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LIVING IN DENMARK

Sick leave, citizenship for children and energy providers: Essential articles for life in Denmark

Your rights to take sick leave, how homeowners might be able to cash in on high interest rates, the school system, citizenship rights for Danish-born children, how to use parental leave, and how to decide on an energy provider... here are six must-reads from The Local about life in Denmark.

Published: 3 January 2023 13:20 CET
Updated: 8 January 2023 08:36 CET
Sick leave, citizenship for children and energy providers: Essential articles for life in Denmark
Children playing at a Danish kindergarten. File photo: Signe Goldmann/Ritzau Scanpix

If you are unwell and unable to work, Danish employment law allows you to take sick leave if you are in employment, self-employed or receiving social welfare credit.

Mental health conditions such as depression or stress are treated on equal footing with injuries and physical illnesses.

Taking sick leave under the Danish employment provisions might seem difficult to grasp, especially if you are a foreigner in Denmark and used to having different rules or practices in your home country. But if you are legitimately ill, then you are entitled and indeed expected to take sick leave in these situations.

Denmark’s unique borrowing system enabled thousands of people to restructure their mortgages in 2022. High interest rates caused a drop in the market value of covered bonds and in some cases homeowners have been able to cash in.

High interest rates are still with us in 2023, which means the possible benefits are too.

We explain how it all works and how you can potentially pay off a sum of your mortgage.

Education is compulsory in Denmark for everyone between the ages of six or seven and 16. But where you are educated is the choice of the parent, with options of private, state-run or ‘free’ schools.

Most children in Denmark attend state-run schools, which are free. These are called folkeskole and gymnasium. 

Other options include the private ‘free schools’ or friskoler, which cost fees for tuition, although the fees are subsidised meaning they might seem cheap compared to what foreign residents are used to from other countries.

Denmark also has the unique efterskole and højskole, boarding schools where teenagers, young people and adults can attend for short or extended periods to specialise in particular subjects.

Unlike in other countries such as the United States, people born in Denmark do not automatically gain Danish citizenship, so certain criteria apply to children born in Denmark to foreign parents.

Denmark allows dual citizenship, however, meaning it is possible for foreign residents including children to be a dual national, if their country of origin also permits dual citizenship.

In 2022, Denmark’s parliament rubber-stamped a new law to reform parental leave rules by guaranteeing each parent 11 weeks at home with their newborn child.

The new law means that each parent gets 11 weeks of non-transferable parental leave after their child is born.

One parent cannot transfer any of the ‘earmarked’ leave to the other, meaning if they do not use the full 11 weeks, they eventually lapse.

Energy price fluctuations may mean it might be worth switching to a different electricity plan. How do you go about this?

Electricity providers offer both fixed-rate (fastpris) and variable (variabel) plans. Variable plans allow consumers to take advantage of lower prices at off peak times, such as at night.

The rate you are charged can change by the hour and can be around five times lower at its lowest than when it peaks. If the market price gets very high, though, your hourly rate will go up correspondingly.

So how do you check your plan and decide whether it would benefit you to change?

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RENTING IN DENMARK

How Denmark’s international students fall into the trap of CPR address fraud

An increasing number of foreign students in Copenhagen have resorted to the so-called ‘sale’ of fraudulent address schemes in order to get a Danish personal registration (CPR) number.

Published: 25 July 2024 16:12 CEST
How Denmark’s international students fall into the trap of CPR address fraud

When Lavanya* returned to the room that she rented in her landlord’s apartment in Brønshøj on the outskirts of Copenhagen, something felt odd.

Her personal belongings were not organised in the way she had left them.

It was not the first time Lavanya’s landlord had apparently been in her room – or otherwise made unusual demands – since she arrived from Bangladesh to study at the University of Southern Denmark in 2021.

In addition to the intrusions in her room, Lavanya was also instructed to stay in the room or pretend to be “a friend” when, for example, a midwife visited after the landlord’s wife gave birth.

That’s because her landlord could or would not formally register Lavanya as a tenant — meaning she had to create false pretences for being in the apartment.

What could the international student do? Who could she complain to? As an undeclared tenant, whose landlord did not want to register her with Danish authorities, her options were slim.

Lavanya was however registered with Copenhagen authorities, just at a different address.

Whilst her undeclared rented room was located in Brønshøj, she was officially registered at an address in Østerbro. The reason?  The need to obtain an Danish personal registration (CPR) number.

