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).

The following benefits are included in social assistance:

• cash benefits
• educational assistance
• self-sufficiency and return benefit
• transition benefit.

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

The municipality where you live will decide which financial support you will receive when you are qualified to receive the support. 

You need to visit the job centre 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 job centre, 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 job centre 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.

The type of social assistance you receive is called cash benefits (in Danish: kontanthjælp).

You must meet the following conditions to be eligible:

• You are under 30 years old.
• You have a vocational qualification.
• You have experienced a social incidence such as illness, unemployment or the end of cohabitation. This social incidence has left you unable to adequately provide for yourself or your family, and you are not supported by others.
• Your need for support cannot be met by other benefits, such as unemployment benefits or a pension.

Your first interview with the municipality

No later than 1 week after you first approach the municipality for help, you will be called to your first interview, at which the job centre will assess whether you are job-ready or activity-ready.

If the job centre assesses that you will be able to work within a short period of time, you are deemed job-ready and must be available for the labour market. If the job centre assesses that you will not be able to work within a short period of time, you are deemed activity-ready.

If you are under the age of 30 and do not have a vocational qualification, the municipality will first assess whether you are ready to begin education or training, or whether you need special effort.

The type of social assistance you receive is called educational assistance (in Danish: uddannelseshjælp).

You must meet the following conditions to be eligible:

• You are under 30 years old.
• You do not have a vocational qualification.
• You have experienced a social incidence such as illness, unemployment or the end of cohabitation. This social incidence has left you unable to adequately provide for yourself or your family, and you are not supported by others
• Your need for support cannot be met by other benefits, such as unemployment benefits or a pension.

Your first interviews with the municipality

No later than 1 week after you first approach to the municipality for help, you will be called to the first of at least 4 interviews, at which the municipality will assess whether:

• you are clearly training-ready, i.e. you can begin training straight away and complete it
• you are training-ready, i.e. you are ready to begin training within around 1 year and to complete this training
• you are activity-ready, i.e. you cannot begin training within around 1 year and complete this training.

Right from the first interview, the municipality can assess you as clearly training-ready. In exceptional cases, the municipality can also assess you as activity-ready. In all other cases, the municipality can only assess you as either training-ready or activity-ready after 3 months.

The type of social assistance you receive is called cash benefits (in Danish: kontanthjælp).

You must meet the following conditions to be eligible:

• You are at least 30 years old.
• You have experienced a social incidence such as illness, unemployment or the end of cohabitation. This social incidence has left you unable to adequately provide for yourself or your family, and you are not supported by others.
• Your need for support cannot be met by other benefits, such as unemployment benefits or a pension.

Your first interview with the municipality

No later than 1 week after you first approach to the municipality for help, you will be called to your first interview, at which the job centre will assess whether you are job-ready or activity-ready.

If the job centre assesses that you will be able to work within a short period of time, you are deemed job-ready and must be available for the labour market. If the job centre assesses that you will not be able to work within a short period of time, you are deemed activity-ready.

In order to be able to continue to receive full social assistance, the 225-hour rule requires that you must be employed for at least 225 hours of ordinary and unsupported work within the last 12 calendar months, if you have received benefits for the total period of 1 year within the last 3 years.

For all recipients of social assistance, there is a cap on the total amount of special help for high housing costs ('særlig støtte') and housing benefit ('boligstøtte') that you are entitled to receive. Recipients of social assistance who live in certain special housing due to disability are exempt from the cap.

Your social assistance will not be reduced as a result of the cap, but you may be paid less in housing supplement and housing benefits.

If you do not receive housing benefits, and there is no one in your household who receives housing benefits, the cap will not affect the amount you can receive each month.

How much you can receive in total benefits depends on your age, whether you are a household provider, and whether you are married/cohabiting or single. The amount also depends on the amount of social assistance you receive.

The municipality decides how much you can receive in total per month. Udbetaling Danmark will be informed by the municipality on how much you are entitled to receive in total, and will then calculate what you can be paid in special help for high housing costs and/or housing benefits.

• Calculate what the cap on social assistance and housing allowance might mean for you

You must submit your complaint to the municipality within 4 weeks if you do not agree with:

• your classification in terms of the cap on social assistance and housing rates
• the awarding of special help for high housing costs
• decisions regarding your cohabitation status in relation to your rate classification
• decisions about the collection of overpayments of special help for high housing costs. 

You must submit your complaint to Udbetaling Danmark within 4 weeks if you do not agree with:

• the awarding of housing benefits
• decisions about a reduction in payments of special help for high housing costs and/or housing benefits
• decisions about the collection of overpayments of housing benefits.

• 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)
• 2023 Guidelines on rates, inter alia (in Danish)
• 2023 Guidelines on rates of sickness benefits, maternity benefits, social assistance, inter alia (in Danish)

• Jobnet.dk in English
• The Danish Agency for Labour Market and Recruitment