Expanding Coverage Is an Inevitable Requirement of Social Security Policy

Under VSS’ report reviewing and evaluating its performance during the 2021–2026 term, the number of SI participants increased from 16.552 million in 2021 to 20.159 million in 2024, reaching 21.344 million in 2025. In 2025, the proportion of the working-age labour force covered by SI stood at 45.1%, exceeding the 45% target set out in Resolution No. 28-NQ/TW. These figures reflect efforts to expand coverage and develop the social security system despite socio-economic challenges.

However, gaps remain. By the end of 2025, voluntary SIcoverage had reached 5.49% of the working-age labour force, exceeding the target of 5.4%. Nevertheless, further efforts are needed to expand participation among these groups, particularly informal workers, freelancers and people with irregular incomes.

The goal is not only to increase participation but also to tailor SI coverage to diverse employment conditions and income levels, ensuring no worker is left unprotected. Therefore, expanding SI coverage should be regarded as both an urgent and a long-term task, closely linked to institutional improvements, governance reform and better public services.

Illustrative photo

Preventing Legal Gap from Becoming Gap in Social Protection

A key issue in amending the 2024 Law on SI is defining compulsory coverage, particularly for workers outside traditional employment relationships and those on digital platforms.

The digital economy has created flexible, platform-based jobs with irregular incomes and no conventional contracts, yet workers still need social protection and pension entitlements.The digital economy has created flexible, platform-based jobs with irregular incomes and no conventional contracts, yet workers still need social protection and pension entitlements.

At the October 21, 2026 group discussion, National Assembly Chairman Tran Thanh Man said expanding SI coverage to digital platform workers aligned with Resolution No. 28-NQ/TW, but stressed the need to clarify who pays contributions, the income basis and platform responsibilities.

These questions do not undermine the need to expand SI coverage but ensure effective implementation through clear obligations, enforceable regulations and protection of workers’ rights. Digital platform workers have diverse work patterns, from regular employment to part-time jobs across multiple platforms, with fluctuating incomes depending on orders, hours and expenses.

Without clear eligibility criteria, contribution bases and defined responsibilities, compulsory SI coverage may be difficult to enforce, leading to disputes, higher compliance costs and reduced worker acceptance.

National Assembly Vice Chairman Nguyen Hong Dien noted that concepts such as “people working outside employment relationships,” “digital platform workers” and “stable and regular income” remained relatively general. He called for the law to establish clear core principles and criteria for determining who must participate in compulsory social insurance, alongside an appropriate implementation roadmap suitable with the characteristics of employment relationships, the ability to manage income and practical implementation conditions.

This requirement is critical to the policy quality. Expanding the groups covered on paper represents an innitial step, but establishing a mechanism that can identify eligible participants in practice is what ensures the policy delivers results. The broader the scope of regulation is, the clearer, more consistent and more practically applicable the identification criteria must be.

Accordingly, legal improvements should focus on several core issues: identifying the characteristics of different employment groups; clarifying the basis for determining income; defining the responsibilities of workers and relevant parties; and establishing appropriate procedures for registration, contribution payments and tracking participation records.

This approach would help prevent workers who need protection while limiting overly broad regulations that lack the necessary implementation conditions. More importantly, this would help workers understand that SIparticipation is not an obligation imposed without a clear basis, but a social security mechanism with transparent rules, specific entitlements and clearly assigned responsibilities.

Policies must be designed around clearly defined target groups, contribution responsibilities, implementation arrangements and appropriate roadmaps. (Illustrative photo)

Expansion Requires a Roadmap: Neither Rushing nor Delaying

If correctly identifying eligible participants is the first prerequisite, establishing an appropriate implementation roadmap is the next condition for effective SIcoverage expansion.

