On this page

1. Housing

2. Social services

3. Health care

4. Financial services

5. Quality assurance

Denmark has general welfare provisions for all people with legal residence in Denmark. The welfare provisions include a broad range of policy areas, such as health, employment, social services, etc. Some of the services and benefits are universal, while others target people with special needs. Most welfare services are a municipal responsibility.

Furthermore, the Act on Social Services (Lov om social service, LBK nr 1129 af 22/09/2025)  obliges municipalities to offer a large variety of services, support, and benefits to people with special needs.

Housing

Youth housing and access to affordable accommodation
Denmark’s housing policy includes several measures specifically targeting young people, particularly those in education or at risk of social exclusion. Within the social housing framework (almen boligsektor), municipalities and non-profit housing organisations provide youth housing for students in secondary or higher education and vocational training, as well as for young people in the early stages of their careers. Youth housing units can also be allocated to young people with special social needs. Eligibility is typically limited to people under the age of 35 who are enrolled in education or in the process of establishing themselves in the labour market. These dwellings are subsidised through state and municipal funding to ensure affordable and stable living conditions.

Transitional housing for young people 
With the 2023 reform of homelessness services, the transitional housing scheme was expanded to include social youth housing. Transitional housing may be allocated to young people with special social needs who are homeless or at risk of homelessness. Housing units, including youth housing, are provided through agreements between municipalities and housing associations, with rent subsidies available for up to five years to ensure affordability and support residents in becoming able to pay the full rent thereafter. (L 64 - 2022-23 Omlægning af indsatsen mod hjemløshed, udvidelse af ordning om udslusningsboliger og indretning af bofællesskaber m.v.) 

Start housing for socially marginalised young people (Startbolig til udsatte unge)
Start housing is a social housing initiative aimed at socially marginalised young people aged 18–24. Each residence has an affiliated social caretaker who supports young residents with practical daily activities and helps them maintain education or employment. The initiative seeks to promote independent living and prevent long-term social exclusion. No new financial commitments are being allocated for the establishment of more start housing residences, but until the end of 2030 it will continue to be a type of housing that is relevant for vulnerable young people.

Housing First for Youth (HF4Y)
Several Danish municipalities are working with Housing First for Youth (HF4Y) to prevent or reduce youth homelessness by focusing on access to safe, affordable and permanent housing, combined with individualized support. The focus is on health, education, employment, life skills and community participation. The target group includes young people experiencing homelessness or at risk of losing their housing.

Safe houses and youth crisis centres
The organisation RED Centre Against Honour-Related Conflicts operates safe houses for ethnic-minority youth under threat due to honour-related conflicts. 

Student housing
Throughout Denmark, housing associations (boligorganisation) provide affordable student housing and dormitories (kollegier). These are reserved for students enrolled in recognised education programmes. Some municipalities with large student populations offer a “roof-over-your-head” guarantee, ensuring that newly arrived students can access temporary accommodation, such as hostels or dormitories, for up to three months while searching for permanent housing.

Target groups and rationale
The main target groups of Danish youth housing measures are students, young people at the beginning of their professional lives, and young people facing social or mental health challenges. The initiatives aim to support independence, prevent homelessness and ensure that all young people have access to safe, stable and affordable housing—key prerequisites for education, employment and social inclusion.

Social services

Under the Act on Social Services (Lov om social service, LBK nr 1129 af 22/09/2025) and the Child’s Act (Barnets lov, LBK nr 282 af 17/03/2025) Danish municipalities are obliged to provide a range of support measures for young people with special needs. This includes the provision of regular contact persons for young people over the age of 18 who have been placed in out-of-home care, and lay representatives for children and young people under 18. Municipalities must also offer counselling, personal assistance, and support in the form of technical aids to individuals with permanent physical or mental impairments. Furthermore, the municipal council is required to provide assistance for the layout and interior design of homes to make them suitable for persons with disabilities, as well as support for other consumer durables. Transportation support is also available, such as interest-free loans for the purchase of cars for persons with permanent impairments.

These provisions primarily target individuals with permanent physical or mental impairments, young people who have been placed in out-of-home care, and children and young people with special needs.

Children and young people with autism are overrepresented among children and young people placed in care outside the home when compared to the rest of the population. The 2023 allocation of the reserve for measures within the social, health, and employment sectors (SSA-reserven) allocated a total of 1.5 million DKK to complete an examination that looks into the number of children with autism placed in care outside the home. The examination was published in 2025, and the Minister of Social Affairs and Housing will now look into possible solutions for the overrepresentation.

