Attending the conference at the central site were Deputy General Director of VSS Le Hung Son; leaders of units under the VSS; representatives of the Ministry of National Defense and the People's Public Security; at the local site were leaders of social security offices of provinces and cities; representatives of functional departments and social security offices of districts.

General Director of VSS Nguyen The Manh delivered a speech at the Central Site

Support policies show humanity and sharing, ensuring the principle of contribution and enjoyment

Speaking at the conference, General Director of VSS Nguyen The Manh shared: Over the past time, the Covid-19 epidemic has had complicated and unpredictable developments and posed a heavy impact on many aspects of life and society, which has greatly affected employment, life, income of employees and production and business activities of enterprises. In that context, in order to promptly solve difficulties, the Government, PM, ministries, sectors and localities have had numerous coordinated solutions to support employees and employers to overcome difficulties, stabilize production, business and people's life.

As an agency to organize and implement social security policies, in which directly social, health and unemployment insurance policies, over the past time, the VSS has been proactive in coordinating with ministries, sectors and localities to advise, propose and develop policies to support employees and employers affected by the Covid-19 pandemic and deploy support policies in a timely, accurate, effective and safe manner. In which, it must be mentioned that advising on the development of Resolutions No. 68/NQ-CP, Decision No. 23/2021/QD-TTg on a number of policies to support employees and employers hit by the Covid-19 pandemic does have a positive effect.

In order to strengthen support policies to help businesses and employees soon overcome difficulties, the VSS has continued to coordinate with relevant ministries and sectors to research, propose and urgently submit to competent authorities for approval of implementing policies to support employees and employers of about 38,000 billion VND from the UI Fund. In which: about 8,000 billion VND for support to reduce unemployment insurance premiums for employers; about VND 30,000 billion to support employees participating in unemployment insurance in cash. It can be said that this is the largest package of direct cash support for employees ever. With the spirit of the highest determination, up to now, the Vietnamese social insurance industry has prepared the necessary conditions to be ready to implement this support policy for employees and employers.

Manh emphasized that the support package shows the Party and State's caring in the lives of employees and employers who are facing difficulties due to the Covid-19 pandemic, with a guiding view on how to deploy support in the fastest and most effective way; also, it clearly shows the humanity of the unemployment insurance policy, ensuring the harmony of the principle of sharing and the principle of contribution and enjoyment.

In terms of sharing, which is reflected in the disadvantaged group of workers, the localities and professions that are facing more difficulties will be given priority to support first. Those with higher contribution and longer time of participation also share support with those who have shorter time of participation. The provisions of unemployment insurance are that joining for more than 12 months allows to receive unemployment benefits, but this support package also benefits participants with under 12 months of participation, which are up to millions of people. Besides, employees in state agencies, armed forces, public units, political organizations, socio-political organizations, etc. are also not entitled to this support package. In terms of the principle of payment and enjoyment, the employee who participates in unemployment insurance is entitled to the package; The longer the participation, the higher the support level.

A number of local sites attended the conference

Simple and fast support process and procedures

General Director Nguyen The Manh also said that, implementing the support package, the VSS has coordinated with relevant units and local authorities to build a simple, understandable, memorable and convenient process and procedure for beneficiaries thanks to the Industry's IT application and database platform. This is an important factor to help the support policies to quickly reach employees and employers, promoting better efficiency.

Accordingly, the support process ensures a clear assignment of tasks and responsibilities of each department and division in the social insurance agency, on the principle that no additional procedures arise, especially the handling time is reduced compared to that in the Prime Minister's Decision.

With the support to reduce the unemployment insurance premium from 1% to 0% for employers who are participating in unemployment insurance before October 1, 2021, the local social insurance agencies on the basis of their collection data will immediately perform the temporary calculation and inform the employers about the reduced support level. There will be about 386,000 employers nationwide to receive support with an estimated amount of VND 8,000 billion.

Regarding employee support, for employees participating in unemployment insurance as of September 30, 2021 (excluding employees at state agencies, political organizations, socio-political organizations, armed units, and public non-business units whose recurrent expenditure is guaranteed by the state budget): The social insurance agency reviews data, makes statistics and sends a list of supported employees to the employer. The employer shall publicize and notify the list so that the employees can compare and supplement information (if any), especially information about the employee's bank account number. Employees shall choose to receive support via bank account or cash (bank account reception recommended). Enterprises shall update and add information to the list and send it to the social insurance agency. The agency updates the list and pays employees. Settlement time is 5 days for cases with sufficient information (the time in the PM's Decision is 10 days); maximum 10 days in case it is necessary to compare and supplement information (the time in the PM's Decision is 20 days).

