Early retirement and work

The rules for early retirement and work are relatively simple. You can work as much as you want while on early retirement. Your working hours will be deducted from your early retirement hours, so for every hour you work, one hour of early retirement is deducted. The work can be performed in the Kingdom of Denmark (Denmark, Greenland and the Faroe Islands) or in another EEA country.

In some cases, you may be able to participate in voluntary unpaid activities without limitations or deductions. Contact Min A-kasse to learn more about the rules.

Early retirement pay is paid monthly. We can only pay out a minimum of 14.8 hours per month. This means that if you work 145.53 hours or more (full-time insured) in a month, you cannot receive early retirement benefits. In this way, early retirement and work affect each other.

What is a soft deduction?

If you as an early retirement recipient have an hourly wage corresponding to the unemployment insurance fund's conversion rate (DKK 295.54 in 2025) or less, you have the opportunity for greater financial benefit by working. The deduction for the first DKK 45,199 (2025) you have in earned income per year will be relaxed.

This means that if you have verifiable work, your income will be converted at the unemployment insurance fund's conversion rate for the first DKK 45,199. After that, your hours will be offset 1:1.
(Controllable work means that your employer can keep track of your working hours or pays you for a number of hours).

If your hourly wage is less than the applicable low hourly conversion rate (142.15 DKK in 2025), your hourly wage will be set at the higher rate and then converted using the box conversion rate.

Pay attention to your working hours

If you make use of the flexible deduction, you cannot receive early retirement benefits if you work more than 128 hours per month.

Here you can see examples of how the soft deduction is calculated:

Example of an example

If you work 80 hours per month and receive an hourly wage of DKK 150, your income = DKK 12,000.

The income of DKK 12,000 must be divided by the conversion rate of 295.54 = 40.60 hours deduction in early retirement pay for this month, instead of 80 hours.

You will then receive early retirement pay for 160.33-40.60 = 119.73 hours.

If you work 128 hours or more in a month, you cannot receive early retirement pay for that month.

Example of an example 

If you work 135 hours per month and receive an hourly wage of DKK 150, your income = DKK 20,250.

In this case, the unemployment insurance fund cannot pay out early retirement pay up to the 160.33 hours, as the actual hours before conversion were 135 hours - more than 128 hours.

When you no longer qualify for reduced deductions because you have reached the income limit, you can receive early retirement if you have worked up to 145.53 hours per month.

If you have or want to be self-employed

You may be allowed to continue or start a self-employed business as a second job, but the hours will be deducted from your early retirement pension.

What is deducted from early retirement?

Holiday allowance and paid vacation will result in deductions for the days you take vacation. If you move abroad or for some other reason receive a lump sum holiday allowance without taking your vacation, it will be deducted from your early retirement pension at the time of payment.

If your holiday allowance or salary during the holiday period is less than the deduction in early retirement, you can get the difference paid out as early retirement.

If you take vacation in an employment relationship, you can have your vacation allowance converted from days to hours and receive early retirement with deductions for the calculated hours.

There are also a number of other rules for early retirement and work where income is deducted from the early retirement pension.

It applies:

• Salary, availability pay, etc. for a period during which no work is performed and benefits in lieu of work.
• Severance pay paid in lieu of the correct notice period by the employer.
• Waiting money and deferred pensions.
• Income from civil representation and public and private duties that Min A-kasse does not consider to be work.
• Revenue from the reissue, restoration and other forms of reuse of books, photographs, plays and films etc.
• Scholarships.

Income that does not affect early retirement

• License fees, library fees, Koda/Gramex fees and similar
• Survivor assistance according to chapter 10a of the Active Social Policy Act
• Compensation, including compensation under the Act on Insurance against Consequences of Industrial Injuries
• War damage compensation, interest payments to victims of the occupation, honorary gifts and lifelong benefits on the Finance Act for artists and their survivors
• Early retirement according to the Danish Salaried Employees Act, severance pay according to chapter 6 of the Danish Civil Servants' Pension Act, compensation for unfair dismissal according to section 4(3) of the main agreement and section 2b etc. of the Danish Salaried Employees Act, severance pay according to section 2a of the Danish Salaried Employees Act or compensation according to the Equal Treatment Act
• Income from the sale of a business or real estate
• Leasehold tax
• Income from rentals that cannot be considered commercial and profits from your own home.
• Interest, dividends and similar, inheritance, gifts, gains and alimony
• Disability benefit
• Disability pensions
• Frailty pension.