The Act on Social Services (Lov om social service, LBK nr 67 af 22/01/2024) entitles children below the age of 18 to psychological treatment when their mothers or fathers have been victims of domestic violence and take shelter at a crisis centre. Furthermore, the men and women taking shelter at a crisis centre are offered ten hours of free psychological treatment, regardless of the length of the stay. The obligation to provide psychological treatment must be effectuated during the stay or in continuation of it. In addition, public subsidies for psychological treatment are provided for a wide range of incidents, for instance, depression, sexual abuse, incest, abortion, and death in the near family (list not complete).

The following initiatives are also of relevance:

Nota provides access to books for people with reading disabilities. Nota offers more than 40 000 books, such as audiobooks, books in Braille, and e-books. Furthermore, Nota can produce study books in specific formats for people with a reading disability or visually impaired people enrolled at a higher education institution.

Young people in primary and lower secondary education (folkeskole) may be entitled to special support in ordinary teaching or to special needs education. For more information, see section 6.6.

The Student Counselling Service (Studenterrrådgivningen) is a counselling service at higher education institutions. The objective of the service is to provide social, psychological, and psychiatric counselling and treatment to students at a bachelor’s, professional bachelor’s, and master’s level so that they can complete their studies without unnecessary extension and without unnecessary drop-outs. The staff at the counselling service units consists of psychologists, social workers with psychotherapeutic training, and psychiatric specialist physicians. All staff have a duty of confidentiality, and students can contact the counselling service anonymously. The counselling service is an institution under the Danish Ministry of Higher Education and Science.

For social services in the education system dedicated to removing obstacles to the participation of young people in education and training, see section 6.6.

SSP is a municipal cooperation between schools, social services and police. Over the years other public and private actors have joined the cooperation, for instance, voluntary organisations, youth clubs, and youth guidance centres. The aim of SSP is to prevent juvenile crime concerning children between the ages of ten and 18 and to reduce the number of 18-25-year-olds who commit serious crimes.

Placement of children and youth outside of the home in Denmark

According to the Child’s Act (Barnets lov, LBK nr 282 af 17/03/2025), the municipal council must decide on measures deemed to be essential to a child’s or young person’s special need for support.

Under some circumstances, it may be relevant for the municipality to consider removing the child from the home to ensure the health and development of the child. The placement of a child in care can only be considered by the municipality responsible if a number of conditions are met. Placement of a child outside the home is the most far-reaching type of support, but it can be considered if the municipality assesses that this is necessary to meet the needs of the child. The municipality is obligated to try to make the arrangement with the support and consent of the parents who have custody of the child.

If the parents in custody of the child or the child of 15 years or older do not support a decision to place the child in care, the Children and Young Persons Committee (Børne og ungeudvalget) in the municipality can decide to place the child in care without the consent of the parents in accordance with section 47 of the Child’s Act.

The Children and Young Persons Committee in the municipality can only make this decision if there is an obvious risk that the health or development of the child or young person under the age of 18 years will suffer serious harm, for instance, due to inadequate care or treatment of the child or young person, abuse that the child or young person has been subjected to, or due to other behavioural or adaptation problems the child or young person has.

For young people in the 18-22 age group, the municipalities may offer continuation of residence when the young person has been placed outside the home. The residence can be prolonged until the young person turns 23.

The Danish Parliament has amended the law so that Danish municipalities since May 1, 2025, are no longer allowed to use standardized psychological test in cases regarding placement of children from Greenlandic families in Denmark. Instead, municipalities must use a special unit having expertise in Greenlandic language and cultural affairs (”Særlig enhed med ekspertise i grønlandske forhold under den nationale videns- og specialrådgivningsorganisation (VISO) i Social- og Boligstyrelsen”).

Health care

In Denmark, part of the healthcare system is free. General practitioners, treatment at hospitals, and visits to the accident and emergency department are free. Furthermore, in Denmark, children and young people below the age of 22 are entitled to free dental treatment and a free childhood vaccination programme, including the HPV vaccine for boys and girls.  Since 2021, there has been access to free psychological treatment for all 18-24 year-olds with mild to moderate anxiety and depression.

