Benefits
In the summer of 2025, a new cash benefit system was implemented in Denmark. With the new system, the social benefits are divided into three rates – a minimum rate, a basic rate and an increased rate. There's also a rate for young people living at home.
Refugees in Denmark who can't support themselves through work will usually receive the minimum rate, the lowest of the three rates. The minimum rate is directed at people with refugee and immigrant backgrounds, as people who come to live in Denmark from abroad must meet requirements of residence and employment in order to be entitled to the higher rates.
To meet the residence requirement you have to have resided legally in Denmark for 9 of the past 10 years. To meet the employment requirement you must have had 2.5 years of full-time employment over the same period.
Very few refugees are able to find a job when they first arrive in Denmark. Most refugees, therefore, will have to live off of the minimum rate during their first years in the country. Over time, many find a job, but some are unable to do so.
By September 2025, 17,524 people in Denmark received the minimum rate. 93% of them were non-Western immigrants and descendants. Refugees are part of the "non-Western" category.
To qualify for the increased rate, you must be at least 30 years old and meet the residence requirement. If you have moved to Denmark from abroad you must also meet the employment requirement to be entitled to the increased rate. People below the age of 30 are entitled to the basic rate, with the exception of people of at least 25 years of age who meet both the residence and employment requirements – these latter ones are entitled to the increased rate. If you are below the age of 30 and live with one or both of your parents, you are entitled to the rate for young people living at home.
HOW MUCH DO YOU RECEIVE?
2025 monthly rates, before tax
Minimum rate: DKK 6,789.
Basic rate: DKK 7,205.
Increased rate: DKK 12,498.
Living at home: DKK 2,925.
All amounts are before tax. Most amounts above DKK 4,300 per month will be taxed by around 38%. The minimum rate without any supplements will give you around DKK 5,800 when taxes are paid.
Supplements and allowances
People in the social benefits system are entitled to a list of supplements and allowances. These include the child supplement, the single parent supplement, the leisure supplement, and the income allowance. The following rates are 2025 rates before tax.
WHICH SUPPLEMENTS ARE YOU ENTITLED TO?
*) Universal benefits that aren't tied directly to the cash benefit system.
Child supplement
DKK 2,784/month
Parents on social benefits who have children under the age of 18 are entitled to child supplement, regardless of which of the three rates –minimum, basic, or increased – they receive. The supplement is granted to both parents, even if they do not live with their child. It is given as a single fixed amount, regardless of how many children you have.
Single parent supplement
DKK 1,638/month
Single parents are entitled to an additional supplement on top of the child supplement. The supplement is granted only to recipients of the minimum or basic rate.
Leisure supplement
DKK 450/month per child, for up to three children
Parents on social benefits who have children under the age of 18 are entitled to a supplement to be used for their children's leisure activities. The leisure supplement can be used for things like sports activities, cinema tickets, theater tickets, museum visits, school trips, or a computer for educational purposes.
The supplement rate is lower for single parents as they can cover some of the same costs through a child allowance. For single parents the leisure supplement rate is DKK 112.5/month per child for up to three children.
Parents who receive the leisure supplement must document that the supplement is spent on their children's leisure activities. They do that by submitting receipts to their local municipality. The receipts must show how at least a third of the money received over a three-month period has been spent. If, for example, you have received DKK 1,350 over three months (DKK 450 times three), you must document how at least DKK 450 of it was spent.
Single non-provider supplement
DKK 1,092/month
Recipients of the basic or increased rate without children receive a supplement in addition to their cash benefits. Recipients of the minimum rate are not entitled to this supplement.
Special youth supplement
DKK 2,590/month
The special youth supplement is granted to 18-29-year-olds who authorities have deemed unlikely to become self-sufficient or start an education within a reasonable period of time. Only recipients of the basic rate or the rate for people living at home are eligible for the supplement. Young people who do not meet the residence and employment requirements do not qualify. The special youth supplement is DKK 2,590/month for 25-29-year-olds and 18-24-year-olds with children. For 18-24-year-olds without children the rate is DKK 1.036/month.
Temporary adaption supplement
DKK 2,000/month
This supplement is granted to certain recipients of cash benefits who have seen a decrease in benefits of DKK 2,000 or more per month due to the new system. Only recipients of the basic rate or the rate for people living at home or people under the age of 30 who, prior to the introduction of the new system, received the particular high rate for certain mental disorders, are eligible for the supplement. The supplement will cease entirely after June 2027.
Income allowance
DKK 5,200/month
The income limit means that you can earn a certain amount of money without having your social benefits reduced. Recipients of the minimum or basic rate can earn DKK 5,200 per month without having their benefits reduced, while recipients of the increased rate can earn only DKK 2,600 per month before seeing reductions.
If you earn more than the limit, 65% of the exceeding pay will be deducted from your social benefits. Let's say, for example, you receive the minimum rate. You also work a job that earns you DKK 6,200 per month. Most of your pay – DKK 5,200 of it – will not affect your social benefits. Of the remaining DKK 1,000, 65% – or DKK 650 – will be deducted from your benefits. This means that you end up with an income of DKK 12,339 – DKK 6,200 of which is your pay while the remaining DKK 6,139 is your minimum rate of DKK 6,789 with the DKK 650 reduction.
