Danish Deputy Prime Minister and leader of the Liberal (Venstre) Party, Troels Lund Poulsen, has announced plans to review “non-Western immigrant” access to early retirement pensions.
Poulsen, citing disparities in the number of recipients from immigrant backgrounds compared to native Danes, said he wanted to reform Denmark’s disability pension system, which grants access to early retirement.
His comments made during an interview with Danish newspaper Berlingske on December 11, followed the release of a study by the Danish Employers’ Association. That revealed an over-representation of disability pension recipients among immigrants from non-Western countries.
The study published on November 19 found that while only 6.6 per cent of Danes received a disability pension, the figure increased more than 29 per cent for Iraqi immigrants.
Among those aged 50-67, two-thirds of Iraqis in Denmark get a pension compared to just 11 per cent of Danes. High numbers were also recorded for immigrants from Lebanon, Afghanistan and the former Yugoslavia.
“These numbers are striking,” Poulsen said, emphasising the need for uniform standards.
“We cannot have one set of rules for immigrants and another for Danes.”
He added that the findings likely indicated what he called a “a tendency to approve disability pensions on softer grounds” for certain immigrant groups.
On December 12, Poulsen, said that “immigrants on disability pension must be checked for work capacity”.
“We will do something about this politically – because it is both a human catastrophe and a declaration of bankruptcy for the entire system. If you can work, then you should work.
“We cannot live with the fact that, for example, two out of three Iraqis over the age of 50 receive a disability pension. It is a failure over many years, where we have been too generous with [to whom] we give disability pension”.
The Early Retirement Pension scheme in Denmark was designed to support those with significant and permanent work incapacity due to physical, mental, or social challenges and aims to provide a safety net for those unable to sustain employment.
Poulsen argued that the system may be disproportionately lenient towards non-Western immigrants, undermining its fairness and integrity.
The Liberal Party has previously voiced concerns about welfare dependency among immigrant communities.
In a July 19 press release, it warned of major challenges caused by too many people on public welfare in vulnerable residential areas.
“These are parallel societies where children grow up without role models who go to work and whom they can look up to,” it said.
The party said it wanted to “reassess the cases in these areas in which early retirement has been granted”.
