Expanding social insurance coverage
On July 13 in Ho Chi Minh City, the National Assembly's Social Committee held a workshop in the southern region to collect opinions on the draft Law on Social Insurance (amended) and major population issues that need attention.
At the workshop, Mr. Dang Thuan Phong, Vice Chairman of the Committee, raised issues that the public is particularly interested in, such as the multi-level social insurance regime, regulations on one-time withdrawal of social insurance, etc.
Workshops were organized by the Social Committee in each region to hear opinions on new points of the revised Social Insurance Law.
According to Ms. Pauline Tamesis, United Nations Resident Coordinator and Chief Representative of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) in Vietnam, social insurance in Vietnam has been helping to protect workers from many unexpected situations in life such as illness, work accidents, old age and death.
However, it is worrying that the current social insurance coverage rate only accounts for 37% of the workforce, much lower than the target set by Vietnam of achieving 60% insurance coverage by 2030.
In the context of Vietnam's rapidly aging population, the development of a strong social insurance system is increasingly urgent to ensure social security for the people, especially the elderly.
Therefore, she highly appreciated the new provisions to expand the coverage of the social insurance system in the bill. According to her, these important changes can bring about strong and positive impacts, expanding the coverage of social insurance in the coming years.
Mr. Carlos Andre da Silva Gama Nogueira, expert of the International Labor Organization (ILO) in Vietnam, affirmed that expanding the coverage of the compulsory social insurance system is the first issue that the ILO recommends Vietnam to do when amending the law.
According to Mr. Carlos Andre da Silva Gama Nogueira, in the world, only Vietnam and one other country allow one-time withdrawal of social insurance.
Seeing direct benefits, employees will not withdraw social insurance at one time.
Speaking at the workshop, experts were concerned that the progress of expanding the coverage of the social insurance system could be affected by employees withdrawing their social insurance contributions at one time.
According to Mr. Andre Gama, in the world, only Vietnam and one other country allow one-time withdrawal of social insurance. But changing this regulation immediately will be very unstable, causing loss of trust among employees and may lead to people rushing to withdraw their social insurance at one time.
Therefore, ILO experts recommend that the best way to retain workers in the social insurance system is to gradually reduce the need for one-time social insurance withdrawals. To do this, it is possible to gradually reduce the amount of money that workers can withdraw at one time, increase the waiting time to receive insurance withdrawals...
At the same time, it is necessary to strengthen short-term subsidy regimes for workers when they encounter difficulties, expand coverage and increase the effectiveness of unemployment insurance to help them reduce financial burden when they lose their jobs, and increase sustainable employment for workers...
Delegates contributed many opinions on the regulation of one-time withdrawal of social insurance.
Dr. Trinh Thu Nga, Institute of Labor Science and Social Affairs (under the Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs) also recommended that there should be regulations for employees in difficulty to borrow from the Social Insurance Fund the amount they will receive when withdrawing their Social Insurance at one time. When employees return to work, they will pay this amount plus interest and the time they participate in Social Insurance will still be reserved.
Mr. Tran Dinh Lieu, Deputy General Director of Vietnam Social Security, is worried that lending employees 100% of the amount they receive when withdrawing social insurance at one time is very risky, and employees who borrow will leave and never return to the social insurance system again. Therefore, he suggested that the loan amount could be only 50% - 70% of the above level.
Attending the workshop, a representative of PouYuen Vietnam Co., Ltd. said that the company always complies with the regulations on paying social insurance for more than 45,000 Vietnamese employees and 500 foreign employees. The monthly social insurance payment is nearly 140 billion VND.
Therefore, businesses are very happy to see that the revised Law on Social Insurance has many provisions to enhance the rights of social insurance participants.
However, business representatives also pointed out the reality that when workers encounter difficulties and have to quit their jobs, most of them are already old, making it difficult to re-enter the labor market to pay social insurance and wait until retirement age.
Mr. Tran Dinh Lieu, Deputy General Director of Vietnam Social Security, proposed to limit the loan amount for workers in difficulty to be lower than the one-time withdrawal of social insurance.
This person said: "In the recent layoffs, there were cases of workers who had paid social insurance for 25 years but were actually only 45 years old, and had to wait more than 15 years to reach retirement age. At this age, it is difficult to find another job and continue to participate in social insurance."
In this case, employees can temporarily stop and reserve their social insurance contributions until retirement age, but when they receive their pension, it will be low. She suggested that we should study and increase the benefits for employees who quit their jobs so that they do not withdraw their social insurance contributions at once but reserve and stay in the social insurance system.
She said: "When workers see that they receive many direct benefits, there is no need to prohibit anything, they will voluntarily stay."
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