Worth knowing - CA a-kasse

Worth knowing
– when you are unemployed
www.ca.dk
Tlf. 3314 9045
juni 2013

Worth knowing – when
you are unemployed
Who is who Who will you meet What legal
requirements do you need to satisfy What
options do you have And a lot of other stuff.
Introduction
For most people meeting the unemployment insurance fund
and the unemployment benefits system is an entirely new
world with many new requirements and concepts.
This brochure describes who you will meet when you are
unemployed, the requirements you must satisfy and the
options you have when you receive unemployment benefits.
For you to be entitled to unemployment benefits you must
be actively seeking a job and be available to the labour
market. In the brochure you can see the demands you must
meet to be actively seeking a job and be available.
You can amongst others read about mandatory meetings
and what the consequences are if you fail to turn up for a
meeting.
You can also see what opportunities you have to pursue
an education, apply for complementary benefits for a job
on reduced working hours or obtain approval for selfemployment
as secondary work.
Always contact CA a-kasse if you are in doubt about anything
regarding your unemployment benefits. You can contact
us by telephone, in writing or in person at our premises at
Smakkedalen in Gentofte or at Vesterport in Aarhus.
Who do you meet when you are
unemployed
CA a-kasse – Job and Career
At CA´s career counsellors’ at Job and Career you can
always get advice and guidance on applications and CV,
interview training, tests, coaching and career development.
At Job and Career’s you can also attend a number of
different job seeking seminars directed at the different
phases of the job search, f.inst. ‘Application and CV’, ‘Proactive
job search’, ‘Scoring the test’ and ‘Success at the
interview’. Read more on the flip side of this brochure or on
www.ca.dk/job_karriere/.
CA a-kasse – The insurance department
The insurance department deals with everything that has
to do with your unemployment benefits. Our insurance
counsellors know the unemployment insurance fund
legislation and you can get advice and guidance on the
possibilities the unemployment benefits system holds.
The Job centres
The Job centres hold the responsibility for activation, job
facilitation, training permission and ordinary counselling.
You shall meet with the Job centre at least once every third
month throughout your unemployment.
Other parties
‘Other parties’ are various private companies to which the
Job centres outsource part of their job tasks. For example
an other parties can be in charge of seminars, counselling
and the contact to you.
CONTACT
Copenhagen
Send an e-mail to ca@ca.dk or call
3314 9045. The telephones are open
from Monday to Thursday from 8.30
till 17.00 and Fridays from 9.30 till
15.00.
Aarhus – only career counselling
Send an e-mail to aarhus@ca.dk or
call 3314 9045. The telephones are
open from Monday to Thursday from
8.30 till 17.00 and Fridays from 9.30
till 15.00
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Availability – requirements and possibilities
In order to have the right to unemployment benefits you
must be available to the labour market and actively be
seeking a job. Being available means meeting a number of
requirements.
Residence in DK and registered as a job seeker
You must reside and have your address in Denmark
You must be registered as a job seeker on
www.jobnet.dk
CV and CV interview
Register your CV on www.jobnet.dk at the latest 3 weeks
after you have registered your unemployment.
Your CV on Jobnet must include zip code and telephone
number.
You will be summoned for a CV meeting within the first 3
weeks after your registration with the Job centre.
Prior to the meeting you must complete a Job plan where
you describe at www.ca.dk/selvbetjening/
the CV- and job banks you use
how you employ your network
the kinds of job you seek – characteristics/job
categories
within which geograpical area you are searching for a
job
how many jobs you investigate per week and how many
jobs you expect to apply for per week
job seeking method – for example if you send uninvited
applications
your thoughts on courses/training that can increase
your job possibilities
questions/subjects you need clarification on
Moreover, you are to upload two examples of your
applications that we will use to evaluate the seriousness
of your applications. You will not receive feed-back on your
applications during the meeting.
At the meeting itself we will – if need be – adjust your Job
plan. Thereafter your Job plan is binding and describes how
you will go about your job search the following 3 months. We
will send you further information prior to the meeting.
The Job plan will follow you during the course of your
unemployment. You have via Directen access to seeing your
Job plan so that you are always aware of the agreements you
have made with CA up until the next meeting.
