Questioning Minister of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs Dao Ngoc Dung, delegate Ma Thi Thuy (Tuyen Quang delegation) said that public opinion was upset about the illegal collection of compulsory social insurance for individual business owners and asked the minister to state his views and solutions to this issue.

Responding to delegates at the question-and-answer session before the National Assembly at the fifth session on the morning of June 6, Minister Dao Ngoc Dung said that this issue was raised in the report of the People's Petition Committee under the National Assembly Standing Committee on the results of monitoring the settlement and response to voters' petitions sent to the fourth session of the 15th National Assembly.

Minister of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs Dao Ngoc Dung: It is best to encourage and adjust the transition to compulsory social insurance, ensuring that people in their old age will have a pension and a stable life.

Accordingly, through monitoring, it was found that, according to the provisions of the law on social insurance, individual business owners are not subject to compulsory social insurance, but from January 2003 to December 2021, social insurance agencies in many localities collected compulsory social insurance for these cases.

According to the Vietnam Social Security, as of September 2016, 4,240 individual business owners in 54 localities had paid compulsory social insurance. Thus, the social security sector has collected compulsory social insurance from a large number of individual business owners in most provinces and cities nationwide.

Because the implementation of compulsory social insurance is not in accordance with the law, individual business owners have not been able to count the time they have paid compulsory social insurance to enjoy social insurance benefits, especially in many cases where they have paid social insurance for nearly 20 years.

Minister Dao Ngoc Dung said that this wrong collection took place from 2003 to 2016. The Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs has also discovered, corrected and basically resolved the issue. 8 inspection and examination teams in some localities regarding this issue have just ended; the Ministry also coordinated with the Central Economic Committee to survey localities to summarize 5 years of implementing Resolution No. 28-NQ/TW; especially to collect comments on the draft Law on Social Insurance (amended), which includes the content that social insurance agencies collect compulsory social insurance for business owners.

“This is a content that has not been regulated by law, so it needs to be evaluated very specifically. In my personal opinion, I think that the interests of workers and business owners must be put first. If a public agency makes a mistake, it must apologize and handle it according to regulations,” Minister Dao Ngoc Dung emphasized.

The head of the Department of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs also proposed three solutions to the above problem.

The first is to propose transferring all these households to compulsory social insurance to ensure their rights. Second, if the business households do not need to transfer to compulsory social insurance, they can transfer to voluntary social insurance. Third, if both the employees and the agency do not agree, they must withdraw and return the money to the employees with interest.

“However, I emphasize once again that the interests of workers must be put first. It is best to encourage and adjust policies to switch to compulsory social insurance, ensuring that workers have pensions and a stable life in old age,” Minister Dao Ngoc Dung stated his opinion.

Later, speaking further about whether there was profiteering or not, Minister Dao Ngoc Dung frankly said: "We have not discovered any signs of profiteering, but there are mistakes."

The Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs plans to include business owners in the compulsory insurance coverage when drafting the law. If approved by the National Assembly, the Government will take necessary measures to ensure the rights of workers, including extending the insurance payment period if people want to switch to compulsory or voluntary insurance.

NGUYEN THAO