National Assembly member proposed stricter penalties for employers evading social insurance contributions

02/06/2023 09:24 AM


On June 1, the National Assembly reviewed the report on the supplementary assessment of the implementation outcomes of the socio-economic development plan and State budget in 2022; as well as the performance of the socio-economic development plan and State budget in the first months of 2023. In the discussion session, a number of National Assembly members proposed stricter penalties for employers that fail to pay social insurance contributions.

The total amount of social insurance, health insurance and unemployment insurance debts owed by businesses have reached more than 14,000 bllion VND as of this moment. Businesses nationwide have failed to pay social insurance contributions for 1 month or more for about 2.7 million employees. Of which, more than 200,000 employees have not received benefits from the social insurance fund because their businesses went bankrupt, dissolved or the employers fled, despite having their salary collected partly for social insurance fund. Recently, the number of unemployed workers has increased rapidly after many businesses had few orders from partners. These workers have a need for unemployment benefits, but they are not entiltled because their businesses have yet to pay social insurance contributions according to regulations. Also, they are not entitled to pensions, maternity benefits or compensation in case of illness or occupational accidents...

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A paradox is that employees are in the position of "creditors", and employers are debtors. However, for many years, creditors have always been in a weaker position, even losing their benefits due to lack of effective sanction policies.

Therefore, some delegates suggested to the Government to direct relevant authorities to introduce stricter sanctions for violations of social insurance regulations to ensure the legitimate rights of employees and issue policies to support aftected employees.

Regarding this issue, over the past time, Viet Nam Social Security has requested relevant authorities to determine to impose penalties and make prosecution of employers for delay, debt, and intentionally evasion of social insurance contributions for employees. The Vietnam General Confederation of Labor has also proposed the supports for workers lacking social insurance benefits due to this situation.

The Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs said that this year the main task will be the inspection of the compliance with the social insurance, health insurance, unemployment insurance laws’ provisions, etc; and strictly handle all violators.

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On the side of employees, they can actively track information about their process of participating in social, health and unemployment insurance (including premiums paid by employers and employees) on the application VssID - Digital Social Insurance. It is recommended that they immediately report the violation to the authorities to protect their legitimate interests.

The debate session of the National Assembly also discussed health insurance policies for the elderly. The delegates stated that about 500,000 elderly people nationwide have yet to have health insurance, according to 2021 figures. In recent years, many localities have purchased health insurance for all the elderly, but in some locatilities the rate is only 90%. Out of 16.1 million elderly people today, only 5 million people have social insurance and receive social benefits, while 11 million people still have to work to earn a living. If we are not interested in health insurance for these elderly, they will face many difficulties, especially when 95% of them have underlying diseases. Therefore, some delegates proposed to the National Assembly and the Government to consider using the State budget to buy health insurance card for the elderly.

VSS