The social insurance agency found 2,709 local companies with a total of 21,291 labourers, which were on the list of enterprises that have to participate in compulsory social insurance, but have yet to participate.

The data was revealed at a meeting on April 9, while the team of the National Assembly's Committee on Social Affairs led by Vice Chairman Bui Sy Loi, worked with the branch on the implementation of policies on social insurance, management and use of the social insurance fund in 2020.

Hoang Thi Nga, director of the Quang Xuong District’s social security unit, said the district recorded 13,491 employees participating in social insurance last year, of which, 10,862 people participated in compulsory social insurance while 2,629 people participated in voluntary social insurance.

The people participating in compulsory social insurance accounted for about 28.5 per cent of the labour force and the people participating in voluntary social insurance accounted for 2.12 per cent of the labour force in the district, she said.

However, there were 65 local companies with a total of 202 employees that had to participate in compulsory social insurance but had not done so yet, she said.

Most of the companies were small and micro scale with several labourers. They did not set up headquarters at the location registered in their business license, she said.

Thus, it was hard to visit and inform them to participate or impose sanctions to fine them, she said.

While the team of the National Assembly's Committee on Social Affairs led by Vice Chairman Bui Sy Loi

Nga also said many local companies still faced difficulties in manufacturing and doing business due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, so the payments of social, health and unemployment insurance for their employees had been delayed.

Therefore, the situation of companies delaying payments of social and health insurance was still happening although the social insurance agency has strengthened inspections to handle violations, she said.

Data from the branch showed that the province had up to 1,590 companies, accounting for 17.6 per cent of the total companies in the province, which have delayed payments of social, health and unemployment insurance since last year.

The payments were equal to VND333 billion (US$14.4 million).

There were 313 companies that went bankrupt or shut down while they had yet to finish payments, worth VND44.2 billion ($1.9 million), of social, health and unemployment insurance.

Le Ba Toan, deputy director of the branch, said 2020 was a very difficult year because of the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.

However, the province still recorded an additional of 414,599 people participating in social insurance last year, about 7.63 per cent higher compared to 2019, he said.

Notably, the number of people participating in voluntary social insurance was 59,428, nearly double compared to 2019, he added.

The voluntary social insurance coverage also exceeded the target stipulated in Resolution No 28 NQ/TW, but was still at a low level compared to the locality’s potential, he said.

To fix the situation, the branch already proposed relevant agencies to consider to include the target of getting more social insurance participants in the Resolution of the People’s Council at all levels.

Le Ba Toan, deputy director of the branch

It aims to smoothly reach the target of getting more social insurance participants of the branch.

Besides, the province should issue more policies to support people participating in voluntary social insurance, the branch said.

The Government and relevant ministries needed to issue mechanisms and policies to help social security branches handle delayed payments of social, health and unemployment insurance of companies that went bankrupt or shut down, the branch said.

In the meantime, the NA’s team told the branch to closely work with the tax agency, Planning and Investment Department to conduct more inspections to avoid illegally profiting from social insurance.

Additionally, the branch should follow the instructions of Viet Nam Social Security to have appropriate solutions to expand the coverage of social, health and unemployment insurance.

Dao Viet Anh, Deputy General Director of Viet Nam Social Security, said he highly appreciated the implementation of policies on social and health insurance in Thanh Hoa Province.

Anh said the branch had to enhance dissemination to get more participants.

Dao Viet Anh, Deputy General Director of Viet Nam Social Security

Speaking at the meeting, Loi said the implementation of the policy of social and health insurance was not only the responsibility of the social insurance agency but also the responsibility of all relevant agencies in the province, including the Department of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs.

Therefore, Loi tasked the department to co-operate with the branch to expand the coverage of social and health insurance in the province to reach the target of Resolution No 28 in the future.

Resolution No 28, issued on May 23, 2018 by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Viet Nam, targets to reach about 45 per cent of the workforce to participate in social insurance by 2025./.