Social assistance

Social assistance is a common designation of different types of financial support from the municipality you receive when you are not able to support yourself or your family (spouse and children under the age of 18).

Social assistance is based on 4 rates:

• increased rate
• basic rate
• minimum rate
• rate for people under 30 years old who live at home.

Depending on your situation, you may also receive supplements such as child supplement, single parent supplement, a supplement for single people without children, special youth supplement, temporary adaption supplement and leisure supplement. 

The amount of social assistance depends, among other things, on your age, whether you are married and whether you have child support obligations.

Which rate you can receive also depends on residence and employment requirements. As a general rule, you must have lawfully resided in the Kingdom of Denmark for at least 9 out of the last 10 years, and if you have moved to the Kingdom, you must also meet an employment requirement of 2 years and 6 months of ordinary full-time work within the last 10 years. 

The municipality where you live decides which type of financial support you are entitled to receive.

You need to visit the municipality in person on the first day that you are unemployed in order to apply for social assistance. If you do not attend in person to register with the municipality, your application may be refused.

While it may be advantageous to fill out and submit your application electronically, it will not be registered until you have visited the municipality in person.

The online self-service is in Danish.

In order to qualify for benefits as an EU citizen, you must be a citizen of an EU/EEA Member State and have right of residence under Community rules.

If you are married or cohabiting and receive the increased rate, a housing benefit ceiling applies. 

If you have received social assistance for at least 12 of the last 18 months, you are entitled to support for subsidised medicine. If you have children under 18, you are also entitled to support for their subsidised medicine from the day you become entitled to social assistance. 

If you have children, you may also be entitled to a leisure supplement for leisure and cultural activities. 

If you disagree with the municipality's decision on social assistance or related offers, you must complain to the municipality within 4 weeks of receiving the decision. The municipality must then reconsider the case. 

If the municipality upholds the decision, your complaint is forwarded to Ankestyrelsen. 

• Law amending the Law on active employment promotion, inter alia (in Danish)
• Law amending the Law on active social policy, inter alia (in Danish)
• Law on housing benefits (in Danish)
• Law on active social policy (in Danish)
• Guidelines on rates of sickness benefits, maternity benefits, social assistance, inter alia (in Danish)

• Jobnet.dk – current vacancies in Denmark (in Danish)
• The Danish Agency for Labour Market and Recruitment