In 2025, the Government and the Danish Parliament agreed on an Agreement on a comprehensive 10-year plan for psychiatry. This means, among other things, that the responsibility for treatment for 18-24 year-olds with mild to moderate anxiety and depression will be transferred to the Danish regions. At the same time, a right to treatment within 30 days will be introduced. If the right cannot be respected, there must be the possibility of a private alternative. The offer will come into effect on 1 October 2026.

Furthermore, to improve the mental health of children and young people a new easily accessible intervention in the municipalities has been implemented. The easily accessible intervention helps to ensure that children and young people experiencing mental distress and symptoms of mental illness receive timely and consistent access to treatment in the municipalities, before their mental distress worsens. 

According to the Executive Order on Interpreting Assistance in Accordance with the Danish Health Act (bekendtgørelse om tolkebistand efter sundhedsloven, BEK nr 855 23/06/2018), citizens coming to Denmark have the right to interpretation in the Danish healthcare system free of charge for the first three years after their arrival.

A fee for interpreting assistance is charged from everyone who has lived in Denmark for three years or longer unless they are covered by a set of specified exemptions.

Exempted from the scheme are patients who have temporarily or permanently lost the ability to acquire and maintain the required Danish skills because of reduced physical or mental function. In addition, children under the age of 18, parents who accompany their children for treatment,

and people from the German minority in Denmark who need interpreting assistance in relation to the German language are not subject to the scheme. Interpretation of the Greenlandic or Faroese languages is exempt from the scheme.

According to the Act on Active Social Policy (Lov om aktiv socialpolitik LBK nr 1004 af 30/06/2025), the municipality may offer financial support for medical treatment, medicine, and dental treatment that cannot be covered by any other legislation. The act covers, for instance:

• Dental expenses above DKK 600 for persons in the 18-24 age group
• Dental expenses above DKK 600 for persons in the 25-29 age group receiving education benefit (uddannelseshjælp) or integration benefit (integrationsydelse)

The Act on Social Services obliges municipalities to offer treatment to people with problematic alcohol or drug use. This treatment must be effectuated within 14 days of contacting the municipality. Furthermore, the municipalities must offer anonymous treatment to people with problematic alcohol or drug use who have no other social problems related to The Act on Social Services.

Since 2016, young trans persons can be offered transgender hormone therapy if they are in Tanner stage 2 or more. According to the Ministerial Instruction on Health Professional Support in Relation to Gender Identity Issues (vejledning om sundhedsfaglige hjælp ved kønsidentitetsforhold, Vej nr 9060 af 16/08/2018), the treatment consists of several conversations with medical specialists, paediatricians, and psychologists, and diagnosis through tests, surveys, and examinations. After the diagnostic phase, the young person can be offered hormones that stop the young person from entering puberty (suppressive hormone therapy). The young person can begin the second stage of treatment, which introduces cross-sex hormones when the effect of suppressive hormone therapy has been assessed and a thorough professional and individual assessment has been performed. Cross-sex hormones begin the transition from one sex to another.

Furthermore, the young person can be entitled to speech-language pathological education in order to modify their voice and speech.

The Act on Special Pedagogical Support (Lov om specialpædagogisk støtte ved videregående uddannelser,  LBK nr 1507 af 07/12/2022) entitles young people with physical or mental disabilities enrolled in FGU, upper secondary education programmes, or higher education programmes to special support. The objective of the special support is to help the target group complete their education in the same way as students who do not experience such impairments. For more information, see section 6.6.

According to the Act on Health Care (sundhedsloven, LBK nr 275 af 12/03/2025) Danish municipalities are responsible for safeguarding the health and well-being of children and young people. This responsibility is carried out through a range of free services, including health visitors and school nurses in primary and lower secondary education, as well as free dental care for all individuals under the age of 18. Following a political agreement, the age limit for free dental care is being gradually raised between 2022 and 2025 to cover all young people up to the age of 22. Municipalities are also responsible for providing rehabilitation after hospitalisation and treatment for alcohol and substance abuse, while some municipalities and clinics additionally offer free dental care to homeless people. Furthermore, the 2021 Finance Bill allocated DKK 5 million annually for 2023–2025 to strengthen support for children and young people growing up with parents who suffer from physical or mental illness or live in families affected by violence.