There's a limit for how much you can earn while receiving social benefits. For recipients of the minimum or basic rate, monthly benefits and pay can't exceed DKK 17,928 in total. If they do, the social benefits won't be paid. For recipients of the increased rate, the limit is DKK 21,092.
Single parents who receive both the basic rate and the child, single parent, and special youth supplements can only earn DKK 3,711 per month before having their benefits reduced.
Child and youth benefits
The child and youth benefits are dependent on how long you have lived or worked in Denmark. This means that you must have lived or worked in Denmark for 6 years within the past 10 years in order to be entitled to the full benefits. A refugee who has been in Denmark for a year, for example, will only receive DKK 700 per quarter for a 3-year-old child. That's 16.7% of what a Danish parent is entitled to. The benefit is dependent on the age of the child and can be reduced if the parents have an annual income of at least DKK 917,000. If parents have shared custody, they will receive one half of the total benefit each, even if they live together. Single parents can also apply for child allowance. The size of the child allowance is likewise dependent on the amount of time you have lived or worked in Denmark.
Housing benefit
If you live in rented accommodation you can apply for housing benefit – a supplement to help pay your rent. For cohabiting couples and spouses receiving the increased rate a housing benefit limit applies, meaning they can receive no more than DKK 363 per month in housing benefit.
Subsidized medicine
If you have received social benefits in 12 of the past 18 months you are entitled to full coverage of your expenses on medicine. For children's medicine this right applies from your first day in the cash benefit system. Your local municipality will notify the pharmacy if you are entitled to the subsidy, and the subsidy will be automatically deducted from the price when you pay for the medicine at the pharmacy.
Subsidized dental care
Recipients of social benefits can apply for the municipality to cover their dental care expenses.
Holiday rights
Recipients of social benefits have a right to holidays, and can get supplementary benefits during their holiday if they have received social benefits for 12 consecutive months. All social benefits recipients have equal holiday rights. Previously, refugees receiving what was then called SHO benefits were not entitled to holidays.
At Refugees Welcome, we have listed some examples of what the new system means for refugees and refugee families' finances. You find the examples in our article on the cash benefits reform.
Work obligation
Recipients of cash benefits who do not meet the residence and employment requirements will be subject to a work obligation. In practice the work obligation applied to many refugees and immigrants prior to the new system.
Refugees who have been granted residence under the special law for Ukrainian refugees are not subject to the work obligation.
The work obligation means that you have to "contribute" for a maximum of 37 hours per week in order to receive cash benefits. This can be done through ‘useful jobs’, company internships and other small jobs. It can also be through preparation for Danish lessons, job search and paid ordinary work. The number of hours you are obliged to work is reduced if you have paid hours under ordinary employment conditions in a company.
It is a declared political goal that the work obligation should apply to "immigrants, especially women of non-Western origin, who are not active in the Danish labour market."
Poverty
Denmark does not have an official poverty line, but Statistics Denmark, the central authority on Danish statistics, defines relative poverty as disposable income below half the median income of the country. This means that the poverty line for a single person is a disposable income of approximately DKK 12,000 per month.
Research done by the Rockwool Foundation in 2016 showed that the minimum amount needed to sustain a living in Denmark is DKK 10,000 per month for a single person and DKK 23,000 per month for a couple with three children. These amounts would most likely be higher today as costs for housing, food etc. have risen since the research was done.
The examples we have listed for finances of refugees and refugee families on social benefits show that the new rates can result in disposable incomes below the relative poverty line and below the minimum budgets defined by the Rockwool Foundation research.
Across the country, multiple municipalities have started to fear that many recipients of social benefits will be evicted from their homes as a result of the new reform because they can no longer pay their rent. In Copenhagen, the new rules have meant that some homeless people are taken off the waiting lists for allocated housing because their benefits have become too low for them to be able to pay rent.
Lower benefit rates for newcomers were originally introduced in 2002 as 'start-up allowance.' After having been abolished in 2012 they returned in 2015 under the name ‘integration allowance’, which later became the 'self-sufficiency and repatriation' and 'transition' benefits (collectively, 'SHO benefits').
In 2019, the Danish Refugee Council published a memo that assessed the effects of providing low benefits to refugees. The memo looked specifically at the integration allowance which at the time was granted at rates of DKK 6,072 per month for single persons without children and DKK 16,996 per month for couples with two children – amounts not much lower than the current minimum rate. The conclusion of the memo was that the low benefits have "limited positive employment effects in the short term, no employment effects in the long term, and a number of negative psychosocial and socio-economic effects in both the short and long term."
In a 2018 study, the Danish Institute for Human Rights concluded that the integration allowance does not comply with provisions of the Danish Constitution, according to which the state must ensure a minimum standard of living for citizens who are unable to support themselves.
Last year, the Rockwool Foundation documented that low benefits over time result in a significant loss for the Danish economy, partly because young people who grow up in poverty receive markedly less education.