Examples of cases – continuity and retaining

In very few instances, you can retain your status as a worker under EU law despite no longer being in employment. This applies if you wish to educate yourself in the occupational field within which you are already working in Denmark, or if you have become ill and can no longer perform the job for which you are trained and therefore need to undergo retraining.

Below, you can read a number of examples of cases involving foreign students who are EU/EEA citizens and have applied for SU on the basis of the rules of EU law governing retention of previous worker status. The examples show our decisions, which have all been made on the basis of judgements in relation to each student’s entire case. Therefore there may be factors regarding your application that lead to a different decision, even though your situation might closely resemble the examples.

A Rumanian citizen trained as a social and health care assistant immediately after entering Denmark and works in this role in Denmark for six months. She then wishes to train as a nurse and applies for SU. We deem there to be a connection both in terms of time and content between her work as a social and health care assistant and her training as a nurse. Therefore she will be granted SU.

A Swedish citizen has worked as a physiotherapist for three years, but is no longer able to perform his job due to health reasons and he therefore wishes to get a new education. As his illness prevents him from using his qualifications as a physiotherapist, we deem him eligible for SU for the purposes of retraining.

An Icelandic citizen is working as an unskilled person in Denmark when he contracts an illness that prevents him from continuing in his job, and he therefore wishes to get an education. We do not deem him eligible for SU for the education programme as there are other unskilled positions that he would be able to fill.

A Belgian citizen has been working as a typographer at a newspaper in Denmark. She can no longer use her qualifications as a typographer, as this type of position is being closed in connection with the introduction of IT. She now wishes to train as an architect and has applied for SU on the basis of the rules regarding retraining. We deem that she has become involuntarily unemployed due to structural conditions on the labour market for typographers and grant her SU for the education.