There are an overwhelming number of rules to deal with when you have to register as unemployed, perhaps for the first time. To give you an overview and pointers to follow, here are some of the rules you need to know and follow as an unemployed person.
We want you to move on to a new job as quickly as possible. That's why helping you while you're unemployed is our most important task.
You are of course welcome to contact us if you need our help or are in doubt about anything. We wish you the best of luck with your job search.
Remember to register as unemployed on the first day you are out of work. You do this by going to Jobnet.dk and registering your status as an unemployed unemployment benefit recipient. If you prefer to come in person, the job center also has a physical office in the municipality where you live. You can find your local job center on this website
You must also re-register on Jobnet.dk on the first day you are healthy and wish to receive unemployment benefits. This means that you will be registered as unemployed again. When you report sick on Jobnet.dk, you will be deregistered. Remember to report sick on the first day of illness, as this may affect your right to unemployment benefits.
If you start working full-time or for other reasons no longer need to receive unemployment benefits, you must remember to deregister yourself on Jobnet.dk.
You will be deregistered if, for example, you do not book an interview within a given deadline. You can, of course, sign up again if you want to continue receiving unemployment benefits.
An unemployment insurance fund is a private association established for the purpose of insuring members against unemployment. The unemployment insurance funds are recognized by the state and are authorized by law to administer the unemployment benefit rules that are adopted by the Danish Parliament. The unemployment insurance funds pay out unemployment benefits, early retirement and vacation benefits on behalf of the state.
As a member of Min A-kasse, you have access to Self Service and your personal digital post office via the website. From here you can send information and documents and receive messages and letters from us.
For security reasons, we communicate with you digitally. This is always done via Self Service. You log in with MyID. You are obliged to check your digital mailbox daily when you are unemployed.
Of course, you are always welcome to call us or visit us at one of our physical offices. But we recommend that you learn how to use Self Service from the start. It makes case handling better, faster and more secure for both you and us.
To receive unemployment benefits, you must register with Jobnet.dk on your first day of unemployment.
You must then fill out and send us a "Declaration of unemployment". You can find the unemployment declaration in Self-service. We will then immediately start investigating whether you meet the conditions for receiving unemployment benefits. If we need more information from you during the processing, we will notify you via Self Service. The information we sometimes need may be your resignation, detailed explanations or other documents.
We collect information about your income from payslips and annual statements, as well as your deduction percentage and your monthly deduction from SKAT. Once we have processed your declaration of unemployment, we will write to you via Self Service. We always make written decisions about your rights and conditions for payment etc. This applies, for example, if you lose your rights, have to repay unemployment benefits, if you are quarantined because you have resigned, or if you have not attended an offer at the job center.
If you work reduced hours, as an employee or self-employed, you can receive supplementary unemployment benefits for 30 weeks.
The hours you work must be deducted from your unemployment benefits. You must state the work on your unemployment benefit cards.
Even if you're working reduced hours, you still need to be actively looking for work, fill out the Job Log and be available.
You can quit your part-time job as an employee when the right to supplementary unemployment benefits is exhausted after 30 weeks without being quarantined, even if you have resigned yourself.
If you are self-employed, you must decide whether you want to go without unemployment benefits or stop being self-employed after 30 weeks.
It is possible to extend the right to supplementary unemployment benefits for up to 12 weeks.
You can also earn a brand new entitlement to supplementary unemployment benefits for 30 weeks.
If you are an employee subject to a notice period, you can only receive supplementary unemployment benefits if you are free to arrange your working hours or if your employer signs a release certificate.
The release certificate means that the employer agrees that you can resign without notice if you get a full-time job.
There is a five-week deadline to obtain the release certificate.
The deadline runs from the time you start work until the release certificate must be received by the unemployment insurance fund.
If we do not receive the release certificate until after the deadline, you will lose the right to supplementary unemployment benefit from the time you started working until the release certificate was received.
