Delivering a Government report on the implementation of social security policies and mechanisms and the use of the social insurance fund in 2020, Minister of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs Dao Ngoc Dung said in 2020, the ministry and the Vietnam Social Security (VSS) worked together to issue 13 legal documents on social security management

to create conditions for more people to access social security policies and mechanisms.

Social security has attracted more than 16.1 million people as of 2020, increasing 2 per cent compared to 2019. Among those, more than 15 million people joined the compulsory social security scheme and over 1.1 million are voluntary members.

Over 13.3 million people have applied for unemployment insurance, accounting for about 27.53 per cent of people of working age.

Also in 2020, the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs (MOLISA) conducted 8,619 inspections and discovered social and health insurance violations.

The VSS discovered 11,185 labourers who have not joined insurance scheme or own insurance debts of up to VND80 billion in total.

The inspections also found employees who own insurance debts with total debt of more than VND1.9 trillion. After the inspections, the businesses paid over VND1.4 trillion.

Dung pointed out positive achievements of the VSS in administrative procedure reform and IT application.

The sector is offering level 4 public services on all 27 administrative procedures and has applied digital app VssID in order to make social security management work more transparent, Dung said.

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The use of occupational disease and labour accident funds ensured transparency in 2020. More than VND240 trillion from the social security scheme have been paid to labourers facing difficulties amid the pandemic.

Delivering an assessment on the social security report, chairwoman of the NA’s Social Affairs Committee Nguyen Thuy Anh said realising 95.71 per cent of 2020’s social security target was such a huge effort in the context of severely-impacted socio-economic conditions due to COVID-19. However, statistics showed the expansion of social security membership, especially compulsory social security members, have faced difficulties and the rate has remained low.

After analysing the report, the NA’s Social Affairs Committee predicted that insurance debts might increase in 2021 and the coming years. The MOLISA needs to study legal consequences of payment suspension to retirement and mortality funds while implementing COVID supportive packages, especially when businesses are unable to make payments once the suspension period is over, she said.

She praised the VSS for taking a leading role in administrative procedure reform and IT application.

However, due to limited access to information and lack of IT equipment, a number of households and private businesses are not able to use the VssID app.

The NA’s Social Affairs Committee proposed the Government order sectors and ministries to step up inspections on social security implementation and take solutions to avoid violations.

Thuy Anh proposed finalizing the legal system in order to institutionalise the Party's resolutions and create a more complete legal basis for the development of social security.

She said the VSS should launch drastic and comprehensive measures to develop the social security membership network, especially attracting the participation of those from the non-official sector, those joining voluntary social insurance and benefiting from lump-sum social insurance.

The MOLISA needs to urgently submit solutions to the Government to handle long-overdue social insurance, unemployment insurance and health insurance debts.

Other measures she proposed are promoting IT application, building a database of labour supply and demand, and integrating social insurance and unemployment insurance data among relevant agencies.