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WORKING IN DENMARK

Denmark announces boosted unemployment benefits for retraining

The coming draft 2024 budget is to offer some people who receive job insurance, ‘dagpenge’, 110 percent of the regular benefit rate by training in a sector where there is a labour shortage.

Published: 28 August 2023 17:12 CEST
Denmark announces boosted unemployment benefits for retraining
Illustration file photo: The government wants to give additional incentives for retraining to unemployed over-30s. Photo: Celina Dahl/Ritzau Scanpix

The option to receive more money from Denmark’s unemployment insurance dagpenge system, by taking a professional qualification (erhvervsuddannelse) within a sector where labour is in short supply, could be made permanent next year.

The draft 2024 budget, which will be presented this week, will make a current, temporary back-to-work scheme permanent, the Ministry of Employment said in a statement on Monday.

The cost of the proposal to the state will be around 230 million kroner next year and 300 kroner per year thereafter, the ministry said.

A temporary version of the scheme is already in place, having been reintroduced for the second half of 2023 based on an earlier version from 2020. It allows people who are receiving dagpenge unemployment insurance to receive 110 percent of the monthly payment to which they are already entitled, by enrolling on and attending a course at a professional college within a sector approved for the scheme.

People over the age of 30 who have no qualifications, or whose qualifications are obsolete, are eligible for the scheme.

The arrangement will continue permanently from 2024, the government proposes.

What is dagpenge? 

If you become unemployed in Denmark you can be eligible for unemployment benefits comprising up to 90 percent of your previous salary.

Unemployment benefits, known as dagpenge, come from membership of a private association known as an A-kasse, short for arbejdsløshedskasse, and don’t automatically apply if you lose your job. You have to fulfil some requirements first in order to be eligible.

People who work in Denmark for foreign companies and foreign people living in Denmark can be eligible for dagpenge if they are A-kasse members and fulfil requirements specific to their situations.

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Results from the temporary scheme suggest that it is successful in promoting enrolments to courses in areas where there is a work shortage, according to the ministry.

Around 2,800 people started a professional college course on the 110 percent dagpenge rate between August 1st 2020 and December 31st 2022, ministry figures state.

Typical sectors with intakes from the scheme are social care, administration, machine operation, and business-to-business.

“We need more trained people so we can achieve our ambition of better welfare and green transition. That’s we it will be good to make this scheme permanent,” Employment Minister Ane Halsboe-Jørgensen said in a statement.

“I’m convinced it will lead to more unemployed taking a professional course,” she said.

“Finances are naturally important to individuals and over-30s typically have higher recurring costs from their homes and families. With this scheme we are helping more people to go in the direction of trained work and in the end, putting more staff in care homes and more hands at industrial workplaces around the country,” she said.

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POLITICS

ANALYSIS: Is left-wing party’s EU election win good news for foreigners in Denmark?   

Denmark’s EU election returned a dream result for the Socialist People’s Party (SF), a centre-left opposition party. Could it have any long-term impact for foreigners who live in Denmark?

Published: 11 June 2024 18:58 CEST
ANALYSIS: Is left-wing party’s EU election win good news for foreigners in Denmark?   

What happened in the election? 

Sunday’s EU elections can be considered a huge win for the Socialist People’s Party (SF).

The party reeived 17.4 percent of the vote, up 4.2 points from 2019, making it the largest Danish party in the EU parliament and giving it 3 of Denmark’s 15 seats.

It also means SF now has as many EU parliament seats as the goverining Social Democrats, who lost 5.9 points to end on 15.6 percent, with their mandate allocation staying at 3.

The two parties are closely aligned in domestic Danish politics, despite SF currently being in opposition and the Social Democrats being the senior partner in a tripartite coalition with the centre-right Liberals (Venstre) and centrist Moderates.

Like the Social Democrats, the Liberals also had a damaging evening. The party lost 8.8 points and is now Denmark’s third-largest in the EU on 14.7 percent and 2 seats – 2 fewer than it had in 2019. However, they remain the largest Danish right-wing party in the EU by some distance, seeing off any challenge from the libertarian Liberal Alliance (LA) along with the far right. 

The Moderates, meanwhile, took a single seat in the EU parliament for their lead candidate Stine Bosse with a 5.9 percent share in their first EU election.

READ ALSO: Four key takeaways from the EU elections in Denmark

What is the potential impact on domestic politics? 

Speaking on election night, SF leader Pia Olsen Dyhr said the party’s excellent result could be used as a “catalyst” for a new political landscape in Denmark.

The EU election result can fuel further gains for SF when the next general election comes around, Dyhr said in the midst of her party’s celebrations.

“There’s an alternative to this government. There’s an alternative that wants [more] welfare and [to do more for] the climate and we are willing to deliver this in the EU parliament,” she told broadcaster DR.

“It gives us a tailwind and enthusiasm for the party and it means people will be even more ready for local elections next year and the general election further ahead,” she said.

During a press briefing on Monday, chief political analyst at Think Tank Europe Christine Nissen said that the resounding result for SF could indeed have implications for future national elections.

“We won’t see any direct results or change in government right away but there’s no doubt that the power balances are reflected in such a result as yesterday because it was so significant,” Nissen said, highlighting in particular the poor outcome for the Social Democrats.

“I think that looking towards the next national election, the Social Democrats might well have a very strong party on the left. And this will also matter,” she said.

During Prime Minister Frederiksen’s first term between 2019 and 2022, the Social Democrats ruled as a minority government propped up by parties to its left – including SF.

Theoretically, this structure or a similar one could return but with a stronger and more influential SF, if that party can transfer its European vote return to a national one. Neither the Social Democrats nor SF have given any hint of this happening, it should be noted.

Would a more influential SF change anything for foreigners?

The answer to this question is speculative, but SF and Social Democrats are generally allies. SF says it favours a “sensible” approach to immigration and in practice agrees with the Social Democrats more often than not.

SF has, occasionally, set out areas on which it does not agree with Social Democratic policies.

This has included accepting quota refugees from the UN – a question on which the Social Democrats eventually changed stance and agreed with SF.

The smaller party has also advocated more accommodating rules for family reunification of refugees, and opposed some controversial policies such as the “Jewellery Law” which was supported by the Social Democrats (but proposed by the Liberals).

On broad issues such as citizenship and residency permits, SF has not often broken with the Social Democrats during Frederiksen’s time in office – so much so, that the party has been criticised by its own youth wing for taking too tough a line on immigration.

While other left-wing parties like the Red-Green Alliance and Social Liberals, for example, want to change citizenship rules to better accommodate Danish-born non-citizens, SF is yet to explicitly support this.

On work permits, the party sometimes votes against rule adjustments that make it easier to hire from abroad (as can be seen here), ostensibly because one of its core identities is as a workers’ party which protects Danish labour. 

It is therefore far from certain, if SF had many more seats in parliament than it does today, that the party would pursue a significantly changed approach on immigration and integration.

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