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Benefits

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How do you get unemployment benefits?

If you are unemployed for a period of time, you can receive unemployment benefits from Min A-kasse. There are a number of rules and requirements before you can be entitled to unemployment benefits. You can see the rules below.

Entitlement to unemployment benefits

To be eligible for unemployment benefits, you must meet the following requirements:

  • You must have been a member of an unemployment fund for at least 1 year.
  • You must meet an income or employment requirement. Read more about this below.
  • You must be available for work and actively seeking employment.
  • You must be able to take on a full-time job of 37 hours per week if you are insured full-time and 30 hours per week if you are insured part-time.

Are you a recent graduate? Please note that special rules apply to recent graduates.

Income and employment requirements

To qualify for unemployment benefits, you must meet an income requirement or an employment requirement. Which requirement you need to fulfill depends on whether you are new to the unemployment benefit system or if you have received unemployment benefits before.

If you are new to the unemployment benefit system

If this is the first time you are claiming unemployment benefits, you must generally meet an income requirement. You earn unemployment benefit entitlement based on your income when you are new to the unemployment benefit system. This means that to qualify for unemployment benefits, you must have earned DKK 273,504 as a full-time insured or DKK 182,340 as a part-time insured within three years.

If you have taken a qualifying education, you can in some cases use your education so that each month of full-time education counts as DKK 22,792 as a full-time insured and DKK 15,195 as a part-time insured - equivalent to the income ceiling for one month. This is called the aggregation principle. To use the aggregation principle, you must:

  • Have been a member of an unemployment insurance fund without interruption for at least 12 months before your education ended.
  • Have had at least one paid hour after your education.
  • Not having chosen to switch to graduate. Read more here.
  • Not have received unemployment benefits after your education.

If you have received unemployment benefits before

If you have received unemployment benefits before, you must generally fulfill an employment requirement. You earn a new benefit entitlement based on your working hours if you have previously received unemployment benefits. This means that to receive unemployment benefits, you must have worked 1,924 hours as a full-time insured or 1,258 hours as a part-time insured within three years.

If you have taken a qualifying education, you can in some cases use your education so that each month of full-time education counts as 160.33 paid hours as a full-time insured and 130 paid hours as a part-time insured. This is called the aggregation principle. To use the aggregation principle, you must:

  • Have been a member of an unemployment insurance fund without interruption for at least 12 months before your education ended.
  • Have had at least one paid hour after your education.
  • Not have chosen to change status to recent graduate. Read more here.
  • Not have received unemployment benefits after your education.

Important to know about income and employment requirements when registering for unemployment

  • Normal employment conditions: Your work must have been performed under normal pay and employment conditions.
  • Public subsidy: Work where the salary is publicly subsidized does not count towards the employment requirement. This means that, for example, jobs in wage subsidies, job rotation or senior jobs do not count when we look at whether you meet the employment requirement.

How much do you get paid in unemployment benefits?

Your unemployment benefit rate depends on whether you are full-time insured, part-time insured or a recent graduate. Read more about the different unemployment benefit rates.

How long can you receive unemployment benefits?

As a general rule, you can receive unemployment benefits for 3,848 hours, equivalent to two years, within a reference period of three years. The reference period is the period during which unemployment benefits or other benefits can be paid.

You use your unemployment benefit period when you receive unemployment benefit, holiday allowance and unemployment benefit:

  • during job-oriented training
  • during the first 14 days of illness
  • Sick pay for up to 6 weeks
  • during activation
  • You also use the unemployment benefit period when you are in quarantine.

Dagpenge is paid monthly

Your unemployment benefit is paid out on the last banking day of the month, provided your unemployment benefit card is submitted on time. You can find the unemployment benefit card and payment calendar on Self Service.

  • If you are fully insured , we pay unemployment benefits for up to 160.33 hours per month. We cannot pay unemployment benefits if the payment is less than 14.8 hours per month.
  • If you are part-time insured, we pay unemployment benefits for up to 130 hours per month. We cannot pay unemployment benefits if the payment is less than 12 hours per month.

Karens

Every four months you get a qualifying day and lose one day of unemployment benefit. Unless you have had more than 148 paid hours as a full-time insured or more than 97 paid hours as a part-time insured in a 4-month period.

Read more about karens.

New graduate and unemployment benefits

If you have been a member of the unemployment fund for at least 1 year, you can receive unemployment benefits from your first day of unemployment. If you've been a member for less than a year or if you join within 14 days of your last exam, you can receive unemployment benefits one month and one day after your education is completed. As a recent graduate, you get a fixed graduate rate. You can get a new rate calculated after six months at the earliest. This requires that you have reported three months of work during this period. 

Read more about unemployment benefits for recent graduates.

Have you exhausted your entitlement to unemployment benefits?

Extend your unemployment benefit

When you become entitled to unemployment benefits, you also get an 'employment account'. This is where the hours you have worked while you have an unemployment benefit entitlement are deposited. Your working hours are automatically converted into a new unemployment benefit right if you meet the employment requirement before your unemployment benefit runs out. If you cannot get a new benefit entitlement, you can extend your benefit entitlement by up to 1,924 hours, equivalent to one year, by exchanging salary hours for unemployment benefit. For every hour you work, you get two hours of unemployment benefit. You have access to your employment account on Jobnet.dk

Example of a situation where you can extend your unemployment benefit entitlement:

If you've been temping for 37 hours, you can choose to exchange the hours for 74 unemployment benefit hours that you can use when your unemployment benefit entitlement ends.

You have the option to be exempt from membership fees.

You can apply to be exempt from paying membership fees to Min A-kasse if you are unemployed, registered with the job center as a "job seeker without benefits" and do not otherwise receive cash benefits, cash assistance or other public benefits.

To apply for a membership fee waiver, you need to fill out a form. You can find the form on Self Service.

The earliest you can be exempt from paying membership fees is from the time we receive your application.

Deductions for pensions

Deductions for pensions - pension offsetting, e.g. in connection with civil servant pensions

Pensions paid on an ongoing basis as part of a previous employment relationship result in deductions from unemployment benefits. The deduction is made by converting the income into working hours at the conversion rate. The conversion rate is DKK 295.54 per hour.

Remember to let us know if your pension changes.

Holiday allowance

Do you want holiday pay?

If you need to apply for holiday allowance, you can fill out the application in Self Service. Read more about holiday allowance.

Are you a Swedish citizen? 

If you are a Swedish citizen

Read about the possibilities of becoming a member of Min A-kasse and what you should pay special attention to.

Benefits abroad

You can get unemployment benefits while looking for a job abroad

If you are unemployed and a member of Min A-kasse, you can look for work in an EEA country with Danish unemployment benefits for up to 3 months. Read more about EEA unemployment benefits.

Become a member of Min A-kasse for only DKK 524 per month.

Join online or by phone at 70123782