Deputy Minister of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs Nguyen Ba Hoan and leaders and representatives of related agencies attended the conference.

The Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs held a press conference on the draft Law on Social Insurance (amended) on March 16, 2023

Providing information about the draft law, Deputy Director of MoLISA’s Social Security Department Nguyen Duy Cuong said the amendment of the law is expected to help ensure social welfare of the people based on human rights in accordance with the Constitution and institutionalise Resolution No 28-NQ/TW dated May 23, 2018 of the 7th meeting of the 12th Party Central Committee on reforming social security policies in the direction of diversity, flexibility, modern multi-layer, international integration, and increase social security coverage.

The new law will fix problems and shortcomings from the practical implementation of the Law on Social Insurance in 2014 and Resolution No 93/2015/QH13; ensure the constitutionality, legitimacy, uniformity, uniformity, feasibility, and conformity with international standards and ensure gender equality. It will also expand and increase rights and benefits, further attracting employees to participate in social security insurance.

At the same time, the new law is expected to ensure the best interests of working employees and pensioners, complete State management regulations, and professional, modern, efficient, public and transparent implementation.

The draft Law on Social Insurance (amended) is developed with five main points of view, including (1) Social insurance is the main pillar of the universal social security based on human rights in accordance with the Constitution (Article 34); ensuring the right to social security in accordance with the 2013 Constitution; institutionalising the Party's views in Resolution No 28-NQ/TW dated May 23, 2018 of the 7th meeting of the 12th Party Central Committee on reforming social insurance policies and related documents and resolutions. (2) Inheriting and developing appropriate current regulations that have been tested in practice, amending inappropriate regulations, ensuring feasibility, long-term and consistency of law system; supplementing new regulations in line with the country's socio-economic development trends and international integration requirements. (3) Protecting the legitimate rights and interests of the parties participating in social insurance; creating favourable conditions for all employees to participate in and enjoy social insurance benefits. (4) Developing multi-tiered social insurance regimes on the principle of payment - benefit; being fair and equal; and being shared and sustainable. (5) Consulting and selectively absorbing the experiences of countries in the world, especially those with similar characteristics to Vietnam's socio-economic development conditions. Complying with international standards, conditions and commitments that Vietnam participates in.

Illustrative image (internet)

Accordingly, the draft includes major changes, such as supplementing the social pension benefit layers, adding participants and their social insurance benefits; adding maternity benefits to the voluntary social insurance policy; reducing the minimum number of years required for social insurance premium contributions to enjoy pension from 20 years to 15 years; regulations on one-time social insurance benefits.

In particular, the draft law also sees the addition of regulations on calculating the rate of pension enjoyment for those with less than 20 years of participating in the social insurance system in accordance with the amendments to the conditions for pension enjoyment and the signing and participation in social insurance international treaties; supplementing regulations on management of collection and contribution of social insurance premiums and supplementing measures to handle evasion of social insurance premiums. The draft law also has regulations on salary which are used as the basis for payment of compulsory social insurance; a lump-sum allowance upon retirement. The draft also has new regulations on electronic social insurance books.

At the press conference, journalists, editors, reporters from news agencies and newspapers joined in discussing the draft law. Their comments were received and answered by representatives of the MoLISA and law compiling board.

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The main objectives of revising this Law project include institutionalizing the contents of reforming social insurance policies in Resolution No. 28-NQ/TW dated May 23, 2018, of the Seventh Conference of the 12th Central Committee and ensuring uniformity and consistency in the legal system.

The draft law is structured with nine chapters and 133 articles based on inheriting the 2014 Law on Social Insurance structure. This means it keeps the number of chapters unchanged but increases by eight articles compared to the Law promulgated in 2014.

The bill adds two new contents: social pension benefits and management of social insurance collection and payment.

It has five groups of policies detailed into 18 specific primary contents below:

The first is to build a flexible, multi-tiered social insurance system.

The second is to expand the coverage of social insurance participants.

The third is to expand the coverage of social insurance beneficiaries (pension, monthly social insurance and social pension).

The fourth is to supplement the content of regulations on the management of social insurance collection and payment.

The fifth is to diversify the investment portfolio and structure of the Social Insurance Fund according to the principles of safety, sustainability and efficiency.

The draft law content ensures compliance with relevant international treaties to which Viet Nam is a member and international commitments in the relevant fields.

It is estimated that by the end of February this year, the country has more than 17,427 million people participating in social insurance, an increase of nearly 1.06 million compared to the same period in 2022.

Of these, 15,968 million people are participating in compulsory social insurance, an increase of 863.4 thousand. The total number of people participating in voluntary social insurance is 1,459 million, an increase of 204.8 thousand./.