Tax freedom and job assistance for the country's most vulnerable - if they reside in the right municipality

By the sea, just a stone's throw from the German border, Melissa Jensen is doing something that seemed impossible just a year ago.

She is working. Only a few hours a week, but they are good hours spent with Vivi Nielsen Paulsen and all the others at the holiday resort Hohenwarte near Højer.

- When Melissa first came, I saw a person who was withering. Every time she comes, she blooms more and more. Now she shines more than she is gray, says Vivi Nielsen Paulsen, who owns Hohenwarte.

Melissa Jensen works approximately four hours a week, where she sits in the reception of Vivi Nielsen Paulsen, who owns Hohenwarte. (Photo: © Hanne Høier (DR))

What has made a big difference for Melissa Jensen is that, through her commune, Tønder, she has received a social work permit.

This means that she can earn nearly 43,000 DKK a year without being deducted from other benefits. This means that she occasionally has money to eat out.

- For me, it means a lot when I have a food budget that is scraped to the bone. It gives me a freedom to, for example, say yes to eating out with a friend one day.

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What is a social work permit?

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In 2019, the experimental program for the social work permit began, which gave socially disadvantaged citizens the opportunity to earn up to 20,000 DKK tax-free a year without their income affecting their public benefits.

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The social work permit has been a permanent program since January 1 of this year.

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In 2025, it became possible to earn up to 42,766 DKK tax-free a year without being deducted from, for example, cash assistance or other public assistance.

Source: Social and Housing Authority.

Four years ago, the dream of becoming a baker ended for Melissa Jensen when she was diagnosed with Crohn's disease, and since then, her life has been marked by several chronic diseases, long diagnostic and treatment processes, and an economy that has been just as unstable.

This has left its mark on Melissa Jensen, both physically and psychologically.

- I have pain, I am very tired and have little extra. It has taken a long time to accept that I am so sick that I cannot have full-time work, and that I cannot work in the profession I have wanted since I was a child, she says.

Melissa Jensen was in training to be a baker and had worked as an unskilled baker for seven years when she was diagnosed with Crohn's disease. (Photo: © Hanne Høier (DR))

But for Melissa Jensen, things are starting to look up. When she comes home from work at Hohenwarte, she feels good.

- So I have also made a difference. It gives me such a life-affirming feeling.

Melissa Jensen's commune, Tønder, is one of the communes that issues the most social work permits per resident. In other parts of the country, there may be few - or almost no social work permits in use.

This leads some critics to warn that the development is skewed.

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Large municipal differences

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On the well-known Denmark map, we are used to being presented with inequality. For example, there are the poor, the rich, and those in between. But what the map also shows is that there is inequality in the help that Denmark's disadvantaged receive when it comes to being granted a social work permit.

- It's really annoying, because we can see how big a difference it makes, says Kira West, who is chairman of the Council for Socially Disadvantaged.

She is backed up by Cabi, an unofficial think tank that works for a socially responsible labor market.

Anette Hansen is a senior consultant at Cabi and has studied the effects of the social work permit since it was a trial program in 2019.

- We can see how some of the here citizens, who are far from the labor market and are in vulnerable positions, can come into a business, maybe only a few hours a week, and become part of a work community. It is a life-improving order, says Anette Hansen.

But when Denmark map develops so differently, there are many disadvantaged who do not get a job opportunity, thinks Anette Hansen.

And it is according to the senior consultant because the municipalities are only obligated to visit citizens who themselves apply for a work permit. And that is not enough, thinks Anette Hansen.

- Legislation-wise, municipalities should be obligated to inform about the (ordering, red.) to the here resident groups, and also to help them find a job, says Anette Hansen.

The social work permit has been a permanent program since January 1 of this year, but there is a big difference in where in the country the permits are issued, and whether they actually lead to employment.

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Can be troublesome

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Zooming in on Bornholm, for example, one can see that 19 citizens have received a social work permit. And there are seven citizens who have or have had a job and therefore used the permit this year.

Linda Kofoed Persson, who is chairman of the Business and Employment Committee in Bornholms Regionskommune, explains that it is because the commune has prioritized other programs for the disadvantaged. Among other things, a program that aims to get people with psychiatric problems into ordinary jobs or education.

- Therefore, we may not have made much use of the social work permit, and we could certainly make more use of it, says Linda Kofoed Persson.

She also points out that the permit can be troublesome for employers, because the salary cannot be run through the same system as the other employees.

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Answer from the Municipalities' Association

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Chairman of KL's Social Committee, Ulrik Wilbek writes the following to DR.

- Denmark's municipalities make a great effort to help disadvantaged citizens as best as possible through a range of initiatives and offers. Based on local experiences, the variety of other offers and, of course, the situation of the individual citizen, it is up to the individual municipality to decide which initiative is the right one. And so we think that it should still be, because it is judgments that give the best meaning to make.

- If it were to become a legal requirement that municipalities use the social work permit in a certain way, it would raise a discussion about what resources it would require.

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Encourages municipalities to use it more

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From Bornholm and to the other end of the country - in Tønder Municipality, where Theresé Andersen is head of employment, the role of the social work permit is a bit different than on Bornholm.

In Tønder, the program has had strong political support, Theresé Andersen tells.

- It (the program, red.) is actually in our employment plan, which the politicians have helped to draft and approve, she says.

And therefore, it has become a major focus area for the municipality's employees when they meet citizens outside the labor market.

- Our employees are aware that we have this tool, and that we want to use it. When we have conversations with disadvantaged citizens, we tell them that it is an option, says Theresé Andersen.

Theresé Andersen tells that there is strong political support for the program with the social work permit in Tønder Municipality. (Photo: © Hanne Høier (DR))

Social and Housing Minister Sophie Hæstorp Andersen from the Social Democrats acknowledges that it is very different how much the different municipalities have taken on the program.

She wants to encourage municipalities to use it more, but she will not obligate municipalities to do so by law.

- I want to encourage municipalities to look at it, but it is clear that it is different how many citizens, one has in the target group in different places, says the minister.

In addition, she emphasizes that with the coming value reform, money has been set aside for civic organizations to be able to get more resources to go out and advise citizens in the target group about the social work permit.

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