The criteria for being eligible for a subsidised job are that your capacity for work is substantially and permanently impaired and that you cannot obtain or maintain employment on usual terms in the labour market.

Other criteria include that – prior to the referral to a subsidised job – you have tested all relevant possibilities under the Danish Active Labour Market Policy Act, and that other measures to bring you into or maintain you in ordinary employment have been tested.

In relation to a subsidised job in your current workplace, it is a condition that you have been employed on special terms for at least 12 months. See more under "Can I get a subsidised job in my current workplace?".

If you satisfy the criteria, you may be given a temporary subsidised job.

• If you are under 40, you can only be admitted to the subsidised employment scheme for five years at a time.
• If you are over 40, you may, after the first temporary subsidised job for five years, be entitled to a permanent subsidised job if the local authority assesses that you are still unable to hold a job on ordinary terms.

A number of conditions must be satisfied before a subsidised job in your current workplace is possible:

• A subsidised job in your current workplace requires that you are employed on special terms for at least 12 months prior to the granting of the subsidised job. This is a necessary, but not sufficient, condition.
• You must enter into a written agreement with your employer on employment under the social chapters of the collective agreement or employment on special terms, before the 12-month period starts. The agreement must state the functions you find difficult to perform or cannot perform, and the specific special terms you have agreed.
• Moreover, you employer must provide evidence that real efforts have been made to create a permanent, unsubsidised job for you.

If you are absent and it cannot be established when you will have full capacity for work again, a written agreement should be made. The agreement must describe the measures that you and the company agree to ensure that you can work again, including the special needs you have.

It must be a written agreement, which means that both you and your employer must have accepted the contents. The law contains only few guiding points as to the minimum requirements of the agreement.

The written agreement may include agreements on relocation, change of work assignments, for example less customer contact, reduction of working hours, flexibility in relation to office hours and increased use of work at home. The agreement is a documentation requirement. It is therefore important that you write down all measures taken on an ongoing basis.

The agreement may be in the form of a separate document or an addendum to your employment contract. It depends on whether you make an agreement that considerably changes the terms of your employment or whether only minor changes are made.

The social chapter of the collective agreement should be used when the employee and the company make an agreement, and the company must involve the union representative when the agreement is made.

It is a good idea to keep minutes of meetings, e-mails, etc. to enable you to substantiate the scope of the efforts made to retain you in unsubsidised employment.

You will only get paid for the work you perform.

When the subsidised job is created, the job centre must assess your capacity for work, both in terms of number of hours and in terms of the level of intensity at which you are able to perform work. Based on the job centre's assessment, your pay and other employment terms are fixed in accordance with the collective agreement.

Your pay is supplemented by a salary subsidy, paid directly to you by the local authority. The subsidy is paid in arrears and cannot exceed 98% of the maximum rate of unemployment benefits, which is currently DKK 18,027.

Together, salary and subsidy cannot exceed the level of the pay you would receive if you were employed full time in the same position. If your income from employment is DKK 39,193 or more, no salary subsidy is granted by the local authority.

Many pension schemes allow you to receive an amount for loss of earning capacity or other support possibilities if you are sick for an extended period of time.

For this reason, it may be a good idea to examine whether it is possible for you to receive payments from your pension scheme. You can do so if you make an agreement on employment on special terms, or when your employer creates the subsidised job.

This may help you maintain your employment until it is possible to create a subsidised job, and it may place you in a better financial position.

If you are eligible for a subsidised job, you are entitled to unemployment benefits paid by the local authority. The level of the unemployment benefit depends on your means of subsistence at the time when you are admitted to the subsidised job scheme. The unemployment benefit is independent on your financial circumstances and the income of your spouse.

The amount of the unemployment benefit depends on your job status when you became eligible for the subsidised job:

• Sickness benefits:
  If you were entitled to sickness benefits when you became eligible for a subsidised job, the unemployment benefit cannot exceed 89 percent of the highest rate of unemployment benefit.
  As of 1 January 2017, the maximum is DKK 16,380 per month.
• Cash benefits:
  If you are admitted to the subsidised job scheme after a period on cash benefits or own maintenance, the maximum unemployment benefit you can get corresponds to the rate of cash benefit for recipients with children of DKK 14,808 and for recipients without children of DKK 11,143 per month, respectively.

Contact your pension company to find out whether you can receive payments under your pension scheme.

If you receive temporary benefits under the subsidised employment scheme or become an unemployed subsidised employee, you are covered by the same sanctions as unemployment benefit claimants. For example, the right to unemployment benefits is suspended for three weeks in the event of self-inflicted unemployment.

Remember always to contact your job centre to hear about any consequences, before you inter into a severance agreement.

If you receive temporary benefits as a subsidised employee, you are obliged actively to seek subsidised employment, and you must participate in contact interviews with the job centre every three months.

If you are an unemployed subsidised employee, you may, under certain conditions, have the possibility of six weeks' job-relevant training.

If you change to a new subsidised job, you will be remunerated according to the present rules. See more under "What will my pay be as a subsidised employee?".

It will not be a new subsidised job:

• If only your need for special terms or the number of hours changes.
• If only your job description is changed, e.g. because you are promoted, but you continue with the same tasks as before.
• If your place of duty changes because the tasks you perform are relocated to a new place of duty.

It will be a new subsidised job:

• If you stop in your present subsidised job because your contract expires or you are dismissed.
• If you change subsidised job from one employer to another.
• If you change to a new area of employment with the same employer and your tasks, pay and employment terms are changed at the same time. Involve your shop steward or union branch.