Granting more rights to participants

The VSS has collaborated with the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs to develop the draft Law on Social Insurance since 2022 following NA’s Resolution No 50/2022/QH15 dated June 13, 2022 and Prime Minister’s Decision No 799/QD-TTg dated July 6, 2022.

Illustrative image (VSS)

The draft law was approved by the 15th NA at the end of June. Compared to the 2014 Law on Sociaol Insurance, the 2024 law includes numerous changes aimed at major goals, such as expanding the participant network, providing additional benefits to attract workers, ensuring long-term social security, addressing the shortcomings of the 2014 Law on Social Insurance and strengthening sanctions to handle late social insurance payment and evasion.

For example, the law has introduced social pension benefits to create a multi-tiered social insurance system, which lowers the eligible age for social pension benefits from 80 years to to 75 years old (currently 80 years old).

Those from poor households and near-poor household who are between 70 and under 75 years old are entitled to social pension benefits.

The law also adds regulations aimed at providing additional benefits and encouraging employees to retain their payment periods to enjoy pensions, rather than opting for a lump-sum social insurance payout.

The law stipulates that individuals who register for social insurance before July 1, 2025 (currently estimated at around 18 million people) will be eligible to claim the lump-sum social insurance.

Those participating in social insurance from July 1, 2025 still have the right to receive the lump-sum social insurance. This includes participants who have reached retirement age and have paid insurance contributions for at least 15 years; individuals going abroad to settle or suffering from one of the following diseases: cancer, polio, decompensated cirrhosis, severe tuberculosis, AIDS, or who have lost 81 per cent or more of working ability; people with extremely severe disabilities.

The law has amended the conditions for enjoying retirement benefits by gradually reducing the minimum number of years of social insurance contributions required to be eligible for retirement benefits from 20 years to 15 years.

This aims to facilitate those who join late or participate intermittently to have the opportunity to accumulate full years of contributions to receive monthly pension instead of having to receive lump-sum social insurance one time.

The revised Law on Social Insurance stipulates that voluntary social insurance participating employees (including both female and male employees) are entitled to a benefit of VNĐ2 million for each child born and each fetus that dies in the womb after 22 weeks of gestation or during delivery if they have paid social insurance for at least 6 months in the 12 months before childbirth.

The law also ensures the right of Vietnamese labourers working abroad and foreign workers working in Vietnam by adding regulations on the duration of participation in social insurance to consider conditions for benefits, following international treaties to which the Socialist Republic of Vietnam is a member of.

On June 29, 2024, at the seventh session of the 15th National Assembly, the legislators passed the 2024 social insurance law with 454 out of 465 delegates voting in favour, equal to 93.42 per cent

Timely and updated legal dissemination

As the new changes made in the 2024 law cover major issues that widely affect employees and employers, the law has received a lot of public attention.

By analysing data on social insurance benefits to evaluating the settlement, management, and payment to beneficiaries, combining analysis and synthesis of implementation practices nationwide, the VSS has provided scientific and practical grounds as a basis for the law compiling agency.

The VSS has also stepped up the legal dissemination work to conduct surveys and collect feedbacks from employees and employers.

The VSS determines that the amendment of the social insurance law aims to extend the rights, benefits, and ensure public social security based on human rights following the Constitution and the Resolution. No 28-NQ/TW dated May 23, 2018 of the seventh meeting of the 12th Party Central Committee on reforming social insurance policy towards diversity, flexibility, modern multi-layer, international integration, progress to cover social insurance for the entire workforce.

The VSS proposals aimed to fundamentally remove problems and inadequacies of the 2014 social insurance law and Resolution No 93/2015/QH13 and extend rights and benefits for participants, attracting employees to participate and creating trust so that they will stay in the system.

The VSS has disseminated the law on the VSS Portal, Social Insurance Magazine, the sector's social media channels and news agencies. Thanks to the professional and effective communication, the VSS has conveyed accurate and complete information about social insurance policies to all levels, sectors, and people from all walks of life.

 Developing the 2024 social insurance law: The law dissemination has been taken early, reaching public consensus

The VSS has issued numerous documents guiding the law dissemination with innovative contents and channels relevant to every region and cultural tradition.

The messages have been created short, concise, familiar and easy-to-remember, focusing on the meaning, role, benefits, and humanity of social insurance policies.

The communication work has been delivered online and offline with constantly diversified content to ensure that people can access to all information.

The 2024 social insurance law was passed with 93.42 per cent of National Assembly deputies in favour.

Nguyen Thuy Anh, member of the NA Standing Committee and chairwoman of the NA Social Affairs Committee, said the draft law on social insurance basically has gained the consensus and agreement from the Government and relevant agencies.

The draft law has basically institutionalised the directions and viewpoints of Resolution No 28-NQ/TW dated May 23, 2018 on social insurance policy reform and documents of the 13th National Party Congress as well as overcome shortcomings of the 2014 law, she said.

As the main and official communication channel of the VSS, the VSS portal has strengthened communication on social insurance policies with a focus on regimes, rights and obligations of employees according to the social insurance law.

Media content focuses on benefits and rights that employees enjoy when participating in social insurance.

The articles also instruct employees in the process of participating and enjoying benefits. Media forms are constantly being innovated with the application of infographics, audio news, motion graphics, videos and animations.

Since 2014 when the social insurance law was passed for the first time, the VSS portal has posted more than 4,600 news and articles about the social insurance law.

Among them, there have been more than 300 news and articles in modern forms.

The Vietnam Social Insurance fanpage on Facebook has had more than 200 posts about the law.

The Zalo account of the VSS, opened in 2021, has posted more than 300 related articles.

Since 2022, the VSS portal has focused on disseminating information about the draft revised social insurance law including the implementation of social insurance regimes and policies, new rights and benefits granted to employees and employers./.

Since 2022, the portal has posted about 300 news and articles about the amended law building and issuance.

Among them, there have been more than 160 news and articles in modern forms.

The VSS social network sites on Facebook, Zalo and Youtube have also updated more than 100 related posts.