Possible to receive dagpenge when looking for job outside of Denmark?

Question

I will graduate in June and I am considering applying for jobs in England and moving back there. Is it possible to receive unemployment money in this situation?

Answer 1

Hi,

In general, to receive unemployment benefits you need to stay in the country which pays your benefits. However, under certain conditions you can go to another EU country to look for work and continue to receive your unemployment benefits from Denmark.

First of all you must be member of an danish A-kasse (see special rule for graduates). Secondly you must be an EU/EEA citizen. Denmark has together with UK - as the only EU countries - a special restriction for Nationals of non-EU/EEA countries on the right to transfer Unemployment benefits.
This means that third country nationals can not export/transfer Danish unemployment benefits while seeking employment in another EEA Country.

However we assume that you are an EU-citizen. If you are citizen in England, you are still considered as an EU-national as long as Brexit is not executed.

Then there is additional requirements for transfering your rights to Unemployment benefits to another country - you can read more about them here.

One of the requirements is that you must be registered at the Jobcenter as unemployed, and you must be entitled to receive unemployment benefits.If you are an EU-citizen graduate in Denmark you will be entitled to Unemployment benefits.

If you meet all the mentioned requirements- then you can have Unemployment benefits for 3 months while seeking job in UK.

If you decide to move permantly to England BEFORE/DURING your jobseeking period of 3 months then you can not get Unemployment benefits from Denmark.

You can only be covered by the unemployment insurance system in one EEA country (EEA countries = EU member countries, Norway, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Switzerland) at a time. And from the time you have moved permantly to England, you will be covered by the Unemployment Insurance system in England.

Hope it helps you. And good luck with your jobseeking.

Best regards,

Anders, www.a-kasser.dk

Comments

Comment by  Cecilia:

Hi Anders,
Thank you so much for all the information and for a quick reply.
I am indeed an EU citizen and will be staying in the UK to find a job. I have a couple more questions:

When you say registered as unemployed in the job centre, do you mean in Denmark? And how would I go about this?

In my case, do you know which A-kassen would allow me to do this (receive money from abroad) ?

Lastly, how do you distinguish between searching for a job in the UK while living there is considered a “permanent” decision to live there? As opposed to temporarily living there. How would you determine that?

Kind regards,
Cecilia

Comment by A-kasser.dk:
Hi again, to answer your additional questions.
1. Yes you must register as Unemployed in the country where you became unemployed. This means in your case at Jobcenter in Denmark. Actually this is done online though the website jobnet.dk. And you also have to
tell your A-kasse that you are unemployed, and finally also that you want to go to UK and search for job.
And when you arrive in England you must register as a jobseeker with the UK employment services.
You can find more details about all this in our article here: https://a-kasser.dk/transferring-unemployment-benefits.html

2. Your rights to have Unemployment benefits also abroad (for 3 months) is something which is stated in the legislation, so all A-kasser in Denmark should have the same practise concerning this.
However we can tell you that some A-kasser get fewer complaints from unemployed members than others do. One of the A-kasser that members seem to be most satisfied about is "Min A-kasse" or "CA A-kasse". These two A-kasser are open for everybody. As long as you are still student it will be free of charge to be member.

3. This last question is more difficult for us to answer, because we are not an A-kasse ourselves, so we dont know all the rules in detail. This is something you should ask your A-kasse about. However It is our perception, according to the principle in the EU-law about "free movement of labour" that there will not be a demand for still having adress in Denmark, but on the other hand if you find home in England and move in permanently, there could be problems.
The best would be to find a temporary address in England to stay during your job-seeking period.
Be aware that this right to transfer benefits is intended as a help for danes/peole living in DK wanting to have better chance for finding job, by looking in other EU-countries. It is NOT intended for people who already have decided to move to another country - but it is well-known in Denmark that many foreign students like you (fully legal) take benefits with them to their homecountry/other EU-country.
But the purpose of the rule - if you dont find job in the other EU-country - you (normally) are supposed to come back to Denmark.
But you should ask Jobcenter or A-kasse about this to be sure.

