Holiday entitlement and holiday benefits

You must give notice at jobnet.dk about your holiday no later than 14 days before the first day of your holiday.

You can register your holiday by

• Logging on to jobnet.dk
• Enter the ‘Plans and agreements’ site
• Click the “Register holiday” icon

We’ll be notified directly by the Jobcenter about your holiday.

If there is less than 14 days to the first day of your holiday, you cannot register your holiday yourself. Instead you must contact your Jocenter and CA.

If you have not registered your holiday by giving 14 days’ notice, you have the duty to participate in meetings and activities that the Jobcenter or CA invites you to - even when you’re on holiday.

The holiday year is the period you accrue your holiday entitlement.

You can accrue up to 2.08 days with holiday benefits each month. You can therefore accrue up to 25 days with holiday benefits a year. It may, however, also be less. Read more in the section “This is how you earn the right to holiday benefits”.

The 12-month holiday year runs from 1 September in one year to 31 August in following year.

The holiday-taking period is the period when you can take the holidays you have accrued.

The holiday-taking period is 16 months and runs from 1 September in one year to 31 December in following year. In other words, the holiday-taking period follows the holiday year, but for another 4 months.

You can take the days of holiday you accrue in one month already in the subsequent month.

The days of holiday must be taken before the end of the holiday-taking period. This is the reason why the holiday-taking period is 4 months longer than the holiday year. Then you have a chance to take the holiday you have accumulated.

Please note that you first need to take all days of holiday you have accrued during your employment. This applies even if the holiday has been accrued in the period from 1 September to 31 December. Read more in the section “You need to first take the days of holiday accrued during employment”.

You earn rights to holiday benefits if you receive benefits, holiday benefits or paternity/maternity benefits in the course of a holiday year.

You can accrue up to 2.08 days with holiday benefits each month. You can do so if you’re full-time insured and are paid 160.33 hours of benefits/holiday benefits from your unemployment insurance fund or paternity/maternity benefits from Udbetaling Danmark (Public Benefits Administration). (130 hours for part-time insured). This corresponds to 25 days in a year.

If you’re paid fewer hours, the days earned will be reduced accordingly. If you are only paid 80.16 hours a month – equivalent to 50% of full benefits – as a full-time insured, you will earn only 50% of holiday benefits, i.e. 1.04 days. For instance, if you receive supplementary benefits.

Special rule for new graduates who are not parents with dependent children:
You can only accrue up to 1.81 days of holiday each month. However, you’ll be paid holiday benefits at a rate of 82% of the maximum benefits even if your benefit rate is usually only 71.5%.

To be able to take holiday with holiday benefits, you must:

• Be unemployed or working
• Already have taken the days of holiday you have accrued from current or previous employment
• Take holiday
• Have the right to benefits if you were unemployed. (Your right to benefits must not have expired)
• Have given notice of your holiday at jobnet.dk no later than on the first day of holiday if you’re unemployed
• Be a member of a Danish unemployment insurance fund
• Reside in Denmark at the time you take holiday

You are not eligible for holiday benefits if you:

• Participate in training without at the same time having the right to benefits
• Carry on self-employment which must be deemed to be your main occupation
• Are sick or on paternity/maternity leave (then you can receive sickness benefits or paternity/maternity benefits) instead
• Are suspended
• Receive full pay during your holiday

If you have earned holiday pay during employment, you must use such paid holiday before you are entitled to holiday benefits.

You earn 2.08 days of holiday each month when you are working as a salary earner whether or not you are employed full time or part time.

If, for instance, you take holiday in the month of December, you must first take the 6.24 days of holiday you have earned during your employment in September, October and November before you can receive holiday benefits.

Holiday earned from employment and carried over from a previous holiday year must also be taken before you can receive holiday benefits. Remember that holiday benefits cannot be carried over to a new holiday-taking period. The holiday benefits you earn lapse if you have not used them within the relevant holiday-taking period.

You apply for holiday benefits at “My CA” where you must fill in and submit a holiday benefits application form.

You can fill in your application up to 5 weeks before the first day of your holiday.

If you receive your application at least 4 weeks before your holiday begins, we can pay out your holiday benefits one weeks before your first day of holiday.

If you’re unemployed, you do not have the right to holiday benefits until the day you have applied for holiday benefits.

