Parental benefit in Denmark

If you are an employee, you can obtain parental benefit if you meet these three conditions of employment at the start of the period of absence:

• You must be in employment the day before the leave starts or on the first day of it.
• You must have worked at least 160 hours within the last four whole months before your leave.
• You must have worked at least 40 hours per month for at least three of those four months.

You must also be with your child every day, i.e. be physically present with the child during your leave.

Udbetaling Danmark automatically receives information about your employment when your employer reports your salary.

Are you receiving pay during part of your parental leave?

If you are receiving full salary during part of your leave, you must not apply for parental benefit until the salary stops. You can also apply for parental benefit if part of your salary ceases during the leave, as in some cases you will be entitled to a supplementary amount of parental benefit alongside your salary.

If you receive full pay from your employer throughout your leave, you cannot apply for parental benefit.

If you are unsure about which rules apply to you, contact your employer or trade union to learn more about the relevant rules in your collective bargaining agreement.

How do I apply for parental benefit?

If you are an employee, you must ask your employer to inform Udbetaling Danmark online at virk.dk/barselsdagpenge that you will be going on leave.

Once your employer has reported your leave, you will receive an e-mail via Digital Post from Udbetaling Danmark with access details for applying for parental benefit. You cannot apply for parental benefit until you receive this e-mail.

If you have multiple employers, you must inform each of them that you are going on leave.

You must apply for parental benefit within eight weeks of the birth or reception of the child. If you have received salary during part of your leave, you must apply for parental benefit no later than eight weeks after your salary has ceased to be paid. If you apply later than eight weeks after your salary has ceased to be paid, you can only receive parental benefit from the day on which Udbetaling Danmark receives your application.

If you have been unable to apply for parental benefit because your employer has not reported that your salary has ceased to be paid, you should contact Udbetaling Danmark to apply for parental benefit. You should do this as soon as possible, and no later than six months after your salary has stopped.

You may be able to obtain an exemption from the application deadline

In special cases it may be possible for you to obtain an exemption from the application deadline. You can read more about exemptions from the application deadline at borger.dk. Here you can also read about adoption leave and the possibilities to extend the leave, postpone parts of it, or apply for additional leave due to special circumstances.

Please note that different rules for parental benefit apply if your child was born before 2 August 2022. You can read more about this at borger.dk
 

If you are self-employed, you can receive parental benefit if you meet the following conditions at the start of each period of absence:

• You have worked at least 18.5 hours a week for at least six of the past twelve months.
• You have worked for the last month before going on leave.
• Your business is making a profit.

You must also be with your child every day, i.e. physically spend your leave together with your child.

Periods during which you have received sickness benefit, parental benefit, or similar benefits do not count as work periods if you are self-employed and wish to take parental leave.

If you have recently become self-employed

If you have been self-employed for less than six months, you can also count periods when you were an employee.

If you have started your self-employment within the past month prior to your leave, and have thus been working as a self-employed person for less than six months, you can count prior periods during which you worked as an employee or received sickness benefit, parental benefit, unemployment benefit, holidays with salary or holiday allowance or received compensation during a period of notice from Lønmodtagernes Garantifond (the Employees' Guarantee Fund).

If you are self-employed in your own limited company or joint stock company

If you are an employee of and work in your own limited company (ApS) or joint stock company (A/S), then you are considered to be an employee, and not self-employed. You can read more under “If you are an employee”.

Applying for parental benefit

You can apply via Virk.dk for parental benefit from Udbetaling Danmark. You must apply for parental benefit within eight weeks of the birth or reception of the child. If your period of leave begins at a later date, you must apply for parental benefit within eight weeks of the first day of absence in that period.

If you apply later than eight weeks after the first day of absence, you can only receive parental benefit from the time at which Udbetaling Danmark receives your application. In special cases it may be possible for you to obtain an exemption from the application deadline. You can read more about obtaining an exemption from the application deadline at borger.dk. Here you can also read about adoption leave and the possibilities for extending or postponing this.

