It is one of several tasks that Minister of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs Dao Ngoc Dung assigned Viet Nam Social Security to implement when he worked with the agency on June 15 about developing the draft amended law.

Minister of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs Dao Ngoc Dung delivers his speech at the event

Dung also ordered relevant units to accompany the drafting board to complete the draft amended law in the direction of further expanding the groups of people eligible to participate in compulsory social insurance; encourage employees and employers to participate in social insurance towards universal social insurance, so that all old-age workers will have pensions.

The agency was required to quickly fix the situation of evading social, health and unemployment insurance payments, reduce the withdrawal of one-time social insurance allowance and other acts of fraud and profiteering, he said.

Besides, it should ensure the investment of social insurance fund is sustainable, safe and effective, he added.

Next, the agency had to continue deploying dissemination, applying information and technology (IT) and digital transformation in State management and implementation of social and health policies, especially the connection with the population database, and completion of the unemployment insurance database linking with the social insurance database, he said.

The agency was assigned to propose solutions to the draft amended law to fix the situation of social insurance debts in enterprises that went bankrupt, dissolved, and whose owners fled, he said.

It is necessary to prosecute some enterprises that evaded payment of social insurance, to deter other enterprises, he said.

General Director of Viet Nam Social Security Nguyen The Manh at the event

Achievements

Also at the meeting, Dung also said that in recent years, the agency had developed very quickly and is on the right track, especially after Resolution No 28-NQ/TW of the Government on reforming social insurance policies was promulgated, the social insurance sector has many changes in terms of the number of participants, organisational structure and implementation of policies.

Most of the assigned targets have been fulfilled, especially the current number of voluntary social insurance participants is 7.5 times higher than in previous years, he said.

The social insurance policies have gradually affirmed their main pillar role in the national social security system, he said.

The agency was assessed to be very creative and proactive in proposing policies of social insurance so they support employees during the COVID-19 pandemic, he said.

Unemployment insurance has become the "midwife" of the labour market. Occupational accident and occupational disease insurance have an important effect, minimising and supporting workers at risk, he said.

The agency’s apparatus has gradually been streamlined. The operation of the agency at all levels has smoothly coordinated with ministries, sectors and localities, he said.

Currently, the agency is leading in many fields, such as administrative reform, IT application, and databases, he said.

The balance of social, unemployment, occupational accident, and occupational disease insurance funds is getting better and better, he said.

Deputy Minister of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs Nguyen Ba Hoan at the event

It is an important premise for the implementation of a series of policies to support employees and employers in difficulty, he said.

These are unprecedented policies, which were implemented quickly and very effectively, he said.

However, new problems are also arising during the implementation of social and health policies.

Therefore, the agency should handle the problems with the goal of putting the interests of the people first, he said.

Speaking at the event, Deputy Minister of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs Nguyen Ba Hoan said the ministry and the agency have coordinated smoothly from central to local levels, and effectively implemented social insurance policies with the results that have exceeded the assigned targets.

Draft law’s comments

At the meeting, the agency’s leaders expressed their opinions on the implementation of the current social insurance policies as well as give comments on a number of contents in the draft amended law.

General Director of the agency Nguyen The Manh highly appreciated the contents of the policies in the draft amended law.

Delegates at the event

The drafting board already clarified and showed the need to amend the law; evaluated the advantages, and pointed out shortcomings in implementing the law in recent years, he said.

Deputy General Director of Vietnam Social Security Le Hung Son emphasised the need for the law to have a longer-term vision and grasp the rapid changes in society, labour market and technology today.

The group of participants and the level of payment should also be designed to be more flexible and inclusive, he said.

He also recommended the law to add regulations on the order of priority for allocating contributions of employees and employers to component funds; clearly regulate the tools for the social insurance agency to manage the participants; supplement the declaration of responsibility of enterprises and employees in participating social insurance; supplement regulations on settlement of the situation that enterprises, owing social insurance contributions, have gone bankrupt, dissolved, and their owners fled.

Director of the agency’s Department of Social Insurance Implementation Do Ngoc Tho and the agency’s Department of Social Insurance Book and Health Insurance Card Duong Van Hao also commented on some issues related to one-time social insurance withdrawal, benefits of participants, authorising service units to collect social and health insurance./.