Social security is an important indication of a country’s level and quality of development. By looking at the organisation and activities for the assurance of social security in a country, one can realise its development level and social administration. More importantly, social security policies also contribute to social equity for those who do not take part in economic activities and those who lack access to resources and protection from the risks, difficulties and hazards that are not caused by their own actions. Social security can be regarded as the main component in the social policy system of nations across the world; it is the assurance of the income and basic necessities for individuals, families and communities when they face reduced or Vietnam Social Sciences, No. 2 (178) - 2017 34 loss in income as a result of job or working capacity loss.

Accordingly, Viet Nam Social Security implements a range of solutions and provide various services to deliver practical benefits for both citizens and businesses in the coming time. The solutions and services include expanding the payment of pensions and social insurance benefits through personal bank accounts, issuing electronic health insurance cards to facilitate access to medical services, and enhancing the use of biometric verification in the processing of applications and the delivery of administrative services at the one-stop shop of social security offices in provinces and cities. Previously, the Viet Nam Social Security received a petition from voters in HCM City, which was forwarded by the National Assembly Standing Committee Ombudsman Commission before the seventh session of the 15^th National Assembly.

The petition requested that the Viet Nam Social Security continue to strive for more useful services and benefits for citizens and businesses. The Viet Nam Social Security expressed its sincere gratitude and looked forward to continued support from the National Assembly delegation and the voters of HCM City regarding the implementation and outcomes of social welfare policies by the Party and the State. That support would aid in refining the laws and regulations related to social, health and unemployment insurance, ensuring that policy implementation meets the expectations of the public and workers.

The concerns and wishes of the voters were among the Viet Nam Social Security key priorities, which had been actively and decisively addressed over the recent time.

Committed to administrative reform

The Viet Nam Social Security was committed to implementing measures to reform administrative procedures with a focus on integrating information technology and digital transformation, centring on the needs of citizens and businesses.

The Viet Nam Social Security continuously strived to improve operational processes and provide the best and most convenient public services to meet national social welfare needs, and to serve citizens and businesses more comprehensively in the areas of social, health and unemployment insurance. The efforts include enhancing online public services for organisations and individuals across various platforms, such as the National Public Service Portal, the Viet Nam Social Security portal, the VssID – the digital social insurance app, and Insurance Value Added Network (IVAN) service provider organisations.

The Viet Nam Social Security was also rolling out the use of health insurance cards through the VssID app nationwide for medical treatment and progressively digitising records and documents related to administrative procedures. The agency was actively collaborating with relevant ministries and agencies to deploy solutions for reforming administrative procedures, sharing data across specialised databases to reuse information and avoid requiring paper documents for existing social insurance data. That efforts aimed to avoid increasing costs for organisations and individuals, making use of shared information to reduce the need for citizens and businesses to provide repetitive data when accessing social insurance benefits.

With the administrative procedures and public services provided by the agency, citizens and businesses could conveniently register for and receive social, health and unemployment insurance benefits. Individuals and businesses could choose to submit and receive documents online to save time and transaction costs, and track the progress and results of their applications to ensure transparency.

Notably, for two interconnected administrative procedures: birth registration, permanent residence registration and health insurance card issuance for children under six; and death registration, removal of permanent residence registration, and funeral and survivor benefits; citizens needed only make a single declaration to complete three procedures at three different Government agencies. Results were sent to a single agency for collection or delivered via public postal services, reducing paperwork, processing time and simplifying procedures.

For Government agencies, interconnected procedures improved management efficiency, reduced costs associated with document copying and processing times, addressed issues of information discrepancies and document forgery, simplified procedures and enhanced service quality, ensuring citizens’ rights. The implementation of interconnected procedures had also fostered collaboration among relevant agencies in handling requests from citizens, instead of performing the procedures separately within each sector.

The coordination between the local justice department, police stations, and the Viet Nam Social Security during the processes had ensured transparency and compliance with deadlines. The collaboration had significantly removed the old working methods, simplifying the resolution of registration, residence and health insurance card issuance procedures for children under six, and enhancing the sense of responsibility among administrative staff.

Additionally, the Viet Nam Social Security had worked with the Government Office and the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs to implement the; Unemployment benefit processing" public service on the National Public Service Portal since April 12, 2022.

Achievements

The Viet Nam Social Security had completed the restructuring of essential online public services as per the tasks outlined in the Project 06 and Decision No 422/QD-TTg of the Prime Minister. The agency had achieved notable outcomes so far. In the first half of this year, it received and processed over 6.8 million electronic transaction records, accounting for 88 per cent of all records, both online and offline.

In the first half of this year, approximately 74 per cent of beneficiaries received social insurance and unemployment benefits via personal bank accounts in urban areas, an increase of around 10 per cent compared to last year. Since the implementation of Decision No 422/QD-TTg, the agency processed 10,096 voluntary social insurance registration transactions, 60,878 health insurance card registrations and 290 public service applications for one-time social insurance benefits.

The agency also handled over 538,158 cases of unemployment insurance contributions to facilitate unemployment benefit claims. All health care facilities, which registered to examine and treat patients with health insurance cards, implemented health insurance services using chip-based identification cards, with over 104.2 million successful health insurance card information look-ups by chip-based identification cards. It also processed over 1,055,990 records through two groups of interconnected administrative procedures.