Increased access to unemployment benefits and sickness benefits

Øget adgang til dagpenge og sygedagpenge

Country	Denmark , applies nationwide
Time period	Temporary, 01 March 2020 – 30 June 2021
Type	Legislations or other statutory regulations
Category	Income protection beyond short-time work – Extensions of income support to workers not covered by any kind of protection scheme
Author	Carsten Jørgensen and Maria Hansen (FAOS, University of Copenhagen), Anders Randrup (Oxford Research) and Eurofound.
Case created	15 April 2020 (updated 19 July 2021)

Background information

Increased access to unemployment benefits and sickness benefits due to COVID-19: In order to mitigate the negative consequences that the spread of COVID-19 can have on unemployed and sick pay recipients, the government and all the parties of the Parliament agree to provide easier conditions for unemployed and sick pay recipients in the coming temporary period.

The legal references are "LOV nr 274 af 26/03/2020" and "LOV nr 275 af 26/03/2020".

Content of measure

Unemployment benefit recipients will have increased access to unemployment benefit as the period from 1 March to 31 May does not count in the unemployed seniority. However, the person must be a member of the unemployment insurance fund during the period.

The right to sickness benefit will be extended for three months. Persons who have received sickness benefit for more than 22 weeks during the period from 9 March to 9 June, in the nine preceding calendar months, i.e. when the reassessment date and cannot extend the payment of sickness benefit in accordance with the existing extension rules.

Suspension of G-days: Employer's payment of unemployment benefit (G-days) to employees who are covered by a division of work or returned home is suspended.

Updates

The following updates to this measure have been made after it came into effect.

11 May 2021	The Danish Parliament passed a bill (L 218) to extend the suspension of benefit consumption until 30 June 2021. In addition, the period of sickness benefit is extended by two months for persons who otherwise cannot have their entitlement to sickness benefit extended. This means that no sickness benefit recipients will switch to job clarification courses until 30 June 2021. The extension is part of an overall framework agreement for the reopening of Denmark from 22 March 2021.
09 February 2021	Extension of the temporary entitlement to sickness benefits by a further two months. The parties to the agreement agree that the suspension of unemployment benefit consumption will be extended until and including April 2021.
16 December 2020	Extended entitlement to sickness benefits from after 31 January 2021 until and including 28 February 2021. Reintroduction of the suspension of unemployment benefit consumption for all unemployment benefit recipients in the period from 1 January 2021 to 28 February 2021, corresponding to the extension of the targeted compensation schemes.
10 July 2020	Due to the Corona situation, the Danish Parliament has decided to extend the temporary period by one month until 30 June 2020.

Use of measure

Unknown.

Target groups

Workers	Businesses	Citizens
Unemployed	Does not apply to businesses	Does not apply to citizens

Actors and funding

Actors	Funding
National government	National funds

Social partners

Social partners' role in designing the measure and form of involvement:

	Trade unions	Employers' organisations
Role	No involvement	No involvement
Form	Not applicable	Not applicable

Social partners' role in the implementation, monitoring and assessment phase:

No involvement
Main level of involvement: Unknown

Involvement

No involvement.

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