The Danish government recently approved a law requiring individuals receiving social support benefits to engage in internships and employment programmes for 37 hours weekly.
In a statement issued on October 13, the European Commission said that this requirement applies to residents with less than nine years of residence in the country or those with less than 2.5 years of full-time employment in the past decade.
The same authority revealed that the group of those targeted is estimated to include around 22,000 individuals, primarily refugees and family-reunited third-country nationals, with a specific emphasis on women within this category.
Currently, this group of residents is only eligible for the lower “return and self-sufficiency benefit”, which is half of the amount usually granted to a citizen who is unemployed and without private insurance. This amount would leave a single person without children with about €800 per month before tax.
EU Commission further noted that the new law coincides with a period of record-high employment in Denmark, with three million people employed in a population of 5.8 million.
In this regard, women in Denmark are almost as actively employed as men, and most children are sent to daycare from age one.
Moreover, economic analyses indicate that Denmark faces a significant demand for skilled workers, while there’s a looming surplus of unskilled workers shortly. As a result, quotes from the ministers of integration and labour emphasise that the primary intent behind this new law is to convey the message that “when coming to Denmark, you must work.”
According to the Ministry of Finance analyses, the new law is expected to bring over 250 people into employment. However, as outlined in the law, it will also cost the country around 170 million Danish Krone (equivalent to €22.8 million).
Regarding foreign workers, last month, the Danish Agency for International Recruitment and Integration (SIRI) unveiled a new procedure for processing applications, which means that now they include income statistics provided by the Confederation of Danish Employers (DA) to determine whether a job offer meets the salary standards set in Denmark.
SIRI pointed out that the updated revenue statistics are based on data from the second quarter of this year and will apply to requests submitted from October 1, 2023.
Following the new changes, individuals applying for a residence and work permit after October 1 will undergo evaluation based on the income statistics from the second quarter of 2023.
Meanwhile, for those who submitted their applications between August 1 and September 30, their applications will be assessed using the income statistics from the first quarter of this year.