A CPR number – the Danish equivalent of a social security number – is needed to access the Danish healthcare system, open a bank account, get a mobile phone plan, attend Danish language classes, and use the MobilePay payment app.

Crucially, it is also needed for tax registration and to receive a salary, so international students in Denmark need it so they have a right to work.

READ ALSO: What are the rules on summer jobs for international students in Denmark?

But the lack of available housing in Copenhagen makes getting one difficult for many.

The CPR number is tied to the address you legally live at. Without securing a place to stay, you can’t apply for a CPR number. Without it, you are not allowed to work legally in Denmark, which is crucial for many incoming South Asian students looking to finance their stay to complete their university degrees.

“Many new arrivals don’t understand the importance of a CPR number because we don’t have this concept in our country,” said Saiful Azim, a Bangladeshi national working as a researcher at the University of Copenhagen.

Navigating solo into the Danish bureaucratic jungle as a newcomer to Denmark in 2017, Azim initially dedicated time to guiding and sharing advice to help incoming Bangladeshi students via Facebook groups.

“Around 2021, many new students arrived, and the topics changed to selling and buying CPR addresses. It became annoying. Despite understanding that it’s illegal, people were desperate due to the housing crisis and stopped caring. I tried to convince them, made several posts, but they didn’t appreciate them and argued against me. I got fed up and left,” he said.

READ ALSO:

A check of the Facebook group “Bangladeshi Student Association in Denmark” shows that various profiles, often anonymously or behind a fake account, offer their own addresses as a place to register students for a monthly fee.

Students pay for this to gain access to a CPR number while living at another unregistered address, which for various reasons won’t be accepted as a legal residence to stay at by a municipality.

The Facebook posts often mention “CPR for sale,” meaning that an address for CPR registration is available for a fee. 

“Selling CPR addresses is unfortunately common among South Asians, especially Bangladeshis and Nepalese,” Azim said, adding that many providing and buying the service are not aware it’s illegal.

As a non-EU national, Lavanya was liable for tuition fees of some 32,600 kroner per semester. As the housing crisis marched on, apartments requiring a deposit of three months’ rent in advance were not an option for her without a job.

READ ALSO: Renting in Denmark: Four things worth knowing about your deposit

She settled on a room in her landlord’s shared apartment in Brønshøj priced at 2,200 kroner per month. She brought with her enough money to cover rent, groceries and transport costs for three months. It was not until Lavanya was about to board the flight to Denmark that her soon-to-be landlord said she had to find an alternative address for CPR registration.

There can be many reasons a landlord might not want to register tenants legally: it can affect social welfare eligibility, they might not want to pay taxes or they may be renting out to more than one person, which can also affect welfare eligibility. In some cases, properties are only approved for business, rather than residential use.

“My CPR cost 600 kroner,” Lavanya said.

“When I had post to pick up, I had to make the journey to Østerbro. It was half an hour by train and bus. I had classes and work, and he [the person who she paid for CPR registration in Østerbro, ed.] also had work, so it was time-consuming and sometimes impossible to coordinate,” she said.

According to the CPR register office, you can’t legally assign an address to the CPR registry if you don’t genuinely live there. A housing confirmation for CPR registration provided by the city of Copenhagen cites the CPR law’s paragraph 57, section 1, subsection 5, stating that a landlord providing false information is liable to a fine.

A spokesperson for Copenhagen Police told The Local that they were not aware of the illegal scheme to sell addresses for a CPR number and they were unclear about whether the law says the landlord and/or tenant is to blame and what they can be charged under. 

Bjarke Dalsgaard Madsen, a senior police inspector with the economic crime department in Copenhagen, said that the police would look into the issue if a resident reports it.

“It’s something you could feel outraged about, because it seems to be taking advantage of others’ vulnerable position,” he said.

Are you an international student in Copenhagen? Have you paid for a CPR address registration? If so, we’d like to hear about your experiences. Get in touch here.

*Lavanya is not her real name. She agreed to contribute to the article anonymously and is no longer living in Denmark. The authors are aware of her real identity.

Additional reporting by Benjamin Nordtømme, Alexander Maxia (Nordljud), Maya Lagerholm (spionen.se), Jazz Munteanu (spionen.se). This article was developed thanks to a collaboration between Nordljud and Spionen.se with the support of Journalismfund Europe.

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