Stay and work
abroad

In order to receive unemployment benefits, you must make your labour available to the Danish labour market. You must also be domiciled and reside in Denmark.

Inform about holidays in unemployment fund and job centre

If you are receiving unemployment benefit and you want to travel, you must apply for holiday allowance or cancel your unemployment benefit. The job centre must be notified 14 days in advance and the unemployment insurance fund no later than the day before your departure.

Consequences

There may be consequences if you receive benefits that you are not entitled to, for example because you are abroad. Unemployment benefits must be paid back and you may be excluded from receiving unemployment benefits for a period in the future. It is the unemployment insurance fund that makes the decision.

Travellers are checked

Occasional checks are carried out at airports and other border crossings by the Ministry of Employment, the Danish Agency for Labour Market and Recruitment together with Skat. They look at whether travellers have received unemployment benefits or cash benefits during their departure. The checks are carried out as part of the supervision of the municipalities' and unemployment insurance funds' administration of the rules and the requirement for the unemployed to be available for the labour market.

Job interview abroad

You can travel out of Denmark for up to five days if you have a job interview abroad. The job interview must be documented to the unemployment insurance fund before you leave. This only applies to job interviews in Europe (EEA countries).

Read more about it

On borger.dk you can learn more about the current rules for unemployment benefits abroad.