Please note that different rules for parental benefit apply if your child was born before 2 August 2022. You can read more about this at borger.dk.
 

If you are a member of an unemployment insurance fund (a-kasse)

You have the right to receive parental benefit during your period of leave if you are entitled to unemployment benefit – i.e. if you are registered as unemployed with your unemployment insurance fund and registered as a job-seeker with your job centre.

You must also be with your child every day, i.e. physically spend your leave together with you child.

In addition, it is a good idea to ask your job centre, your unemployment insurance fund or other actor about the conditions that apply to being available for work when you go on parental leave.

As an unemployed person, you must inform your unemployment insurance fund that you are going on parental leave no later than eight weeks after the birth or reception of the child. Your unemployment insurance fund must then go to Virk.dk and inform Udbetaling Danmark that you are going on leave.

Once your unemployment insurance fund has reported your leave, you will receive an e-mail via Digital Post from Udbetaling Danmark with access details for applying for parental benefit. The unemployment insurance fund can only report your parental leave on the first day of your leave. You cannot apply for parental benefit until you receive this e-mail.

You must apply for parental benefit within eight weeks of receiving the e-mail via Digital Post from Udbetaling Danmark. If you report your absence to the unemployment fund after the deadline of eight weeks after the birth, you will lose your right to parental benefit in the period until you report the absence. The same applies if you apply for parental benefit from Udbetaling Danmark more than eight weeks after you have received the e-mail.

In special cases it may be possible for you to obtain an exemption from the application deadline. You can read more about obtaining an exemption from the application deadline at borger.dk.

If you are receiving cash benefits or unemployment allowance

You cannot receive parental benefit if you do not meet the employment requirement, e.g. if you are receiving cash benefits or unemployment allowance. Contact your municipality to learn about your options for continuing to receive cash benefits or unemployment allowance while on leave.

You can apply to transfer some weeks of leave, with the right to parental benefit, to the other parent. The other parent can receive parental benefit during the transferred leave if that parent meets the relevant conditions, including the employment requirement, at the time of taking the leave.

You can read more about transferring leave at borger.dk.

You can receive parental benefit as a student if you meet certain conditions. Find your situation below for more details. It is a condition that you are with your child daily during your leave.

You can receive parental benefit if:

• You have a student job alongside your studies: If you have a student job alongside your studies, you can receive parental benefit for the hours you would otherwise have worked during your parental leave, as long as you were employed on the first day of your leave or the day before. You must have worked at least 160 hours in the past four months, and at least 40 hours per month for at least three of those four months. The amount you can receive in parental benefit depends on how many hours you work per week, and how much you earn per hour. If you have a student job alongside your SU (student grant), the same rules apply as for ‘Employee on parental leave'.
• You are in paid internship: You can receive parental benefit if you are a trainee in paid internship on your first day of leave or the day before. You cannot therefore receive parental benefit if your first day of leave falls during a period of teaching at the educational institution. During periods of education, you may be able to receive parental support. You can read more about this on the website of the State Educational Grant (SU). If you have a student job alongside your SU (student grant), the same rules apply as for ‘Employee on parental leave'.
• You take leave of absence from your studies and register as unemployed with your unemployment insurance fund: If you take leave of absence from your study programme, you can receive parental benefit if you stop receiving your study grant (SU), register as unemployed with your unemployment insurance fund, and register as a job-seeker with your job centre, i.e. you have the right to receive unemployment benefit. Please note that you must inform your place of education that you are taking leave of absence, so that you can document this when you apply for parental benefit. 
  If you choose to take leave of absence from your studies and register as unemployed with your unemployment insurance fund, the same rules will apply as with ‘You are an unemployed person on parental leave’.

You should be aware that in all three of the above situations you must be with your child every day, i.e. physically spend time with the child.

Be careful when your studies start up again: If you break off your leave to resume your studies and receive SU, and you do not have a student job alongside your studies, you will lose the right to postpone that part of the leave that remains.