To receive unemployment benefits, it is important that you remember to submit your unemployment benefit card via Self Service every month.
Unemployment benefits are paid in arrears for each calendar month. You can sign up for a service where you will automatically be notified each month when it is time to fill out and submit the unemployment benefit card. You must remember to submit the benefit card no later than one month + 10 days after the month covered by the benefit card. Otherwise you risk losing your unemployment benefits.
The information you must remember to provide is stated in the instructions for the unemployment benefit card. We recommend that you always read the instructions before you send the benefit card to us. You can find the instructions in Self Service.
As an unemployed person, you have an absolute obligation to inform us of anything that may affect your rights.
For example, you must always inform us if you have had income, worked, taken vacation, been sick, or if there have been other circumstances that may affect your entitlement to unemployment benefits.
The rule of thumb is that you can only receive unemployment benefits for days/hours where you have been able to work but have not had a job.
Your municipality of residence runs your local job center. Put simply, the job centers are tasked with helping the unemployed find jobs. And to help companies find new employees.
The job centers exchange information with the unemployment funds - this also applies to your Joblog, for example.
The job centers have the website Jobnet.dk, which is an online platform for job seekers and employers throughout the country.
On Jobnet.dk you will find a number of facilities you need when you are unemployed. Here you can create a CV, book appointments with the job center, stay informed about appointments and activities.
The job centers follow the movements in the labor market and, together with the regions, help create a statistical overview of the employment situation in Denmark.
All unemployed people will have an individual contact process organized.
The contact process is based on the individual's situation and consists of a series of job search interviews where you receive ongoing help and sparring, and where the unemployment fund and job center follow up on your job search.
During the first three months of unemployment, you must attend monthly job interviews at the unemployment fund and then at the job center.
You are obliged to attend and book interviews on Jobnet.dk.
The job center also arranges specific jobs and refers you to jobs for which you have the skills if an employer is currently looking for an employee.
A referred job is a job from the job center that you are obliged to accept or apply for on an equal footing with other unemployed people.
The job center is responsible for "My Plan", which is a plan for your further course as a job seeker that is initiated if unemployment drags on.
Your CV should include information about your educational background, work experience and other information that is relevant to future employers.
You must provide contact details so that employers or the job center can contact you.
We invite you to a personal interview about your CV within the first two weeks of your unemployment.
It is important that you have created your CV on Jobnet.dk before you come to your interview with the unemployment fund. You must keep your CV on Jobnet.dk updated while you are unemployed.
At the interview, we need to approve that your CV contains the necessary information and that it is visible to employers and the job center.
We also agree on 'Job Search Requirements' and create 'My Plan', which you can read more about in a later section.
The agreement sets the framework for how your job search should be conducted, which professional area your job search should focus on, and the geographical scope of your job search.
You must be looking for permanent full-time work (as part-time/full-time insured).
You should primarily apply for advertised positions and you should apply for them in the way that is customary in your field.
Being an active job seeker throughout your unemployment is part of your availability obligation.
You retain the right to unemployment benefits as long as you comply with the availability rules. Following the agreement in "Job search requirements" and registering your job search in the job log every week are closely related to availability. It is important to us that you are continuously and actively looking for work.
That's why it's important that you show initiative to get to work.
The information in your digital Joblog gives us and the job center an insight into how your job search is working. Your job search should be as effective, serious and targeted as possible. You register your job search in the Joblog on a weekly basis.
Every week, you must remember to apply for a sufficient number of positions in relation to the supply of vacancies within the agreed job target. You should also apply for positions that you can fill in other professional areas if there are not enough positions to apply for in your primary professional area.
If you are insured full-time, you must look for permanent work of 37 hours per week. If you are insured part-time, you must look for a job for 30 hours per week.
Every month you need to upload examples of your actual applications in the Joblog, which you can find on Jobnet.dk or in Self Service.
If you do not meet the conditions and cannot be considered available, you lose your right to unemployment benefits.
