New political agreement gives more responsibility to unemployment funds

The political agreement means that unemployment funds will have more responsibility for unemployed members during the first three months of unemployment.

For some time, there have been political negotiations about rethinking employment efforts. Part of the negotiations has been about whether unemployment insurance funds should take over more responsibility for the unemployed in the first months of unemployment.

An agreement has finally been reached. It means that we in the unemployment funds will have greater responsibility for our unemployed members during the first three months of unemployment. We are very happy about this here at Min A-kasse.

Parts of the agreement will already come into effect from January 1, 2023, including a relaxation of the rules that all interviews must be held physically. In future, only the first meeting with the unemployment insurance fund must be a physical meeting. The other interviews can be held digitally if deemed appropriate.

Here you can read a little more about what the political agreement means for us in the unemployment funds. We will of course follow up with more information for our unemployed members as we get closer to the start of the agreement.

This is the most important thing for us in the unemployment funds:
The agreement gives the unemployment funds a number of new tasks - not least, the unemployment funds will take over the contact process and thus the task of holding interviews for the unemployed in the first three months of their unemployment.

In addition, the number of interviews will be reduced from nine to six in the first six months. Three interviews will be held by the unemployment insurance funds. Three interviews will be held by the job centers after that.

The unemployment insurance funds can, if the unemployed person so wishes, participate in the first interview to be held at the job center after the transition. After the transition from the unemployment fund, the job center must focus on building on the process the unemployed person has had in the unemployment fund. 

Offers can be initiated on the recommendation of the unemployment fund during the three-month period when the unemployed person is in the unemployment fund. If the job center does not follow the recommendation, reasons must be given to the unemployment fund and the unemployed person. 

All interviews - except the first one - can be held digitally. The unemployed person can choose the form, but the unemployment fund and job center can change a chosen digital form to a physical one if needed. This part of the agreement is expected to come into force as early as January 1, 2023. 

All interviews to be held in the unemployment fund are job interviews. This standardizes the types of conversations.

Unemployment funds must help citizens find jobs and assist employers with recruitment and job placement across company types and industries.

This is a permanent, new division of labor between job centers and unemployment insurance funds, which will be evaluated two years after coming into force on January 1, 2024.