unemployment benefits after a 111-hours quarantine (equal to 3 weeks of full-time employment).
However, it is important that you register with the job center or at jobnet.dk on the first day after the notice period expires.
The quarantine is effective during the weeks where you would have earned the right to unemployment benefits. Therefore, it is important that you make yourself available for work with the job center.
Unemployment benefits as self-employed
If you decide to end your self-employment altogether, you will earn the right to receive benefits, after one year as a member, given that you have worked on a full-time basis for a period of at least 12 months to fulfill the income criteria, which is minimum 263,232 kr. (2024) within one year of having a membership. We will ask you to fill out a special form Erklæring om omfang af arbejde i selvstændig virksomhed (AK030) to see if your work as self-employed can fulfill the income criteria.