If you receive a student grant (SU) and do not have a student job

You cannot receive parental benefit if you receive only SU as a student and do not have a student job. Instead, you can receive parental support in the form of nine more ‘SU clips’. You can read more about this on the website of the State Educational Grant (SU).

You can transfer leave to which you are not yourself entitled

Even if you are not entitled to parental benefits yourself, you can transfer weeks of leave to the other parent. The other parent can receive parental benefit during the leave if that parent meets the relevant conditions.

If you are living together at the time of the birth, then as a mother you will usually have 14 weeks of leave after birth, which you can transfer to the other parent. As a father or co-mother, you will generally have 22 weeks of leave after the birth, which you can transfer.

The other parent can hold the transferred weeks of leave with parental benefit, provided this parent meets the relevant conditions.

You can receive parental benefit if you conclude your study programme just before or during your leave. However, this requires that certain conditions are met.

If you have concluded your education in the last month before the leave begins:

You can receive parental benefit if you have completed a course of at least 18 months of vocational training within the past month. This applies to both the mother and the father/co-mother.

You are also entitled to parental benefit if you take pregnancy leave four weeks before the expected birth, and you have completed a study programme within the past month on the day your leave begins.

It must be a course of vocational training of at least 18 months’ duration that is either SU-eligible or covered by the Vocational Training Act. This does not apply to courses of secondary education such as HHX or HTX.

Be aware of whether you start taking leave before or after you have completed your study programme. If you start taking leave before your study programme is completed, you are a student and must meet the rules that apply to students in order to receive parental benefit.

You can read more in the section 'If you are a student'.

If you complete your education after the birth of the child:

You can receive parental benefit if you complete your study programme after the birth of the child, and before the child is one year old. However, you must be registered as unemployed with your unemployment insurance fund, be available for work, and be entitled to receive unemployment benefit.

There is also a general requirement that you are together with your child every day during your leave. You can read more about the applicable rules at borger.dk.

How to apply

If you are not yet a member of an unemployment insurance fund, you should contact Udbetaling Danmark to obtain an application form for parental benefit.

Complete the form and return it along with the necessary documentation to Udbetaling Danmark by Digital Post.

If you are a member of an unemployment insurance fund and have the right to unemployment benefit, you must notify the fund that you are going on parental leave. You must remember to register as unemployed with your unemployment insurance fund and register yourself available for work at your job centre.

The unemployment insurance fund will notify Udbetaling Danmark, which will send you an e-mail via Digital Post. You then confirm digitally that the information provided by your unemployment insurance fund is correct and, at the same time, send the necessary documentation to Udbetaling Danmark.

You must send a copy of either your examination certificate or pre-approval from your supervisor to Udbetaling Danmark, which must state the date on which you completed, or expect to complete, your studies.

You can read more at borger.dk.

Mads and Andrea are living together in Sweden. Mads works in Sweden, and Andrea works in Denmark. As Mads works in Sweden, he is socially insured in Sweden. Andrea is socially insured in Denmark, as she works in Denmark.

Andrea is entitled to 13 weeks of additional leave in addition to the 24 weeks if Mads does not receive benefits corresponding to parental benefit from Sweden for more than nine weeks in the period from the 11th to the 46th week after the birth. If Mads for example receives 12 weeks in the period, then Andrea is entitled to an extra 10 weeks of leave (13 weeks minus 3 weeks) with parental benefit from Denmark.

Kim and Karina are not living together at the time of the birth. Kim lives and works in Sweden, and Karina lives and works in Denmark. The child has its registered address with Karina from the time of birth.

As Kim works in Sweden, he is socially insured in Sweden. Karina is socially insured in Denmark, as she works in Denmark. As Kim and Karina are not living together at the time of the birth, Karina is not covered by the rule of extra leave when the other parent is socially insured abroad.

Instead she is covered by another rule, under which she can receive 13 extra weeks of leave with parental benefit because she is not living with Kim at the time of the birth, and because the child has its registered address with her.