Financial support from the municipality

If you are in financial difficulties, you can apply to the municipality for financial support for a number of expenses (help in special instances).

For example, you can apply for help for:

• reasonable unforeseeable expenses if your circumstances have changed
• short-term support towards paying your rent if threatened with eviction because you are in arrears
• healthcare, medicine, dental treatment or similar, for which there is no provision under other legislation. Such treatment must be necessary and justified on health grounds
• all forms of dental care if you are receiving benefits equivalent to the level of social assistance under the Active Social Policy Act
• moving costs, such as for a deposit, moving your belongings and travel expenses. If you receive help for paying a deposit, it will have to be repaid later. If moving to another municipality, apply for help there
• expenses related to visiting children who do not live with you.

This applies to anyone on a low income, except if you are receiving a state or invalidity pension under the old provisions. You can apply for a personal or health-related supplement instead.

You cannot usually get help for expenses you have incurred before applying to the municipality for support. The municipality considers each application on its own merits, and looks in particular at:

• your income and outgoings, savings and assets
• your family circumstances
• your chances of having been able to foresee the extra expense
• the type of extra expense
• whether the extra expense falls within the scope of other legislation.

If you are married, your spouse’s circumstances will also be taken into account when assessing your situation.

Your application must include details of:

• what you are applying for
• your reasons for applying
• your insurance cover
• your net assets, including those of your spouse if you are married
• your income, including that of your spouse if you are married
• your outgoings, including those of your spouse if you are married.

Use the municipality’s application form and attach your supporting documents.

Please note that the self-service instructions are in Danish. If you need help, contact your municipality’s Citizen Service (remember to book an appointment) or ask someone who speaks Danish to help you.

You can apply to the municipality for financial support for various expenses if you are in financial difficulties. Use the municipality’s application form and attach the relevant documents.

The municipality can demand repayment of help you have received if you were not entitled to it. Support provided for one-off costs is tax-exempt.

The municipality can demand repayment of help you have received in some particular cases. The municipality must inform you that the money you are receiving will have to be paid back and on what grounds, at the latest by the time it pays you the support applied for. The municipality can also demand repayment if you have been paid twice.

Special help is available to anyone who has experienced a change in their circumstances (for example, becoming unemployed) and who has high housing costs and/or supports children.

You can be granted special help for high housing costs or for supporting a large family if you fulfil the applicable conditions for receiving social assistance. However, this is not contingent on you actually receiving social assistance. Special assistance can therefore be granted separately or in connection with the payment of social assistance:

• Social assistance

Before the municipality grants any support, they will investigate whether you have the possibility of obtaining reasonable, cheaper housing.

Certain groups are not eligible for special help. If you are for example receiving a resource-enhancement allowance, you will only be able to receive special help by fulfilling the conditions for receiving social assistance. Contact your municipality for more details of your options for special help.

In principle, special help is calculated as the difference between what you could be expected to be able to pay in housing costs (known as the amount limit) and your net housing costs.

If your benefits have been cut due to a sanction, you will receive special help for the amount that would have been paid if your benefits had not been cut.

You are entitled to support for all kinds of dental care, both preventive and actual treatment, if you receive social assistance.

• Social assistance

If you receive a partial pension, you are entitled to help if the pension you receive (including invalidity pension, senior pension or early pension) is equivalent to the level of social assistance.

If you receive a rehabilitation allowance, resource-enhancement allowance or unemployment benefit, you are entitled to help if the benefit you receive is equivalent to the level of social assistance and you fulfil the financial conditions for receiving social assistance.

If you are aged between 18 and 24, you can receive support to cover 100 per cent of‏ dental care expenses exceeding DKK 600 per year (you pay up to DKK 600 yourself) (2024).

You can receive support to cover 100 per cent of your dental care expenses exceeding your own outlay of DKK 600 per year (2024), if you are between the ages of 25 and 29 and receives social assistance at the following levels:

• You receive self-sufficiency and return benefit or transition benefit, but not a Danish supplement.
• You receive educational assistance benefit, but not an activity allowance or parental leave supplements.

If you are over the age of 25 and receive the self-sufficiency and return benefit or transition benefit and Danish supplement, educational assistance benefit and an activity allowance or parental leave supplements, or other benefits according to the law equivalent to the level of cash assistance benefits, you can receive support to cover 65 per cent of dental care expenses that exceed your own outlay of DKK 600 per year (2024).

The municipality must approve the help you receive in advance if the total cost of your treatment exceeds DKK 10,000 (2024). In such instances, the municipality must decide whether the treatment is necessary and medically justified before the treatment can start.

Once the municipality has approved a treatment that costs more than DKK 10,000 (2024), that approval will only apply to that particular treatment, as long as the conditions for receiving it are fulfilled – those conditions are that you receive a benefit equivalent to the level of self-sufficiency and return benefit, transition benefit, educational assistance or cash assistance benefits. However, the municipality must pay out the amount within 2 months of granting approval, even if you no longer belong to the group eligible for the support, for instance because you have found a job. 

Help to cover out-of-pocket expenses

You can also apply for help to cover out-of-pocket expenses. In such instances, the municipality must decide whether the treatment is necessary and medically justified and whether you could afford it yourself. An application for help to cover out-of-pocket expenses must therefore be submitted before treatment starts.

If you do not agree with the municipality’s decision, you must make a complaint to the municipality within 4 weeks. The municipality must then re-assess its decision within 4 weeks of the complaint being received.

If the municipality upholds its decision, it will forward your complaint to the Board of Appeal, which will rule on the decision.

• Active Social Policy Act (in Danish)
• Integration Act (in Danish)
• Legal Certainty Act (in Danish)
• Executive order on special help in accordance with Section 34 of the Active Social Policy Act (in Danish)