Best regards,
Anders, www.a-kasser.dk

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Comment by Cecilia:

Hi Anders,
Thank you so much for your help. In my case, I would be staying at a temporary address in England and searching for jobs both in Denmark and in the UK. And I will still have a CPR registration in Denmark with the hopes of finding a job there or in the UK.

Do each A-kasser offer this possibility of searching from an EU country or is it specific to  certain ones? Maybe I should ask the Min A-kasse directly for example.

And should I register to an A-kasser before I become unemployed?

Thanks again!
Best regards,
Cecilia

Comment by A-kasser.dk:
Hi,

first of all we want to tell you that - as a consequence of your question number three in your previous comment, we have contactet "Styrelsen for International Rekruttering og Integration (SIRI)" (A government department under the Danish government, http://uim.dk/siri) to find out if there is any requirement for connection to Denmark during the 3 months jobseeking in another EU-country, in order to receive unemployment benefits .
We have to be patient regarding answer from them, but as soon as we have it we will inform you and also update this page.

However It is our clear perception that you will not have a problem getting unemployment benefits.

All 24 A-kasser in Denmark must pay you 3 months of unemployment benefits - it is stated in the public Law and also in the EU-legislation - so in princip you could choose any of the 24 A-kasser and you should have the same treatment. We can not tell if some A-kasser has different practices regarding management of a case, but if you meet the requirements and do what you must do (this is covered here: https://a-kasser.dk/transferring-unemployment-benefits.html) then no A-kasser can deny your right to get the benefits payed.

IT IS VERY IMPORTANT that you register as an member in an A-kasse NO LATER than 14 days after your graduation. Please look here: https://a-kasser.dk/graduates/. And read carefully about the 2-week deadline.

Unfortunately it seems that you not already is member of an A-kasse - then you must accept 1 month of quarantine after your graduation before you can get unemployment benefits. However you are allowed to travel to another EU-country right after your graduation, and in that way still complete your 1 month quarantine.

As we mention in our article about free membership for students: https://a-kasser.dk/students/ you must register at latest 1 year before finish study to avoid the quarantine.

Because you will graduate in less than 6 months you should now apply for the membership type for graduates.
It will be free for you until you graduate and you will also have fulfilled the 2-week deadline.

Hope this clarifies things for you.

Best regards,
Anders, www.a-kasser.dk

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Comment by Cecia:
Hi Anders,

Thank you so much for your response. You have been extremely helpful.

Just to clarify, I should first sign up to an A-Kassen as a student at least 2 weeks before I graduate. Once I graduate I should change my status to "new graduate" and sign up to the Danish job centre as unemployed. Then, after 4 weeks  of being signed up as unemployed to the job centre in Denmark, I should then sign up to the UK job centre and ask for a transfer of unemployment benefits from my A-kassen with the U2 form. Is that correct? And then I will receive the benefits after a month?

Thanks in advance and apologies for all the questions.

Best regards,
Cecilia

Comment by A-kasser.dk:
Hi,
Normally when you become member as a student you get the status "student/free membership", but when you are so close to finish study as you are, then you can already now apply for membership as an graduate. It will still be free membership until you graduate.
It has also the advantage that the you dont need to change your status to "graduate/paid membership" when you are finished. However to be sure, we advice you to get this confirmed by the A-kasse you sign up with.

Be aware that the 2-week deadline, says that you must apply for membership at latest 2 week AFTER (not before) you graduate, but as just mentioned it will be better just to apply now. The cost for you will be the same.

The first day after your graduation you should log in to Jobnet.dk with your NemID and register yourself as Unemployed. If you dont have NemID then go to the local Jobcenter and ask them to register you as unemployed. This step is the most important.

When this is done you must contact your A-kasse also. They will automatically be informed by Jobnet.dk that you are now unemployed. But you should also log in to the A-kasse website an make a declaration/fill out a form (in danish: Ledighedserklæring)  where you declare that you now are Unemployed and want to apply for Unemployment benefits.