If you have been summoned for a meeting at the Job centre,
other parties or CA a-kasse and you are activated the
meeting can be a telephone call.
Check your job proposals at the Job centre every 7 days.
every 7 days to check your job proposals. If you forget,
it may have consequences for your unemployment
benefit. The third time you fail to check your job
proposals timely, you are deregistered as a job seeker
without advance warning.
Meeting on a day’s notice
You shall on a day’s notice be able to attend all meetings
and seminars for which the Job centre, other parties or
CA a-kasse invites you.
You must read your mail every day as you may be called
in for a meeting on a day’s notice.
Therefore you must keep the Job centre, other parties
and CA a-kasse informed about your current address.
Forwarding your mail is not sufficient as that typically delays
the mail 24 hours. You bear the responsibility yourself for
missing information.
Facilitated work and active job search
You must be available for work with a daily commuting
up to 3 hours with public transport. Upon 3 months’
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unemployment you must be available for work with a
daily commuting of 3 hours plus.
You must be able to take on facilitated work full time on
a day’s notice from the first day of your unemployment.
You must be prepared to take on a job at a lower
organisational level or at a lower educational level than
what you have had earlier.
You are to actively apply for at least two full-time jobs
from the first day of your unemployment. The jobs are
to be in Denmark - and one of them is to advertised.
Naturally, you are to seek employment within your
subject area where the chance of finding a job that
matches your profile is biggest. However, if no vacancy
exists within the area you want mostly, you are obliged
to expand your work search area to other jobs you can
manage after for inst. a little training. You shall search
in the usual way for the profession in question. There
should never be a week in which you don’t apply for a
job, unless you have a legal hindrance such as vacation,
work or sickness.
There must be no hindrances for your taking on work.
If for example you are sick during a period and unable
to work, you cannot get unemployment benefits. In
stead you have to apply for sickness benefits from your
municipality. For that reason it is important that you
contact the Job Center on the first day of sickness.
Remember, if you have an interview with CA/Job centre/
other parties, you must inform of your sickness prior to
the meeting.
Remember to notify your sickness to the Job Center on
the first day of sickness.
Availability meeting/information meeting
When you are unemployed and receive unemployment
benefits you will have a mandatory meeting with the
unemployment insurance fund every 3 months. At the
meeting we are to evaluate whether you are available to the
labour market.
Our starting point will be the Job plan you took part in
making at the information meeting.
At the interview we will – if need be – adjust your Job plan.
Your Job plan is binding and describes how you will go about
your job search the following 3 months.
Prior to the meeting you are to fill in your job applications
form (please keep it updated) you have submitted at www.
ca.dk/selvbetjening/ (log on Online A-kasse and choose
Jobsøgning). If you need help with your applications, you can
sign up for job search courses at CA covering your needs.
You must also upload a job search list so that we can go
over your job search with you at the meeting. You will receive
further information prior to the meeting.
If you are not available– Consequences
If we during an availability talk or by other means find that
you are not available to the labour market or that you have
not done enough to find full-time work, you cannot receive
unemployment benefits. In that case you can only get
unemployment benefits again once you have worked more
than 300 hours within 10 weeks.
Availability otherwise
It is our duty to perform an evaluation of availability if you act
in a way so that doubts as to your availability arise. That is
the case for example if you
fail to turn up for a meeting with the Job centre, other
parties or CA a-kasse
have seasonal employment
are registered as being sick for a rather longer time
tender your resignation from a full-time job in order to
work on reduced working hours in stead
do not draw up your CV on www.jobnet.dk
act in such a way that doubts as to your availability arise
Thus the meeting is about two things. How you have been
looking for work in the period up to the meeting, and what
you can do to get a job.
4

Activation
Under 30 years
When you have been unemployed for 13 weeks altogether,
it is your right and duty to be activated.
When you have ended an activation, you shall start the next
activation at the latest 6 months later.
Over 30 years and under 60 years
When you have been unemployed for 39 weeks altogether, it
is your right and duty to be activated.
