4 million people withdraw social insurance at once, how will they live after retirement?

On the morning of June 1, during the National Assembly's discussion session on the socio-economic situation, many National Assembly deputies expressed concern that workers are in debt to pay social insurance and that the massive withdrawal of social insurance at one time will lead to future consequences.

Delegate Nguyen Hoang Bao Tran (Binh Duong) pointed out that in reality, there are currently about 2.7 million workers nationwide whose businesses owe them social insurance for one month or more. Of these, more than 200,000 people have their benefits suspended because their businesses have gone bankrupt, dissolved, or had owners who have fled. Hundreds of thousands of these workers have their salaries deducted every month to pay into the insurance fund, but their benefits are not fully guaranteed because the businesses have not fulfilled their payment obligations as prescribed.

Recently, the number of unemployed workers due to lack of orders from companies has increased rapidly; these workers need unemployment benefits but cannot close their insurance books.

Delegates proposed that the Government direct the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs and the Vietnam Social Security to have solutions to handle businesses that evade social insurance payments, ensure legitimate rights for workers, and have support policies for workers affected by errors caused by businesses.

Also talking about social insurance, delegate Le Thi Thanh Lam (Hau Giang) suggested that the Government should soon pay attention to the issue of workers' social insurance withdrawal time, earlier than the prescribed time.

The current regulation is that workers can only withdraw after 12 months of unemployment, which is a long time, making it difficult for workers to receive social insurance at one time. Voters and workers propose to shorten the time from 3-6 months.

She proposed that the Government should have more policies to support workers who are laid off or lose their jobs, such as policies to support renting accommodation or supporting electricity, water, job conversion, etc. while workers lose their jobs.

Previously, on the afternoon of May 31, delegate Nguyen Thi Minh Trang (Vinh Long) also mentioned the reality of the number of people withdrawing social insurance at one time, increasing by 20% compared to the same period in 2022.

Delegate Truong Xuan Cu (Hanoi) emphasized that the Party and State pay great attention to social policies, including social insurance, but according to reported data from 2021 to present, about 4 million people have withdrawn social insurance at one time.

According to the delegate, "this can solve the immediate difficulties for people withdrawing social insurance, but it is a concern, because in 15-20 years or longer, how will these people live?"

He suggested that it is necessary to study how to increase voluntary social insurance.

Delegate Nguyen Truc Anh (Hanoi) said that the proposed solution to increase salaries for officials and civil servants is not fundamental and does not solve the root of the problem. If salaries are to be increased, how much increase is enough when Vietnam's labor productivity is among the lowest in the world?

In addition to increasing wages, there should be fundamental solutions such as attracting high-quality human resources to increase labor productivity, providing housing through social housing policies, children going to good schools, transportation supported by public transport, and adequate vacation and leave regimes.

Delegate Truc Anh said that the above solution is applied by most countries; this is also a policy to attract human resources to the public sector when market prices are falling, inflation is high and salary increases are difficult to bear.

On the other hand, the delegate noted the need to find solutions to increase labor productivity: "Low productivity is mainly due to system errors rather than individual errors. We have not designed a scientific working process, and the regulations and training are not complete. Decrees, circulars, and laws are not clear, and there are many interpretations, leading to civil servants not knowing what to do. When they boldly do something, sometimes it is right, sometimes it is wrong, so it is ineffective and productivity is low."

He expressed his thoughts that it would be difficult for the Government to come up with a legal framework to protect those who dare to think and act because "civil servants must follow regulations and should not be creative outside of regulations."

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