1 year is equal to 11 years in terms of the results

Vietnam Social Security has just released a report on 02-year implementation of Resolution No. 28-NQ/TW of the 12th Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam on developing voluntary social insurance participants. Accordingly, by the end of December 31, 2019, the number of participants in social insurance had reached 15.774 million, accounting for 32.3% of the labor force in working age, of which, the number of participants in compulsory social insurance had reached 15.2 million and the number of participants in voluntary social insurance had reached nearly 574,000.

Regarding the number of participants in voluntary social insurance, comparisons were made in the report that, since the issuance of the Resolution 28-NQ/TW, the number of participants in voluntary social insurance has rapidly developed. Specifically, in 2018, more than 277,000 people were reported to have participated, an increase of more than 52,900, equivalent to an increase of 23.6% compared to 2017. In 2019, this number had risen to nearly 574,000, adding 296,700 people in total, respectively 107.1% increased compared to 2018, accounting for 1.17% of the labor force in the working age. In particular, the number of new voluntary social insurance participants increased in 2019 was equal to the total number of voluntary social insurance participants accumulated over the previous 11 years.

Diverse forms of communication on voluntary social insurance to be implemented among people and employees

According to Vietnam Social Security, numerous factors were engaged in achieving the above results. Firstly, regarding the policy: Currently there is no ceiling of the age to participate in voluntary social insurance, in which one only needs to be a Vietnamese citizen from the age of 15 or older. Diversified and flexible payment methods (payment once every 12 months; one-time payment for many subsequent years (maximum of 5 years); one-time payment for the missing years); Extended payment duration. Regulations on the income level as a basis for payment of voluntary social insurance were more reasonable, of which the lowest was the poverty line of rural areas (currently 700,000 VND per month). Previous to 2016, the lowest base income was equal to the common minimum wage or the base salary. Since January 1, 2018, participants of voluntary social insurance have been assisted by the State according to the percentage (%) of the monthly social insurance premiums based on the poverty line of rural areas.

Secondly, in terms of organization: Party committees and local governments focused on leading, directing, establishing and strengthening steering committees at provincial and district levels to develop social insurance participants. Many localities had assigned targets to develop social insurance participants to district and commune levels.

Propaganda was enhanced by diversified forms, such as through mass media (radio, television, newspaper, magazine, etc.), or directly through customer conferences and social networks (Zalo, Facebook, Youtube, etc.).

The allocation of targets on object development at the beginning of the year helped the provincial and district social security agencies take the initiative in formulating plans and assigning the targets to each agent and promptly sent a due-to-pay list.

Administrative procedures were always reviewed and streamlined (since May 2020, they have been shortened to only 03 procedures, in which there is only 01 procedure for voluntary social insurance collection). Application of information technology in professional activities was promoted, electronic transactions at levels 3 and 4 were applied to create the most favorable conditions for the participants.

In addition, the involvement of the Vietnam Post Corporation in propaganda and advocacy, especially the coordination to hold conferences directly with people and workers in the informal sector for propagation and campaigning on participating in voluntary social insurance, with over 14,000 conferences, has helped to develop over 276,000 participants in voluntary social insurance in 2019.

Systems of agents and collaborator network have been expanded. To date, the whole country has operated over 12,400 agents of collection of social insurance and health insurance, over 37,300 collection agencies and over 52,200 collecting agents. Systems of agents are distributed in communes, wards and towns; The distribution of network of collaborators is also even among villages, hamlets and residential groups to create favorable conditions for people to access the policies and to participate.

The nationwide online conferences were monthly held in order to evaluate the results of implementation, to praise units and individuals for their excellent performance and to share experiences and effective solutions to develop and maintain the number of participants of voluntary social insurance; Organize quarterly evaluation and commendation for collectives and individuals with achievements for motivation, etc.

Further innovation and coverage expansion

Besides the achieved results, the report by Vietnam Social Security has also pointed out some shortcomings and limitations in implementing the voluntary social insurance policy. Accordingly, in terms of policies and laws, the State's coverage for voluntary social insurance participants is considered low (in which poor households are covered at 30% of the contribution rate, equivalent to VND 46,200 per month; near-poor households are covered at 25%, equivalent to 38,500 VND per month; the remaining groups are equipped with 10% of coverage, equivalent to 15,400 VND per month). The required time period of social insurance contributions to enjoy pensions is quite long (20 years of contributions or more; full 55 years of age for women and full 60 years of age for men).

In the process of implementation, the participation of some authorities of social insurance nor at all levels and sectors has been really drastic. Most of the provinces and cities have not been able to arrange local budgets to provide additional contributions beyond the State's regulations for voluntary social insurance participants. The income of most people and workers in the informal sector remained low and uncertain; Besides, there are a great number of people who have not held the perception of the accumulated contributions being their long-term benefits. Therefore, they lack the interests in participating in voluntary social insurance.

To furtherly innovate and strengthen communication activities on voluntary social insurance for coverage expansion

To overcome the limitations and expand the development of participants of social insurance, Vietnam Social Security offered three solutions. Specifically, they will strengthen the coordination with ministries, sectors, media agencies, news agencies, newspapers, committees and authorities at all levels to promote communication and propaganda activities in various and diversified forms; in which, direct propagation and mobilization will be centered to raise people’s awareness about the necessity, position, roles, meaning, benefits and obligations when participating in social insurance so that they would be active and voluntary.

The social insurance industry shall continue to send proposals on improving the legal system of social security to institutionalize tasks and solutions under the Resolutions and the Directives of the Party, the Government and the Prime Minister in order to achieve goals in line with the tasks and solutions in the Resolution No. 28-NQ/TW of the 7th Conference of the Central Executive Committee and the Resolution No. 125/NQ-CP of the Government. In which, proposals and recommendations are on the amendments of regulations in terms of conditions and payment time of voluntary social insurance premiums for pension enjoyment, in combination with adjustment of the calculation methods on pension entitlement; Provide more flexible regulations on the State's support for voluntary social insurance participants who are farmers or informal laborers that are not from poor or near-poor households to get more attraction and encourage people to participate in voluntary social insurance; Regulations on the conditions of age to be entitled with pension between men and women shall be appropriately adjusted in order to encourage farmers and informal sector employees to participate in voluntary social insurance.

Finally, the social security agency shall improve the effectiveness and efficiency in social insurance object development through the coordination in directing the opertation of social insurance policies; enhance the application of information technology in professional management and support and administrative procedure reform; strengthen professional fostering, training and management; and regularly check the performance of tasks within the organization and the apparatus of the collection tasks and the collection agencies to promptly rectify the violations and harassment, which limit the results of the performance on the task of object development, etc.