Over 60 years
When you have been unemployed for 26 weeks altogether, it
is your right and duty to be activated.
Activation can be employment with salary subsidy at a
private or public enterprise, work practice for 4 weeks or
training education.
Job plan with the Job centre
The agreements you make with the Job centre or other
parties on activation will be registered in a Job plan.
Consequently, you are to make both a Job plan with the
unemployment insurance fund for job search and a Job plan
with the Job centre for activation.
The agreements in the Job plan with the Job centre
are binding agreements and cannot be broken without
agreement with Job centre or other parties. If you break
the agreement, it may have consequences for your
unemployment benefits.
It’s a good idea that you prepare yourself before you are to
talk about activation with the Job centre or other parties.
For example, if you lack specific competences in order to get
a job and for that reason want training, or if you lack work
experience and thus want employment with salary subsidy.
If you stay away from a meeting
Everytime you stay away from or cancel a meeting that
the unemployment insurance fund, the Job centre or
other parties has called in for, you lose as a minimum the
unemployment benefits for that particular day and until you
have again contacted the meeting organizer. That applies
regardless of the kind of meeting or activity you cancel or fail
to turn up for.
If you cancel before the interview, you lose as a miminum
only unemployment benefits for the particular day of the
meeting. It has, however, no consequences for you, if you
cancel because you have a job interview at the same time,
if you are working on the day, if you are meeting with other
parties/Job centre or if you notify of sickness prior to the
meeting.
Vacation is also a valid reason for absence if you have
informed the Job centre and the unemployment insurance
fund about the vacation prior to your being called in for the
meeting. Read more under the paragraph on ‘Vacation’.
If you have signed a contract of employment and are
to commence work later than the day of the meeting ,
attendance is mandatory, provided you want unemployment
benefits up until that day when you commence work.
3 weeks’ quarantine for rejections and resignations
You get 3 weeks’ effective quarantine for self-inflicted
unemployment if mandatory without a valid reason
tender your resignation
reject a job facilitated to you
reject or discontinue an offer of activation or retraining
from the Job centre/other parties
reject participation in preparing or revising a Job plan
for activation
accept a too short notice.
You ought always contact us and learn about the
consequences before you reject or discontinue a work or an
offer.
Repeat consequences and self-inflicted unemployment
If within a 12 months’ period you are quarantined twice for
self-inflicted unemployment – regardless of the reason – you
lose your right to unemployment benefits until you have had
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more than 300 hours of ordinary work within a 10 weeks’
period.
All kinds of self-inflicted unemployment count in the
calculation.
Valid reasons exempt from quarantine
You are not self-inflicted unemployed if you have a valid
reason for rejection, discontinuation or absence. The valid
reasons are expressly mentioned in The Employment Service
and Unemployment Insurance Act.
You find them on our homepage under www.ca.dk/
gyldigegrunde - contact CA a-kasse if you want to learn
more.
If you want to learn more about availability
Read more on www.ca.dk/raadighed or contact one of our
insurance counsellors.
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Unemployment benefits
when going abroad
When you are unemployed, you have the opportunity to get
Danish unemployment benefits while you are seeking work
in another EEA country.
If you have plans to work abroad, you ought to contact us.
For the legislation in this area is very complicated; and many
traps exist. There is a distinction between working within the
EEA area and working elsewhere abroad.
If you have a job interview abroad, you can get
unemployment benefits although you are not in Denmark.
You must however contact us prior to departure and you
must have returned to Denmark latest 5 days after your
departure.
Read more on www.ca.dk/udland
Holiday
You can of course take vacation although you are
unemployed. You can spend that holiday payment which you
have earned with an employer or you can apply for holiday
benefits if that possibility applies to you.
You have no rights to holiday unemployment benefits if you
are self-employed as your primary work.
other parties, your presence is compulsory. This is also
the case even though there are more than 14 days to your
desired vacation. We therefore recommend you notify both
the Job Center and CA of your vacation as early as possible.
Remember always to notify CA of your vacation before it
starts.
Particularly for graduates
You will earn the right to holiday benefits according to the
benefits you have received from CA the previous calendar
year. If you have not received benefits from neither CA,
another unemployment insurance fund nor benefits for
maternity leave from your municipality you do not have the
right to holiday benefits.