And because you want to look for job in another EU-country you should also ask the A-kasse to make the  PD U2 formular for you.

The A-kasse will tell you from what date you will begin to have benefits paid. As told you will have 1 months quarantine, but this will be the equal to the 4 weeks you must be registered as unemployed before you can transfer unemployment benefits.

And when you arrive to UK, you go to the UK employment services and register as a Jobseeker/Unemployed.

Best regards,
Anders, www.a-kasser.dk

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Hi,
we have now got the answer from the danish Government Authority.

We asked them: Are there any requirements regarding having address/connection to Denmark,when EU-citizens currently living in Denmark go to another EU-country looking for job, and at the same time receiving 3 months of Unemployment benefits ("Dagpenge") from the danish A-kasse.

The answer from them:
It is a requirement that the member must be available in Denmark immediately prior to the date of departure.
This means that the member must be entitled to unemployment benefit on the day that he/she travels from Denmark. You can for instance be entitled to unemployment benefits if you have graduated with a danish education. Otherwise you can be entitled if you have been working 1.924 hours during the last 3 years.

Finally, this means that the member must reside and stay in Denmark on the date stated as the date of departure on the application (PD U2). The PD U2 application/document is needed when you want to export the 3 months of Unemployment benefits/Dagpenge to another EU-country. You apply for this by asking your A-kasse.

After the departure abroad, there is no longer a residence requirement for Denmark, this means that it is not required to maintain residence/address in Denmark. There is no further connection requirement in relation to residence in Denmark.

It is also of no relevance if the member leases or buys housing in the EU / EEA country where the member seeks work.

However, the member must maintain the membership of an Unemployment Fund ("A-kasse") in Denmark, in the period in which he/she applies for Unemployment benefits from Denmark. During this period, the member must possible to be contacted by the danish A-kasse.

Finally you are allowed to unregister from the Danish Population Register ("Folkeregistret") from the date of departure.

So the answer emphasizes that all that matters in relation to keep the right to Benefits/Dagpenge for 3 months is that you have address in Denmark at least up to the day of departure according to the PD U2 document.

Hope this will help you, otherwise please comment on this.

Best regards,
Anders, www.a-kasser.dk

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Comment by Cecilia, jun 06:

Hi Anders,
Thank you so much for providing me with an update.

So now that I have officially graduated but I still have a student job until end of June should I wait until end of June to sign up to the job centre? And do I need to tell my Akassen that I am now a graduate or also wait until the end of my current contract?

Best regards,Cecilia

Commented june 06 by A-kasser.dk:

Hi again,

If you were a danish citizen - and you have studentjob contract until end of june, we would advice you to quit the job before graduation because otherwise you will get 3 weeks of quarantine, where you will not receive unemployment benefits. Thats because if you have not stopped working before you graduate, quitting work will be considered as unemployment caused by yourself.

This applies regardless that the current job-contract will finish end of june. In relation to the Unemployent benefits system, you must actually have stopped working before graduation, to avoid the 3 weeks quarantine.

If you still are working after you have graduated, the income from the job will be deducted from the Unemployment benefits.

As told before you have quarantine peiod of 4 weeks because you have not been member of an A-kasse during the last year. This quarantine period equals the 4 weeks you must be registered as an unemployed at the Jobcenter, before you can export Unemployment benefits to another EU-country.

You can not complete the quarantine period as long as you work and have income.

You must as soon as possible contact your A-kasse, and tell them that you have now graduated, or will graduate soon. This must be done at LATEST 14 days after graduation.
You must also tell them about your studentjob, and ask what is best for you to do according to receiving benefits, including quarantine and the fact that you want to export you benefits for 3 months.

No matter if you already have graduated or will graduate during the next days/weeks, there is no reason for waiting to contact the A-kasse. In fact it is very important that you do this now.

Best regards,
Anders, www.a-kasser.dk