For employees who have stopped participating in unemployment insurance due to termination of their labor contract or working contract during the period from January 1, 2020 to September 30, 2021 (Having paid unemployment insurance premiums and not yet enjoying unemployment benefits, not eligible for monthly pension): Employees shall submit their application to the social insurance agency at the provincial or district level where there is a need to receive support that is most convenient for themselves. Employees can choose to receive cash or through personal accounts. The processing time when receiving the dossier is 5 working days (the time in the PM's Decision is 10 days).

For both of the above cases, if the support is not paid, the social insurance agency will notify in writing and clearly state the reason.

Determination and efforts to deploy the fastest and most accurate support package

At the conference, social security agencies of provinces and cities said they were ready to implement policies to support employees and employers from unemployment insurance funds. Mr. Nguyen Duc Hoa, Director of Hanoi Social Security Office shared, clearly defining the meaning of the support package, the Municipal Social Security Office has closely followed the Resolutions of the National Assembly, the Government, the Decision of the PM and documents of the VSS to plan the implementation. The city has specifically reviewed the number of employees and employers who are entitled to the policy. To ensure and speed up the implementation progress, the Municipal Social Security Office established a Steering Committee and mobilize all civil servants to work on Saturdays and Sundays; clearly assigned responsibilities to each division and each person. Because the number of support subjects is enormous, the Municipal Social Security Office has promoted communication so that employees and employers know and understand the support policies, thereby agreeing and improving the responsibility for coordination in implementation. In particular, in the current epidemic situation, the City has determined to promote and prioritize payment of support packages via bank accounts while ensuring timely and direct contact.

In Ho Chi Minh City - the locality that is being hardest hit by the current 4th Covid-19 epidemic, Mr. Phan Van Men - Director of the Municipal Social Security Office said that the locality has the largest number of employees and employers receiving support in the country from the unemployment insurance fund. Specifically, there are about 84,000 employers having contributions reduced to the unemployment insurance fund with a total amount of about 1,900 billion VND; about 3 million employees are supported with a total amount of about VND 6,700 billion. Determining that the work pressure is great, the Office has made a detailed plan to carry out the support payment; established a Steering Committee in order to make scenarios for some cases that may arise in reality; promoted communication on the support package; diversified approaches to employees to support; priority payment of support through personal bank accounts, etc.

Speaking at the conference, Deputy General Director of VSS Le Hung Son - Head of the Steering Committee of VSS on implementing policies to support employees and employers using the unemployment insurance fund - emphasized on communication work to help the support package being well known to a larger number of beneficiaries and the society, following the guidelines and procedures of the VSS. As the objects of support is enormous and deployed during the complicated situation of the epidemic, the coordination of employees and employers is of great importance to ensure that the policy is correctly targeted and quickly and timely implemented, ensuring safety and efficiency; especially the propaganda on the choice to receive support through the employee's personal bank account.

Son requested that the local social security agencies comply with the procedures and instructions of the VSS in providing support; strengthen administrative reform, raise the spirit of service attitude, and create the most favorable conditions for employees and employers to access the support package.

Serving the needs of finding out information about policies, answering questions and problems of support recipients, Son said, the VSS will strengthen the service ability of the Call Center 19009068 up to 20 branches and add 3 mobile phone numbers; At the same time, it is required that all local social security agencies publish hotlines to receive and answer people's questions regarding this issue.

Speaking at the conclusion of the Conference, General Director Nguyen The Manh highly appreciated the sense of responsibility of all officials and civil servants of the Vietnam's social insurance sector in the implementation of policies to support employees and employers affected by Covid-19 using the unemployment insurance fund in the past time. The General Director directs, social security offices of provinces and cities shall focus on researching and giving comments (if any) in the spirit of unity, consensus, drastic implementation of this support package to be well-targeted and effective, ensuring the fastest and earliest delivery. In particular, it is necessary to pay attention to the transparency of assigning people, tasks, responsibilities and implementation results, striving to complete the policy of support to reduce the payment from 1% to 0% by October 5, 2021 for about 386,000 employer units; to basically complete the support for employees having bank accounts at employers' units in October 2021. In the process of implementing this major policy, there will definitely arising problems, therefore, units in the industry must strengthen communication and coordination to promptly resolve and ensure the interests of beneficiaries./.