What benefits do you get during the holidays
If you have a holiday slip from FerieKonto, you register the
holiday yourself at www.feriekonto.dk.
If you have to apply for holiday benefits you must use
particular application forms on holiday unemployment
benefits for wage earners or for newly graduates.
Read more on www.ca.dk/ledig/ferie/
Notify the Job centre – and CA – of your holiday
If you are unemployed at the time of your vacation, you must
remember to notify your Job centre of your vacation plans
no later than 14 days prior to the first day of the vacation.
Otherwise it is your duty to attend meetings and activities for
which the Job centre calls in – also if you are on vacation.
If you do not attend, you lose the right to unemployment
benefits for a period. Read more in the previous paragraph
‘If you stay away from a meeting’.
You must notify the Job centre of vacations irrespective
of your taking vacation at your own expense, with holiday
benefits or holiday payment.
Important! If you wish to take vacation and you have been
called in for a meeting at CA a-kasse, at the Job centre or
7

Self-employment while
you are unemployed
As a starting point you have no rights to unemployment
benefits if you are self-employed.
However, if you can have your company approved as
secondary work, you can get unemployment benefits up to
78 weeks at the same time as you run your company. The
hours you spend on your company are deducted from your
unemployment benefits.
In order to have your company approved as secondary work,
you must satisfy a number of requirements where the
essential is that you must be fully available to the labour
market.
You are allowed to work only a limited number of hours in
the company and you have to be able to do all your tasks in
the company outside normal working hours.
The rules are very strict so we recommend that you
always contact one of our insurance counsellors if you
are contemplating self-employment in order to learn
more about the opportunities of running an independent
undertaking while receiving unemployment benefits.
Would you like to know more about self-employment as secondary
work
Read more on www.ca.dk/bibeskaeftigelse or contact one of
our insurance counsellors.
You can also contact a career counsellor and get good advice
on starting your own company. Call ‘Job og Karriere’ on 3314
9245
Read more about self-employment on www.ca.dk/
selvstændig/ and on www.virk.dk
Complementary benefits
If you get a job on reduced working hours, you can in many
instances get complementary benefits. We recommend that
you always contact us before you start a job on reduced
working hours with a view to clarifying whether you satisfy
the requirements for receiving complementary benefits.
Availability for full-time work
In order to get the right to complementary benefits, you
must basically satisfy the same requirement as if you are out
of a job.
Consequently you need to be registered at www.
jobcenter.dk as a full-time job seeker even though you
are working part time.
You must actively apply for minimum two full-time jobs
every week and be able to take on full-time facilitated
work on a day’s notice.
You are only able to take on full-time work with one
day’s notice if you can resign from your part time job
with one day’s notice
Notice and ‘release certificate’
If you are bound by a notice towards your employer, you can
only get complementary benefits if the employer fills in a
‘release certificate’ (frigørelsesattest).
The ‘release certificate’ gives you the option to resign with
one day’s notice if you are offered a job with more working
hours.
We must receive your ‘release certificate’ no later than 5
weeks after the first day of your employment. If you have
completed an education and have graduated, the 5 weeks’
deadline starts running the day you earn the right to
unemployment benefits. You earn the right to unemployment
benefits one month after having graduated.If we receive the
‘release certificate’ later, you will only get unemployment
benefits from the day we receive it.
NOTE!
You may be bound by a notice even though it is not
mentioned in your contract. That is the case for instance if
you work in an area where a collective agreement stipulates
notices.
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If you do white-collar work for more than 8 hours a week,
the stipulations of the Salaried Employees Act automatically
apply.
This is how you apply for complementary benefits
You apply for complementary benefits by sending us a
questionnaire on employment together with a ‘release
certificate’ if you are bound by a notice towards your
employer. Remember we must receive a ‘release certificate’
no later than 5 weeks after you have commenced work. If it
is received later, you only have the right to complementary
benefits once the ‘release certificate’ has been received.
You find the forms on www.ca.dk/blanketter/
Work is offset against your unemployment benefits
You can only get complementary benefits in those weeks
where you are unemployed for at least 7.4 hours.
