Low-income worker policy set to expire but no guidance yet

Head of the People's Petition Committee Duong Thanh Binh said this when presenting the report of the National Assembly Standing Committee on the results of supervising the settlement and response to voters' petitions sent to the 7th Session of the 15th National Assembly, at the opening session of the 8th Session of the 15th National Assembly, on the morning of October 21.

Through meetings with voters, 2,289 voters' petitions were compiled and sent to competent authorities for resolution, in which a number of areas continued to receive much attention from voters, such as: labor, war invalids and social affairs; health; transportation; agriculture, rural areas; natural resources, environment; education and training.

To date, 2,238 petitions have been resolved and responded to, reaching 97.8%. The National Assembly and its agencies have responded to 35/35 petitions, reaching 100%. The Government, ministries and central branches have resolved and responded to 2,112/2,162 petitions, reaching 97.7%. The Supreme People's Court and the Supreme People's Procuracy have resolved and responded to 27/27 petitions, reaching 100%.

Head of the People's Petition Committee Duong Thanh Binh

The report of the National Assembly Standing Committee also pointed out that through supervision, there are still some limitations in handling voters' petitions, affecting the legitimate rights of some subjects and the effectiveness of implementing some preferential policies of the State.

Since 2022, voters in many localities have continuously petitioned the Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs to issue specific guidelines on identifying "low-income workers".

Through monitoring, on January 18, 2022, the Prime Minister issued Decision No. 90 approving the National Target Program on Sustainable Poverty Reduction for the period 2021 - 2025. "Low-income workers" are one of the beneficiaries of the policy "Developing vocational education in poor and disadvantaged areas" according to Decision No. 90. Because there is no basis to determine what "low-income workers" are, localities cannot implement this policy.

Thus, after nearly 3 years of Decision No. 90 coming into effect, there is still no guidance on defining "low-income workers", so this preferential policy has not been implemented in practice, while the implementation time of Decision No. 90 is only more than 1 year.

The National Assembly Standing Committee recommends that the Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs urgently advise on the development and submission to the Government for promulgation of guidelines on identifying "low-income workers" as a basis for localities to implement, and at the same time draw experience in advising, developing and promulgating policies, ensuring that the policies are effectively implemented in practice.

According to Mr. Duong Thanh Binh, voters in many localities have reported a lack of vaccines in the Expanded Immunization Program at public health facilities, resulting in many children not being vaccinated on schedule or not getting enough doses, thus being at high risk of infection.

Through monitoring, it is shown that the Government has issued Resolution No. 98 dated July 10, 2023 on allocating the central budget in 2023 to the Ministry of Health to purchase vaccines for the Expanded Immunization Program, in which it has identified ensuring the earliest availability of vaccines as an urgent task and assigned the Ministry of Health in July 2023 to submit to the Government for promulgation a Decree amending Decree No. 104 regulating vaccination activities according to simplified procedures and order.

However, it was not until February 5, 2024 that Decree No. 13 amending Decree No. 104 was issued, according to which the central budget was allocated in the regular expenditure budget of the Ministry of Health to ensure funding for activities in the Expanded Immunization Program. It was not until June 2024 that the Ministry of Health issued the Expanded Immunization Plan for 2024, too late for localities to implement.

According to the report, in many localities, the shortage of vaccines in the Expanded Immunization Program has occurred since the end of 2022, and this situation is still occurring as of September 2024.

From there, the National Assembly Standing Committee recommended that the Government direct the Ministry of Health and localities to take drastic solutions to ensure adequate and timely supply of vaccines in the Expanded Immunization Program.

In addition, to date, the Ministry of Health has not issued full guidance documents under its authority on pricing methods and specific prices for medical examination and treatment services while there are only nearly 3 months left until the deadline for applying new prices for medical examination and treatment services. Therefore, the National Assembly Standing Committee recommends that the Ministry of Health urgently issue economic and technical norms and methods for calculating prices for medical examination and treatment services to be applied from January 1, 2025.

Source: https://vov.vn/chinh-tri/chinh-sach-cho-nguoi-lao-dong-co-thu-nhap-thap-sap-het-han-van-chua-co-huong-dan-post1129843.vov