NA deputy Vuong Quoc Thang, representing the Da Nang municipal delegation, commended efforts to study international experience and propose solutions to expand social security for high-tech workers and freelancers. However, he noted that the legal framework governing labour, employment, wages and income determination for these groups remained incomplete. He said the draft law needed to clarify identification criteria, the income threshold for what constitutes stable and regular earnings, and the contribution responsibilities of the parties involved.

According to the deputy, imposing compulsory SIobligations before these elements are clearly defined could create significant compliance burdens, trigger disputes and fail to secure public consensus. He therefore proposed considering 2028 as a target date to allow time to complete the legal framework for platform-based work, develop and pilot an interconnected data system linking social security offices, tax authorities and companies operating digital platforms.

With a similar approach, National Assembly deputy Chu Luong Tri, representing the Quang Ninh province delegation, proposed a phased rollout, initially piloting the policy among groups of digital platform workers for whom reliable data could be collected, such as technology-based transport and delivery workers. Expansion to other groups of freelancers should be considered only after the results have been evaluated.

The deputy also called for specific criteria governing eligible participants, income thresholds, contribution rates and support levels for low-income earners. In addition, the responsibilities of platform operators should be clearly defined, including registering workers, providing income data, deduction and remitting SIpremium on workers’ behalf.

These proposals point towards a practical implementation model: expanding coverage under roadmap, with clear priorities and based on management capacity and evaluation results. Piloting a policy does not mean postponing social security objectives. Rather, it provides an opportunity to test the policy under real-world conditions, identify shortcomings and make improvements before broader implementation.

However, the roadmap must be accompanied by clearly defined responsibilities. If more preparation time is needed, the competent authorities must specify the tasks to be completed, from finalising legislation to developing data systems and implementation procedures. If pilot programmes are introduced, evaluation criteria should include participation rates, compliance capacity, implementation costs and impacts on workers’ incomes.

The challenge, therefore, is not to choose between rapid and cautious expansion, but to find an approach that maintains progress while improving policy quality and sustainability. Authorities should not rush before the necessary conditions are in place. At the same time, institutional difficulties must not become an excuse for prolonging the situation in which some workers lack adequate access to social security.

Enabling and Supporting Workers to Participate

A SIpolicy with broad coverage cannot only rely on imposing additional obligations. The policy must also make it easier for workers to participate, maintain their contribution records and recognize the long-term benefits of participating the system.

For people with low or irregular incomes, contribution rates and payment methods directly influence their decisions to participate. If contribution obligations are not aligned with their financial capacity, workers may struggle to maintain continuous participation. Appropriate support mechanisms should therefore be considered, particularly for groups with limited ability to contribute, while ensuring fairness across different goups of participants.

In addition to financial assistance, administrative costs should be reduced and registration and SI premium payment procedures made more convenient. Linking data between social security agencies, tax authorities and digital platforms could help determine incomes, reduce duplicate declarations and enhance transparency. Information on entitlements, obligations and contribution records should also be provided clearly and made readily accessible.

For voluntary social insurance, communication and outreach efforts should continue to be strengthened to help the public better understand the purpose and benefits of the policy. Participation is not merely about meeting immediate needs; it is also a process of building up entitlements to secure income in the future. The easier the policy is to access, the more transparent the benefits and the more convenient the procedures, the greater the likelihood of attracting and retaining participants.

Besides, expanding coverage must be accompanied by effective protection of workers’ actual entitlements. Workers need to have their contribution records fully tracked, receive benefits in accordance with regulations and have access to mechanisms for raising concerns when their rights are affected. These are essential foundations for strengthening public trust, building consensus and encouraging people to participate proactively in social insurance.

Expanding SIcoverage is an objective necessity as the social security system develops and adapts to changes in the labour market. Discussions in the National Assembly have highlighted both the need for this policy direction and the conditions required to translate it into practice: correctly identifying eligible participants, clarifying the basis for contributions and the responsibilities of all parties, establishing an appropriate implementation roadmap, and providing support so that workers can participate and maintain their contribution over time.