VSS Deputy General Director Le Hung Son

Reporter: Along with the policies to support employees and employers being implemented, could you tell us about the meaning of this support policy?

VSS Deputy General Director Le Hung Son: The policy to support employees and employers participating in unemployment insurance this time shows the Party and State's interest in the lives of employees who are facing difficulties due to the Covid-19 pandemic; clearly shows the humanity of the UI policy, showing that the principle of risk sharing, contribution-enjoyment combined with the principle of fairness; along with support policies from other support packages of the Government, it will help employees and employers to overcome difficulties, stabilize lives, stabilize production and, importantly, businesses will have opportunities to regenerate jobs and incomes for employees.

Reporter: Who are the specific beneficiaries of this support policy, Mr. Deputy General Director?

VSS Deputy General Director Le Hung Son: For employees, beneficiaries are employees participating in unemployment insurance (except for units belonging to state agencies, armed forces, political organizations, socio-political organizations and public non-business units whose recurrent expenditures are guaranteed by the state budget) and employees have reserved the time to participate in unemployment insurance from January 1, 2020 until the end of September 30, 2021 - the period affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. For employers, it is the enterprises that are paying unemployment insurance premiums for employees.

Regarding specific numbers, there are currently about 15 million people participating in unemployment insurance. However, showing the humanity and sharing of the policy, minus about 2 million employees who are not in the support group as I mentioned above, there will be nearly 13 million employees and about 386,000 employers entitled to these support policies from the UI fund.

Out of a total of nearly 13 million employees, there are more than 10 million people participating in unemployment insurance at enterprises and about 2.5 million employees have paused or suspended labor contracts and work contracts but also reserved the time to participate in unemployment insurance from January 1, 2020 to the end of September 30, 2021.

Nearly 13 million employees and about 386,000 employers are entitled to this support policy

Reporter: What is the process and procedures for enjoying this support policy, Mr. Deputy General Director?

VSS Deputy General Director Le Hung Son: With the direction of the National Assembly, the Government and relevant ministries, VSS has planned the processes and procedures to deploy the support package in the spirit of strictly adhering to the viewpoint of "ensuring the implementation of steps to support employees and businesses in a simplest, most convenient, fastest and most accurate way".

For about 386,000 employers having their contributions reduced from 1% to 0% to the UI Fund for a period of 12 months (from October 1, 2021 to September 30, 2022), there will be no administrative procedures. The social security agency shall base on the data on the management software of collection of social, health and unemployment insurance of the employer unit to print out a monthly payment reconciliation table of receivables and payables. On that payment table, we will exclude the 1% contribution to the enterprise's UI fund.

For nearly 13 million employees, the social security agency will rely on existing information technology data to determine the beneficiaries of the support package by the ID number participating in unemployment insurance and determine the time to participate in unemployment insurance. All this information is available in the information technology data system of the Vietnam's social insurance industry.

Reporter: Thus, the deduction of the unemployment insurance premium will be done automatically without administrative procedures, then how will the payment method to support employees be implemented, Mr. