A German biochemist who came to Denmark 15 years ago as specialised labour has been granted a Danish disability pension, nine years after a stress-related breakdown in the pharmaceutical industry.
Julia Hinderberger, 48, from Copenhagen, told her story in reporting published on October 20 by DR. She holds a PhD in biology and specialised in biochemistry. She worked first as an academic researcher, later in the pharmaceutical industry, one of Denmark’s economically most important sectors.
In 2017, at the age of 38, she was signed off sick with a stress reaction after a heavy workload. The trigger, she told DR, was a large urgent assignment on top of an already full job. A colleague sent her home after she broke down in tears at work.
Nine years of work trials and years without income
A subsequent medical certificate described a prolonged stress reaction and burnout. Hinderberger said she initially expected the sick leave to be temporary. Instead came almost nine years of illness, work trials and attempts to return to the labour market.
She was placed in company internships in a flower shop and later a secondhand shop. For three years she had a small wage income delivering newspapers and advertising. She told DR she was without income for more than six years.
In March 2026, Copenhagen Municipality awarded her a disability pension. According to the decision, her work capacity is now so reduced that she cannot support herself through paid work. Hinderberger said she never got the quiet she needed to recover before being sent into work trials.
Economic Council report published the same day
Her case was published alongside a new analysis from De Økonomiske Råd on stress and labour supply. According to DR, the analysis finds that 91,000 Danes have ended up on disability pension after severe stress. The annual bill for public finances can reach 30 billion kroner.
The Ministry of Economic Affairs and Interior states that more than one in ten people who experience severe stress leave employment, with long-term effects on labour-market participation. Akademikerne notes the report puts the reduction in the workforce at 99,000 full-time workers.
The Confederation of Danish Industry points out that the share of 20 to 59-year-olds experiencing severe stress has stayed around 2.5 percent since 2006. Akademikerne adds that work-related stress alone reduced labour supply by roughly 16,000 to 39,000 people through 2023. Hinderberger told DR she would much rather be working and paying tax.
Per Ritzau, cited by DR, labour market parties and other central actors have been called to a series of roundtable talks starting Friday. The talks are hosted by Economic Affairs and Interior Minister Pia Olsen Dyhr (SF). The concrete content is not known, but the invitations follow the Economic Council report on work-related stress.
What the case means for international workers in Denmark
Several Danish terms appear in this case. A sygemelding is a formal sick leave notice, while an arbejdsprøvning or virksomhedspraktik is a municipal work trial used to test remaining work capacity. Førtidspension, the disability pension, is granted by the municipality, in this case Copenhagen, and only when work capacity is judged permanently insufficient for self-support.
For internationals, the practical point in DR’s reporting is that these assessments run through the municipality over years, and that Hinderberger says she was left without income for more than six years. Her account also touches on Danish work culture and on workplace mental health support, and the rules on sick leave and work capacity sit within Danish employment law. What the roundtable talks will change is not yet known.
