Pilot scheme gives Danish welfare recipients the right to earn alongside benefits

The scheme is to encourage those who can’t work full-time to get work experience

The government’s mantra when it comes to benefits and work has long been that it should pay to work. But for those unable to be fully active in the job market and in receipt of the unemployment benefit kontanthjælp, any income from periodic work is set off against welfare payments.

READ MORE: Danish government announces reform of benefits: It should pay to work

But a new pilot scheme being run in a number of municipalities around the country allows those in receipt of the benefit to work up to 15 hours a week and keep 70 percent of what they make, DR reports.

The scheme is called ‘Dag til Dag Jobber’ (day-to-day jobs) and aims to motivate benefit recipients who are not able to work full-time to gain work experience.

Well-received so far
Sønderborg Municipality in southern Jutland is one of the 14 municipalities taking part in the pilot project. Linette Stave Giebel, a job counsellor at the job centre in Sønderborg, said that it has been well-received so far.

“They have really embraced the offer. It is especially the economic incentive in the project that makes them very motivated to take a day-to-day job,” she said.

At the moment there are 50 kontanthjælp recipients in Sønderborg involved in the scene. All of them had to go through a three-day course to ensure that they were motivated enough.

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