Question

Hi,
In January i am coming to Copenhagen (live in Greece at the moment) for my master since i will stop working at the end of the year. Basically i have rights for unemployment benefits in Greece since i am working for the last 2+ years with no gap. Can i transfer my unemployment rights to Denmark, get benefits from DK and do my master at the same time? And if so, for how many months could i have this financial support?
P.s. i read in a file that i found in the internet from one A-kasse of Denmark and they say that masters or unpaid PhDs are accepted education courses for someone who gets unemployment benefits.

Is it valid though? Thank you in advance.

Answer 1

1

Hi,

you ask about about different subjects:

1. Can i transfer my unemployment rights to Denmark?

Yes, when you are EU-citizen you can transfer your rights, but in Demark we have these special condition you must meet for having right to transfer unemployment rights:

• you must apply for membership of an danish A-kasse within 8 weeks after you ceased to be insured in another EU country (Greece).
• And further there is the requirement that you within the 8 weeks must begin work in Denmark of at least 296 hours over 12 weeks / 3 months.

but you can not get benefits in DK at the same time you are studying - se next answer

2. Can I get benefits from DK and do my master at the same time?

No, according to the danish rules about unemployment benefits, education is considered as/compared with "work" - so therefor you can not get benefits during your study. But there is special favourable rules for graduates to get benefits right after study is finished.

Until recently there was a special practice regarding PhD students who were employed as paid PhD students: they were regarded as a PhD student from the day they no longer received salaries - and that they then as students could receive benefits while they completed their PhD part time. This practice is changed/stopped with a new law from december 2016.

So it is no longer possible to complete a Ph.D. as a part-time study while receiving unemployment benefits.

3. Masters or unpaid PhDs are accepted education courses?

Yes, If you take your master or phD in Denmark and the period of study is at least 18 months (3 semestre) you can get benefits as an graduate after finish master/phd.

Though, please remember these requirements:
-You had a permanent address in Denmark no later than one day before the start of your education.
-You are in Denmark no later than 14 days (including weekends) after you end your education, i.e. you must apply for membership within two weeks (14 days) of completing your education.

We have an article (currently only in danish) targeting PhD and Unemployment benfits/A-kasse. See it here.

During your master/phD study here in Denmark you can become free member of an A-kasse. This way you will avoid the 1 month quarantine after study before you can get benefits. Read more about free study-membership and avantages.

Best regards,

Anders,

www.a-kasser.dk

Comments

Thank you for your immediate response. I already knew about the most regarding the "after studies" process. But according to this source that i mentioned in my initial question i found this information:
"Education and courses while on unemployment benefits, you are allowed to follow these types of courses:
> Courses at less than 20 hours a week, provided no  similar courses exist as part of an education with an  official statutory order (uddannelsesbekendtgørelse).  Examples of acceptable courses are master degrees, many  IT-courses, vocational courses (diplomkurser) such as HD,  language courses, part-time unsalaried Ph.Ds. and courses  on educational theory (voksenpædagogik)"

Therefore, according to you, this information provided from an A-kasse is 100% wrong?

Thanks again. :-)

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Hi,
can you please provide me with a link to the A-kasse specific page where you have read this?
Normally it is very limited what kind of courses you can participate in when receiving benefits ("dagpenge") and what we know until know it is not possible with higher education programmes.
But let me see the link.
Thanks
Anders

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Hi again. Yes sure. The link is the following:
https://ma-kasse.dk/english/introducing-masters-unemployment-insurance-fund/
After downloading the pdf file of the guide "Your guide to the unemployment benefits system" the relevant information is given on page S/19.

Thanks a lot for your patience and willingness. :-)

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Hi again,
we agree that the guide is not clear on this point, but we have been looking at other A-kasse websites, for instance https://www.ca.dk/english/unemployed. Please look down the page for "Courses/educations, you can attend while receiving benefit".
You can only follow courses that are not a part of the SU-system (uddannelsesbekedtgørelsen) and they must be less than 20 lessons a week.
So a normal "full-time" master or phD is not possible. In the guide they also mention examples of "part-time" pHd and HD (a diplomcourse you take in the evening after normal working hours).
So when MA mention Master degrees it is not a full master - it is single courses you follow.

As mentioned in our initial answer: Until recently there was a special practice regarding PhD students who were employed as paid PhD students: they were regarded as a PhD student from the day they no longer received salaries - and that they then as students could receive benefits while they completed their PhD part time. This practice is changed/stopped with a new law from december 2016.

So it is no longer possible to complete a Ph.D. as a part-time study while receiving unemployment benefits.

If we assumed that you were participate in education meeting these requirements to continue receiving unemployment benefits:
you must be available for work during the training. You are therefore actively
seeking employment and willing to interrupt the course or training to take over
work that you are referred to or that you have found.

Finally the "Job center" and the unemployment insurance fund (A-kasse) must be oriented on participation and has to approved the education. They will not approve fulltime master or pHD.

So all in all the unemployment benefits is not for the courses/programmes you plan to follow.

Hope it clarifies,
Anders,
www.a-kasser.dk

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Reading the link you just sent i can say that i got fully informed. In this way, it makes sense what an unemployed person is obliged to do and that he cannot have a student identity. That seems to be ok by me. Thanks ;-)