During the appraisal of the Government's report, Deputy Chairman of the Social Affairs Committee Dang Thuan Phong stated that the total number of participants in social insurance until the end of 2022 was 17.5 million people, accounting for over 38% of the labor force in working age. Among them, over 9 million people participated in social insurance, accounting for 51.94%. However, in 2022, the situation of delayed social insurance payments continued to increase, with the majority of delays occurring in non-state-owned enterprises, accounting for over 80% of the total amount of delayed payments.

An overview of the meeting

According to Mr. Dang Thuan Phong, besides the achieved results, the survey conducted by the Social Affairs Committee in localities showed that the dissemination and communication of social insurance have been fairly systematic, with appropriate and tailored solutions for each target group. In localities with many businesses, the number of workers participating in social insurance has increased. The Vietnam Social Security (VSS) sector regularly cross-checks the data of participants with the tax authorities, but the number of workers participating in social insurance after the cross-check is still not high. Many localities still lack mechanisms to support voluntary social insurance participation by individuals, and the involvement of party committees and authorities is not high, especially in the relevant agencies in labor registration.

Agreeing with the Government's report as well as the appraisal report, Deputy Chairwoman of the Social Affairs Committee, Mrs. Do Thi Lan, suggested that the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs and the VSS clarify some issues related to the payment of funeral benefits, which are currently being implemented through personal identification codes, electronic records, and paper records; one-time payment procedures for social insurance; merging of social insurance accounts for workers; and the issue of short-term surplus in the social insurance fund. Particularly, the role of state management agencies in assigning development targets for social insurance to localities, especially voluntary social insurance. The Social Insurance sector has assigned targets to each social insurance officer, but it is not sufficient for the people to see the policies and advantages, specifically in the Social Insurance sector.

VSS’ Director General, Nguyen The Manh, delivered a speech at the meeting

Responding to some raised issues, VSS’ Deputy Director General, Le Hung Son, stated that previously, the procedure for funeral benefit payment was entirely paper-based. However, with the integration of administrative procedures with the public service portal, the resolution of this matter is now divided into two parts: once the person passes away, local judicial authorities confirm the funeral fee arrangement, while the funeral benefit according to the prescribed policy offers two options for relatives, either a lump sum or regular allowances. The payment requires the consensus of the deceased person's family.

The increase in long-term illnesses is attributed to individuals contracting diseases in 2021 but only seeking medical treatment in 2022. Alongside this, the one-time social insurance payment when merging the accounts of workers facing difficulties is considered an error on the part of the workers. According to regulations, when a worker transfers from one unit to another, they must declare their social insurance account to the new unit. However, if the worker fails to declare, it leads to a situation where an individual has multiple social insurance accounts. Currently, the Social Insurance agency is seeking the fastest reform solution to address this issue for the workers.

VSS’ Deputy Director General, Le Hung Son, also spoke at the meeting

In recent times, the VSS has actively coordinated with ministries and agencies, leading to improved reporting work and contributing positively to the formulation and resolution of policies for workers. Currently, every year, the sector resolves issues for over 10 million people receiving social insurance benefits, including over 3 million pensioners; 160 million healthcare visits covered by health insurance; and 130 million electronic administrative procedures... Information technology has met the requirements for the tasks of 2022.

Illustrative image (internet)

In the concluding remarks of the working session, Chairwoman of the Social Affairs Committee, Nguyen Thuy Anh, highly evaluated the Government as well as the relevant agencies for preparing comprehensive reports and clarifying the issues raised by the delegates. At the same time, she requested that the relevant agencies further refine the reports to present to the National Assembly for feedback during the September 2023 session./.