We deduct the number of worked hours for which you
receive a salary from the unemployment benefits.
If you are paid for more than 37 hours a week, these hours
will be deducted from your unemployment benefits the
following week.
You can also continue to work part time without receiving
complementary benefits.
If you are not bound by a notice towards your employer, you
do not need a ‘release certificate’.
G-days and complementary benefits
When you become unemployed after a job, your employer
must pay the first 3 unemployed days (g-days), if you have
had at least 74 hours of work within 4 weeks.
If you are loosely employed, your employer must pay the
g-days every day you have unemployed hours if you have had
at least 74 hours of work within the previous 4 weeks. Read
more on www.ca.dk/gdage.
If you want to learn more about complementary benefits
Read more on www.ca.dk/supplerendedagpenge or contact
one of our insurance counsellors.
If your employer cannot control or has great difficulty with
controlling your working hours, we then deduct your income
relatively using a rate of conversion which in 2013 amounts
to DKK 213.19. That is the case for example if you are a
teacher or a lecturer.
Read about avoiding uncontrollable work time and
conversion on www.ca.dk/kontrollabelarbejdstid.
Time limit of 30 weeks
You can get complementary benefits up to 30 weeks within
a period of 104 weeks. When the 30 weeks have passed,
you can quit your job without being quarantined if at the
earliest you leave your job at the same time as your right to
complementary benefits expires and at the latest 26 weeks
after.
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Education – what is allowed
While you are unemployed, you can attend different courses
and programs in order to qualify for returning to the labour
market.
You can get unemployment benefits while attending courses
as long as they are not a part of the educations accepted as
a part of the Danish Students’ Grants and Loans Scheme
(SU) and there are less than 20 lessons a week.
CA a-kasse must approve your right to attend a course.
Contact one of our insurance counsellors, before you start
on a course as it may have consequences for your right to
unemployment benefits. You must pay for books and fees
yourself.
6 weeks’ training of your own choice
If you are 25 years or older you can participate in 6 weeks
training of your own choice when you have received benefits
(dagpenge) for at least 18 weeks. However, this option is
only available until you have received benefits for a total of
57 weeks. If you are under 25 years old, special rules apply -
please contact us for further information.
Note: If you have part time work and receive complementary
benefits, as an unemployee you cannot be accepted for 6
weeks’ training of your own choice. This is also the case
if your self-employment has been approved as secondary
work.
It is, however, important to know under which law the course
is offered.
If you have acquired a higher education within the last 5
years, you can only participate in courses at a higher level
which are offered under Act on Open Education.
You can also attend adult vocational training programmes
(AMU) provided, however, you have not acquired or employed
professionally a higher education within the last 5 years.
If in doubt please contact the seminar provider or the
unemployment insurance fund. The education benefits are in
most cases equal to the unemployment benefits.
The unemployment benefits shall be approved and paid out
by the unemployment insurance fund whilst the Job centre
is to cover the course fee.
Read more on www.ca.dk/uddannelseforledige
Senior job
You have the opportunity to apply for senior jobs if you
have reached the age of 55 at the time your right to
unemployment benefits expires. Moreover, you have to
satisfy the demands for receiving voluntary early retirement
pay scheme benefits (efterløn) at 60. You can earliest start
a senior job the day your right to unemployment benefits
expires.
In a senior job you are employed in your municipality at the
corresponding collective agreement pay, and you can only
be given notice if you don’t comply with agreements reached
with the employer. The senior job continues until you are
eligible for voluntary early retirement pay scheme benefits.
If the job is abolished, the municipality is to offer you another
senior job.
You must apply yourself
You must apply yourself for the senior job in your
municipality. You can do so 3 months before your right to
unemployment benefits expires and latest 2 months after.
The municipality then has the obligation to employ you in a
senior job latest 2 months after your application, however,
earliest from the day your right to unemployment benefits
expires.
The employment must to the extent possible take your
qualifications and interests into consideration.
You must be available for facilitated work while
performing the senior job and you shall continue paying
the unemployment insurance fund subscription and the
voluntary early retirement pay scheme contribution.