If you have already taken holiday at the time when you apply for holiday benefits, you should know that the application deadline is always 31 January after expiry of the holiday-taking period. This means that you must apply for holiday benefits on 31 January 2023 at the latest if you apply for benefits for your Christmas holiday in 2022.

Usually you’re off work on the national public holidays that fall on ordinary weekdays.

If you’re unemployed, the situation is different.

You are only entitled to benefits on such public national holidays if you are available to the labour market on the public national holidays that fall on ordinary weekdays – i.e. from Monday to Friday.

This means that if you want to receive benefits on national public holidays that fall on ordinary weekdays such as Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter Monday, you must:

• Stay in Denmark
• Search for jobs and keep a job log
• Be able to take jobs facilitated through the Jobcenter at a day’s notice, etc.

The same applies to other national public holidays that fall on weekdays such the Christmas holidays (24-26 December) and the days around New Years Eve (31 December and 1 January) if they fall on weekdays.

If you will not or cannot be available to the labour market on non-business days that fall on weekdays (e.g. because you’re abroad), you are not entitled to benefits for such non-business days.

Instead you can apply for holiday benefits if you have earned the right to them.

If you are abroad, you will not be entitled to benefits. It is, however, possible to request permission to take your benefits with you abroad for a period.

Example: Holiday in the week before easter

You’re unemployed and have given notice of holiday at jobnet.dk and applied for holiday benefits for the 3 days before Easter. But you have not applied for holiday for Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter Monday

Therefore, you are only entitled to benefits for the national public holidays that fall on weekdays (Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter Monday) if you meet the obligation to be available for work on those days. This means that you must apply for the usual number of jobs and keep your job log in the Easter week.

If you want to take time off on the national public holidays days that fall on weekdays - you are not available to the Danish labour market and therefore, you are not eligible for benefits. Therefore, you must remember to apply for holiday benefits for those days if you want financial support.

Holiday benefits are paid out at the benefit rate you have most recently received. This applies for as long as you are entitled to a two-year period with benefits that you can still use. If the two-year period with benefits has ended, your holiday benefits will be paid out at a rate of 82% of the highest benefit rate.

All new graduates also receive holiday benefits at a rate of 82% of the highest benefit rate.

Holiday benefits are paid out at the benefit rate you have most recently received. 

If you do not receive unemployment benefit at the time of your holiday, we will calculate a rate for you when you apply for the holiday benefits.

We can only pay holiday benefits to you for the number of days you have earned.

If you claim holiday benefits for more days than you have earned, we are not allowed to pay holiday benefits for those "days not yet earned" until you have actually earned them.

This means that you can take holiday and pay for the days yourself, initially, and then claim holiday benefits for the days later.

Example:

The holiday-taking period begins on 1 September, and you submit a request for f5 days of holiday benefits in October for the autumn holidays. You have already used up your holiday entitlement from the last holiday-taking period.

At the time when you submit your request for holiday benefits, you have only earned 2.08 days of holiday in the holiday-taking period. Therefore, you can only claim holiday benefits for the 2 days of holiday, and they will be paid one week before the start of your holiday.

The last 0.08 day will remain in your holiday accrual account. It will be included the next time you receive holiday benefits from us.

The holiday benefits for the last 3 days of your autumn holiday will be paid once you have earned them.

If you receive unemployment or holiday benefits from us, you can go to "Accrued holiday entitlement" under "My CA" and see how many days of holiday you have accrued. 

Each time you receive unemployment or holiday benefits, your holiday accrual account will be updated. Any holiday pay earned while on paternity/maternity leave will not be included automatically.

The days earned will be shown to 2 decimal places and will be rounded up or down to full days when paid to you. We are only allowed to pay out holiday benefits for full days of holiday.

You also earn the right to receive holiday benefits when you're on paternity/maternity leave. You earn holiday benefits on the basis of your paternity/maternity benefits from Udbetaling Danmark (Public Benefits Administration). And you earn holiday benefits regardless of whether you are unemployed or have a job that you have taken paternity/maternity leave from.

CA will only be notified of your paternity/maternity benefits if you become unemployed immediately after your paternity/maternity leave. So, please remember to let us know if you have a job and have earned the right to claim holiday benefits via your paternity/maternity benefits. You can contact us either by calling +45 3314 9045 or by sending us a message.

Please also note that if you have received salary and paternity/maternity benefits during the holiday year, you will only be entitled to take holiday with holiday benefits after you have taken your paid holiday (holiday with either pay or holiday pay).