Amendment of the Law on Social Insurance to Increase Rights and Benefits for Employees

More Benefits for Employees

The Vietnamese Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs is collecting opinions from agencies, ministries, localities and people on the draft Law on Social Insurance (amended) from February 28 to April 30 before submitting to the Government and National Assembly.

According to Deputy Minister Nguyen Ba Hoan, the amended Law on Social Insurance ensures people's social security based on human rights in accordance with the Constitution and institutionalizing the contents of Resolution No. 28-NQ/TW dated May 23, 2018 issued in the 7th Conference of the 12th Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam on reforming social insurance policies towards a diversified, flexible, multi-layered modern direction, international integration, and coverage for the entire workforce.

Deputy Minister of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs Nguyen Ba Hoan speaks at a press conference on the draft Law on Social Insurance (amended). (Photo: Thoi Dai)

“This draft will fundamentally amend the problems and shortcomings from the practical implementation of the Law on Social Insurance 2014 and Resolution No. 93/2015/QH13. At the same time, the draft amended Law ensures constitutionality, legitimacy, and uniformity, feasibility, consistency with international standards and gender equality.

The rights and benefits of employees are also expanded and increased, attracting employees to participate in social insurance and best ensuring the interests of working employees and pensioners. Through this effort, state management regulations are completed, and a professional, modern, efficient, public and transparent organizational system is ensured”, said Deputy Minister Nguyen Ba Hoan.

The highlight of the draft law is the reduction of the minimum number of years of social insurance contributions to enjoy pension from 20 years to 15 years. This regulation is intended to create opportunities for late participants (45-47 years old to start participating) or those who participate intermittently (not accumulating 20 years of social insurance contributions by the time of retirement).

In accordance with the draft amended Law, they will receive a monthly pension. Periodically the pension levels will be adjusted by the State and medical insurance will also be covered for them during the period of pension enjoyment.

The draft also adds regulations on calculating the rate of pension enjoyment for those who have contributed social insurance less than 20 years, in accordance with the amendments to the conditions for pension enjoyment and the signing and joining of international treaties.

To increase the attractiveness of voluntary social insurance, the draft law stipulates that employees participating in voluntary social insurance will have the opportunity to receive maternity benefits when giving birth. The payment will be guaranteed by the State budget and voluntary social insurance participants do not pay higher than current regulations.

Expanding Social Insurance Participants

The 2014 Law on Social Insurance expands the participants to include business managers, executive managers of cooperatives with salary; to concretize Resolution No. 28-NQ/TW. The draft amended Law on Social Insurance continues to expand the subjects of business household heads, business managers, managers of unpaid cooperatives and employees working flexible (part-time employees) will participate and enjoy 5 levels of compulsory social insurance.

The Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs provides information on the draft Law on Social Insurance (amended). (Photo: Thoi Dai)

The addition of the above subjects will ensure compliance with the new provisions of the Law of Labor, and at the same time ensure an increase in benefits when the target groups participate and increase the coverage of social insurance.

In addition, the draft law includes sickness and maternity benefits for workers in communes, wards and towns. According to the current law, this group of subjects is only entitled to retirement and survivorship. If this regulation is passed, it is estimated that about 100,000 people will directly benefit from it.

Building Multi-layered Social Insurance

The draft Law on Social Insurance (amended) adds social retirement benefits beside the basic social insurance (for both mandatory and voluntary social insurance). This additional pension insurance forms a multi-layered social insurance system, and at the same time, supplements regulations on the link between the two in order to expand the beneficiaries.

The draft stipulates that Vietnamese citizens aged 80 or older who do not have a pension or other monthly social insurance allowance will be entitled to a social retirement allowance guaranteed by the state budget.

This regulation is expected to help increase the coverage of social insurance to gradually move towards the goal of universal social insurance. The Government takes the responsibility to decide to gradually reduce the age for enjoying social pension benefits, which is more flexible and suitable to the situation and development of the country.

The draft Law on Social Insurance (amended) adds many benefits for working employees and pensioners. (Photo: Thoi Dai)

In particular, the draft stipulates that employees who reach retirement age but do not meet the conditions for the period of social insurance contribution to enjoy their pension can choose to receive a monthly allowance (at least equal to the social retirement allowance level) from the social insurance fund. This allowance will be paid for the period before the age to enjoy social pension benefits, depending on their contribution time, salary, and monthly contribution. At the same time, they are also entitled to health insurance guaranteed by the state budget.

After collecting opinions from agencies, ministries, localities, businesses and people, the draft Law on Social Insurance (amended) will be completed and submitted to the Government for comments before sending to the National Assembly for the first discussion at the working session in October 2023.

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