Financial services

Denmark provides a range of top-level policy measures designed to ensure that young people have access to financial services, that their risk of financial exclusion is mitigated, and that vulnerable youth are specifically targeted.

Young people who are enrolled in public secondary or higher education programmes may receive the state educational grant (SU). In special circumstances they may be eligible for supplementary monthly grants, for instance when students have disabilities or are sole breadwinners. See section 6.6 for more information on the grant. In addition, young tenants with low income may qualify for housing benefit (boligstøtte) to help cover the rent of housing with a separate kitchen. These allowances aim to ensure that youth can participate in education and independent living without being financially excluded.

For vulnerable young people – including those with mental-health challenges, those not in employment or education (NEETs), or those from migrant backgrounds – municipalities offer social assistance and special youth supplements. Under the revised social assistance rules (effective 2025), there are dedicated “youth supplements” for persons under 30 years of age. Furthermore, debt counselling and targeted financial inclusion projects (for example aimed at youth gambling debt) are supported by national-level funds for the social sector.

The main target groups are students in education, young people under the age of 30 who are not yet established in the labour market, and young persons facing social or psychological vulnerabilities that place them at risk of exclusion. The rationale is that stable access to allowances, support and credit enables young people to complete education, avoid debt traps, secure employment and participate fully in society.

These policy measures are administered by the relevant ministries (The Ministry of Children and Education and the Ministry of Employment), by the public agency Udbetaling Danmark and by municipal job- and youth-centres. 

All public administration according to the Act on Healthcare (sundhedsloven, LBK nr 275 af 12/03/2025), the Act on Active Social Policy (Lov om aktiv socialpolitik LBK nr 1004 af 30/06/2025) and the Act on Social Services (Lov om social service, LBK nr 1129 af 22/09/2025 ) is supervised.

According to the Act on Social Services, the municipalities must supervise their social offers regarding the management and economy of the offers and the effects of the measures initiated.

The Danish Authority of Social Services and Housing works to obtain the best knowledge available on effective methods and practice within the field of social work, as well as communicating and distributing this knowledge to ensure its use in practice. This is done through the comprehensive counselling of municipalities, the Danish Regions, and individual citizens (by the National Knowledge and Specialised Advisory Organisation) on questions related to social work and by supporting the municipalities when implementing social methods and practices.

Furthermore, the board manages the coordination of specialised social services, which ensures a sufficient range of social facilities and dissemination of information for citizens who have very rare functional impairments, particularly complex social problems or other complex needs.

This is done by:

• Monitoring developments in target populations, social facilities and interventions at highly specialised areas and highly specialised educational areas through regular and close dialogue and collaboration with the municipalities as well as user and interest groups
• Ensuring the sufficient range of social facilities by identifying and announcing where there is a need for increased coordination or planning across municipalities and regions
• Collecting knowledge and developing instructive professional procedure descriptions for different target groups with the most special needs

The Social Appeals Board is entitled to initiate investigations when there is reasonable suspicion that a municipality has not considered all necessary contingencies. The Social Appeals Board can obligate the municipality to take the necessary initiatives in the interest of the child or young person. Furthermore, the municipalities must report on measures and initiatives offered.

According to the Act on Healthcare (Sundhedsloven, LBK nr 275 af 12/03/2025), the minister of health, the municipalities, and the regions establish a set of common targets for the quality development of the Danish healthcare system.

The Danish Patient Safety Authority carries out a wide range of tasks aimed at strengthening patient safety across the healthcare system. Its responsibilities include supervising authorised health professionals and healthcare organisations, and issuing registrations in 20 different healthcare professions to both Danish and foreign practitioners. The Authority also grants permissions to practise independently as a medical doctor, dentist, or chiropractor, and issues specialist registrations within 39 medical and two dental specialities. 

The Danish Health Authority works to ensure quality in the healthcare system. The authority develops clinical guidelines based on evidence and best practices. The objective of the clinical guidelines is to support a coherent and similar treatment in municipalities, regions, and clinics across the country. Furthermore, the authority can initiate evaluations of activities in the healthcare system. The evaluations can include all aspects of the healthcare system, and healthcare actors are obliged to provide information for these analyses.

According to the Act on Active Social Policy (Lov om aktiv socialpolitik, LBK nr 1004 af 30/06/2025), the municipalities must collect information on citizens receiving help based on the act. If a citizen, despite knowledge to the contrary, receives help, the municipality can claim a refund.