Specifically, the companies and units subject to inspection include: Industrial Mechanics and Automation Co.,Ltd (Thach That district), Viet - Sing Technology And Trading Joint Stock Company (Dong Da district), Vietnam Electric And Lighting Technique Joint Stock Company (Thanh Xuan district), South Of Thang Long Trading Joint Stock Company (Bac Tu Liem district), Sinnovasoft Solutions Joint Stock Company (Cau Giay district), Acoba An Binh Development Investment Joint Stock Company (Dong Da district), House 3D Company Limited (Thanh Xuan district), Hai Dang Trading Fashion Company Limited (Thanh Tri district), Toan Phong Joint Stock Company (Cau Giay district), Institute of Environmental Technology (Cau Giay district), Sunflowers Production Joint Stock Company (Me Linh district), Van Xuan Housing Development Construction And Invesstment Joint Stock Company (Nam Tu Liem district), An Thinh Construction and Investment Joint Stock Company (Cau Giay district), 1 - 5 Transportation Mechanical Engineering Joint Stock Company (Hoang Mai district), Toan Cau Construction Joint Stock Company (Long Bien district), Vinh An Interior Joint Stock Company (Cau Giay district), Quoc Bao Construction and Consultants Joint Stock Company (Nam Tu Liem district), Huy Hoang Construction And Environmental Consultant Joint Stock Company (Bac Tu Liem district), BKG Vietnam Investment Joint Stock Company (Ha Dong district), and Song Hong No I Construction Joint Stock Company (Tay Ho district).

Representatives of the labor-using units (on the right) is signing the inspection decision regarding the delayed payment of social insurance premiums.

According to the plan, the inspection period starts from March 21, 2023, to March 29, 2023. The inspection time for each unit should not exceed two working days. Based on the inspection results, depending on the severity, the inter-agency inspection team will propose on-site handling measures or suggest a handling plan to the competent authorities regarding the violations of the units and companies.

Speaking at the announcement of the inspection decisions, Vo Thi Ngoc Yen - Chief Inspector of the Hanoi Department of Labor, Invalids, and Social Affairs emphasized that the new point in this social insurance inter-agency inspection is that functional agencies will require units and companies to completely solve existing problems at the time of inspection. Regarding the delayed payment of social and health insurance premiums, units and companies must fully complete their obligations, instead of gradually resolving them as before.

“The responsibility of the units and companies being inspected is to report in writing according to the inspection outline, provide documents and materials as requested by the inspection team, and be responsible for the accuracy of the information and documents provided. At the same time, they can propose amendments and supplements to continue improving policies.” - Vo Thi Ngoc Yen, Chief Inspector of the Hanoi Department of Labor, Invalids, and Social Affairs, clarified this standpoint with representatives of the inspected companies.

Statistics from the Hanoi Social Security Office showed that with the coordinated efforts of functional agencies, the work of promoting and reducing delayed payment of social insurance premiums has achieved positive results. However, up to the end of February 2023, the functional agencies of Hanoi still recorded 87,000 units and companies with delayed payment of social insurance premiums, with a total amount of 5,575 billion VND, an increase of more than 1,552 billion VND compared to December 31, 2022. Among them, the interest rate for delayed payment is currently nearly 1,875 billion VND, equivalent to 2.92% of the total amount due, and the prolonged delayed payment of 12 months or more is over 1,716 billion VND.

Recommendations to keep workers stay with the social insurance system

Experts recommend several solutions to dealing with the situation, including: changing conditions for entitlement to monthly pension, adjusting unemployment and retirement allowance policies, and providing working parents with child benefits.

Loi, who was an expert on labor studies, suggested that the period of making contributions to the social insurance fund to enjoy pension should be reduced from 20 years to 15 years, or even 10 years, while retirement benefits should be re-designed to be enough to cover retirees’ basic needs.

In addition, conditions for one-off payout should be tightened. Under current regulations, workers may ask for lump-sum withdrawal payment one year after they stop working and making contributions to the social insurance fund. This time may be prolonged to two or three years but during that extra period, workers should be entitled to support policies, e.g., unemployment allowances, social security packages and soft loan packages, so that they can overcome initial difficulties after losing their jobs. “Only in this way, workers would not consider leaving the social insurance scheme,” the expert stressed.

Le Dinh Quang, Deputy Director of the Vietnam General Confederation of Labor’s Department of Policy and Law, agreed with the plan to reduce the required time of payment of social insurance premiums so as to avoid the situation in which workers, discouraged by the long period of waiting, opt for one-off withdrawal of social insurance allowances.

“It’s easy for workers to leave [the social insurance system] because they somewhat lack trust in the system,” Quang said, emphasizing that not a few social insurance policies are showing inadequacies.

According to the Trade Union official, instead of tightening the conditions for entitlement to pension, it is necessary to find ways to increase income for workers so that they can live on wages and have savings to cope with unexpected events, while facilitating their access to credit with preferential interest rate. “Once laborers are entitled to soft loans and employment support policies, they will never think of lump-sum withdrawal of social insurance allowances,” Quang affirmed.