Benefits in DK and abroad

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.

See the list of EEA countries

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. 

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)

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.

See the current rates

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.

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.

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.

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 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.