All branches of Viet Nam Social Security are ordered to develop plans and be ready for making breakthroughs, General Director of Viet Nam Social Security Nguyen The Manh said when he chaired a briefing conference of the agency on November 8.

“Though facing radical challenges, especially in the year-end months when the COVID-19 pandemic resurges and spreads in numerous localities nationwide, we have achieved satisfactory results thanks to our all-out efforts. Of note, we have quickly and timely supported enterprises and labourers hard hit by COVID-19,” said General Director Manh.

Manh also said to fulfill the targets of developing social insurance participants, the insurance sector needs to focus on implementing solutions set out under the agency’s action plan and programme as well as the Government’s Resolution No 01/NQ-CP and Resolution No 02/NQ-CP.

Illustrative image (VSS)

Concurrently, it is necessary to synchronously implement solutions to increase participants, better management of collecting insurance premiums to increase contributions whilst reducing unpaid social, health and unemployment insurance premiums in the final months of the year, and targeting to have all pupils and students joining the health insurance scheme. 

It is required to closely follow the pandemic’s developments to develop solutions and scenarios in order to respond to the pandemic and strive to fulfill the targets and plans on social, health and unemployment insurance this year, he said.

Especially, it needs to strengthen online communication activities, focusing directly on groups of people who are able to participate in voluntary social insurance and household health insurance, he added.

Illustrative image (VSS)

Besides, it is necessary to promote dissemination, guidance and support employers and employees to install and use the social insurance application – VssID, he said.

The agency is asked to work with relevant ministries and sectors to build plans for inter-disciplinary inspections in 2022 as well as conducting inspections of businesses and units, which show signs of intentionally delaying payments of social insurance this year in line with the pandemic’s developments, he said.

It should promote communication through diverse content and forms, closely following the orientation of the agency and the real situation in each locality, he said.

Manh ordered all branches of the agency to synchronously deploy solutions to increase the number of social insurance participants; quickly collect social insurance debts from businesses and units; strictly handle violations; and create favourable conditions for people and businesses.

Data from the agency shows that by the end of October, the country had over 15.4 million people participating in social insurance, accounting for 31.08 per cent of the labour force.

The number of people participating in compulsory social insurance has reached more than 14.2 million while the number of people participating in voluntary social insurance has reached over 1.2 million.

The number of people participating in unemployment insurance has reached more than 12.5 million, accounting for 25.18 per cent of the labour force, and nearly 84 million people participating in health insurance, equal to 86.04 per cent of the population.

Total revenue of social, health and unemployment insurance has reached 76.75 per cent of the assigned task by the Government and 73.60 per cent of the assigned task by the agency.

However, the total debt of social, health and unemployment insurance has also increased to about VND24.3 trillion (US$1.07 billion), accounting for 5.74 per cent of the receivables. The debt is VND2.8 trillion (US$125.2 million) higher than the same period last year.

The number of people participating in social insurance, unemployment insurance and health insurance has increased compared to September 2021 but the growth rate is still slow.

It is estimated that until the end of 2021, the agency will have to make efforts to fulfill the targets. It needs over 2 million social insurance participants and over 5.5 million health insurance participants by the end of this year to achieve the targets.

By the end of October, branches in all localities nationwide have made payments of unemployment insurance for 5,159,501 employees, with a total amount of VND12.3 trillion (US$547 million).

Besides, the insurance sector has also implemented support policies for employees following Resolution No 6 and Decision No 23. /VSS