Welfare reform could leave hundreds of vulnerable people with no income, immigration minister interested in ‘legal basis’ for call to prayer ban and more news this Monday.
Hundreds risk losing income in disability benefit reform
A reform to the social welfare benefits system which takes effect on February 1st could leave 1,700 people without their income, newspaper Politiken reports.
According to a memo issued in parliament by the employment minister, Kaare Dybvad Bek, the situation affects people who would have been placed on a so-called resourceforløb next year. That scheme is being scrapped and the relevant jobseekers will instead rely on kontanthjælp, the basic form of unemployment welfare.
However, eligibility criteria mean that some people on the former benefit cannot receive the latter.
A national organisation for people with disabilities, Danske Handicaporganisationer, criticised the decision to scrap the scheme, which was designed to help people return to the labour market gradually after extended periods away.
It is often granted to people with physical or mental health problems and is also available to people with social problems or substance abuse issues.
“These are people who often struggle with social and mental health problems and who have frequently been in the system for many years. They have had no real opportunity to save anything at all, which means this is a very vulnerable group that will be hit by this,” the organisation’s chairperson Thorkild Olesen told Politiken.
Danske Bank completes money-laundering probation period
A three-year probation period that Danske Bank agreed as part of a settlement with authorities in the United States has ended, bringing proceedings to a close relating to a major money laundering scandal at the bank’s Estonian branch in the late 2010s.
In December 2022, Danske Bank announced that it had entered into a coordinated settlement with the US Department of Justice (DoJ), the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and Denmark’s National Unit for Special Crime (NSK).
Under the settlement, Danske Bank agreed to pay a total of 15.3 billion kroner.
Advertisement
As part of the agreement, the bank pleaded guilty to charges of fraud against other banks brought by the US Department of Justice.
One consequence of the settlement was that Danske Bank was placed on a three-year probation period. That has now been completed, the bank said in a statement.
““The historical events and their consequences have fundamentally changed our organisation and transformed our culture, and we are firmly committed to ensuring that similar behaviour never occurs again at Danske Bank, either now nor in the future,” CEO of Danske Bank Carsten Egeriis said in the statement.
Advertisement
Minister looking into ‘legal basis’ for action against rare Islamic call to prayer
Immigration Minister Rasmus Stoklund says he is keen to investigate the “legal basis” to make the Islamic call to prayer illegal in Denmark after 3 of the country’s 98 municipalities responded to an immigration ministry survey saying they had received complaints.
The three municipalities who said there had been calls to prayer and complaints were Copenhagen, Odense and Brøndby.
“I’m pleased it’s been confirmed that there are very few places in Denmark where you can experience something that resembles a call to prayer,” Stoklund told Ritzau.
The minister for integration said he wants to see whether it is possible to crack down on the practice despite its apparently rare occurrence.
“The problem doesn’t need to be big from my point of view for us to consider addressing it. I don’t want there to suddenly be a mosque with a call to prayer in a part of a town somewhere in Denmark before we address how to deal with it. I want to know our legal options now,” he said.