You don’t earn a new right of unemployment benefits in the
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senior job.
Voluntary early retirement pay scheme benefits (efterløn)
The voluntary early retirement pay scheme benefits is a
programme where you can get voluntary early retirement
pay scheme benefits up to 3 years prior to retirement.
Even though you don’t consider the voluntary early
retirement pay scheme benefits, it may be a good idea to
contribute to the programme because it gives you several
options:
1. The option for withdrawal up to 3 years prior to
retirement.The retirement age for a person born from
1 January 1977 and later is 70½ years of age. You can
benefit from the early retirement scheme from you have
turned appx. 67½ years of age.
2. A tax-free premium if you postpone the voluntary early
retirement pay scheme and work until retirement.
3. Have the money returned with ‘interests’. If you
withdraw from the voluntary early retirement pay
scheme programme, your contributions are transferred
to your pension savings.
4. You can receive the early retirement benefits in
Denmark and in the EEA countries.
The voluntary early retirement pay scheme contribution
refund is regulated by an amount corresponding to the
development of the unemployment benefits.
You contribute to the early retirement scheme each quarter,
in 2013 the amount is: DKK 1401.-
You must contribute to the scheme from the time just before
you turn 30.
You must be a member of an unemployment benefits fund
for 30 years in order to benefit from the scheme. All your
private pension funds will be deducted from the pay-out
from the early retirement scheme.
Read more on our homepage www.ca.dk/efterlon
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Make a shortcut to the job
At CA a-kasse you get an array of free offers
that help you get on track towards your next
job. You can also use the offers even though
you are employed. If you have been given
notice or are threatened by unemployment
you can therefore contact us immediately.
You need not wait until you become
unemployed.
A great part of our offers are directed towards the different
phases of job seeking – clarification, research, application
and CV, the job interview, tests – but we can also help you
with personal development and career development.
Read more on www.ca.dk/genvejtiljob
1 Clarification – what do you want What can you
Graduate or in the middle of your career We help you
find out what you want, and what you can.
1. Read more about clarification on ca.dk/genvejtiljob.
2. Attend the course ‘Your career path’
3. Get coached by CA’s proficient career counsellors.
2 Find the job, where do you want to look
Do you want to look within your subject area or change
direction
1. Read about finding the job on ca.dk/genvejtiljob.
2. Attend the course on ‘Pro-active job search’
Get free access to Dunn & Bradstreet’s comprehensive
vocational database and research the companies you are
interested in.
3. Get career counselling on your job possibilities on the
labour market.
3 Optimise your CV and your application
Your application must capture attention in 20 seconds. Is
it to the point
1. Read about how to write your application and your CV
on www.ca.dk/genvejtiljob.
2. Attend CA’s courses on ‘CV and application that work’
and ‘Pro-active job search’ and get feed-back on your
applications and on your CV.
3. Get concrete counselling on your application and your
CV from a career counsellor.
4 Prepare for the interview
You have passed the first hurdle, you are going to an
interview. Become a success at the interview with good
tricks and interview training.
1. Get good advice on the job interview at www.ca.dk/
genvejtiljob.
2. Attend CA’s course ‘Success at the job interview’ so you
are prepared and get the job.
3. Get interview training from a career counsellor before
going to the interview.
5 Are you sure of your personal profile – test yourself
When employing, three out of four employers use tests
to determine whether you are the right candidate for the
job. Prepare yourself with a cutting-edge personal profile
test.
1. Read about tests on ca.dk/genvejtiljob.
2. Attend the course ‘Scoring the test and benefit more
from interview and test.
3. Take for free at CA’s an Insights Discovery personal
profile and get feed-back from a test accredited career
counsellor.
6 Get on with your career
You can always encounter new challenges in your career.
CA helps you with handling stress and conflict, coaching
and courses on career development and personal
development.
1. Read more on personal development and career
development on www.ca.dk/genvejtiljob.
2. Attend CA’s courses on the leader’s career path,
coaching, conflict handling and communication,
network, negotiation techniques, presentation
techniques etc.
3. Get coaching and career counselling.