In addition to being a job seeker, there are other basic duties. These include, among other things, that you must;
In general, it is important to keep in touch with both the job center and Min A-kasse by attending interviews and activities, as well as informing about holidays and illness during your unemployment period.
"My Plan" is tailored to your job goal and contains an overview of the actions and opportunities that the job center can take to improve or support your chances of getting a job.
The Jobcenter will initiate "My Plan" if a need for specific offers arises during your unemployment. You are obliged to participate in the offers that are initiated in "Min Plan".
Of course, the Jobcenter must notify you before the offer begins. It is therefore also the Jobcenter that makes the final decision on the individual offer. The Jobcenter will send the decision to your e-Boks.
Some job centers make agreements with educational institutions or companies to solve tasks. Such a third party is called a 'second actor'.
The second party acts as the job center would have done if they had done the task themselves.
The unemployment benefit system in Denmark has more than 100 years of history behind it.
It has changed over time, but from the beginning it has been built in the spirit that when you promise that your information is correct, we act in the same spirit and pay out unemployment benefits on that basis.
If it later turns out that your information was incorrect, and if you have been wrongly paid unemployment benefits, we will claim the money back.
We always need to assess the cause of the unjustified payment of unemployment benefits.
If the cause is an accidental error or carelessness on your part, you will receive a short-term quarantine.
If it turns out that you have knowingly provided the unemployment fund with incorrect information, you will receive a serious quarantine, which can be up to 962 hours. In addition, we will have to report it to the police.
Attendance is mandatory for interviews and activities at the job center, unemployment fund and other actors.
If you fail to show up for an interview or an agreed activity, it will generally cost you unemployment benefits.
If you are legally entitled to not attend an interview or activity and you have canceled in advance, this will of course not affect the payment of unemployment benefits.
If you quit a job, refuse referrals and offers from the job center, or if you don't show up for an offer, you are considered 'self-induced unemployment'.
If you are unemployed due to your own fault, you will be quarantined for three weeks. A three-week quarantine means that you lose unemployment benefits for three weeks.
If a situation arises where there is doubt about your entitlement to unemployment benefits, it is always best to work with us to resolve the issue. If you don't work with us, the problem won't go away - it will only risk getting worse.
It is possible to receive unemployment benefits while participating in up to six weeks of job-oriented training.
Before you can apply for up to six weeks of job-oriented training, you must have received unemployment benefits for five weeks. Furthermore, the training must be completed before you have been unemployed for six / nine months. To be eligible for six weeks of job-oriented training, you must not already be too highly educated. These are practically oriented courses and continuing education at AMU level or single subjects at vocational academy level.
Remember to contact the job center and the educational institution in good time before the training begins.
On unemployment benefits you also have the opportunity to participate in other forms of education - e.g. at primary school level, evening classes in educational associations, single upper secondary school courses under 20 hours per week, and certain programs that do not entitle you to SU.
Remember to let us know if you want to participate in training. This requires the approval of the unemployment fund, and it is also important that you can continue to be fully available to the labor market and actively seeking work.
Min A-kasse offers collaborations with external experts
As a member of Min A-kasse, you have the opportunity to attend workshops and lectures with both internal and external experts who will give you advice and guidance on how to get a job faster. Keep an eye on our website to find out more about our upcoming workshops and talks. We look forward to inspiring you and helping you towards your next job.
Here you'll get tips and guidance for CVs and cover letters, learn about the recruitment process, job interviews, practice using LinkedIn and get motivated for new paths in your job search.
We like to invite external speakers to inform about the job market and hear what they emphasize when recruiting, how they see current trends on social media, etc.
Our members are excited about this great opportunity to get updated on what's going on in general, to network, get sparring on the job market and individually on your own job search.
Min A-kasse also offers collaboration with experts who provide great tools and know a lot about how and where to find your next job.
Contact us or check out our website for more information about workshops and other activities.
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Read more about CV interview and unemployment benefits on our website.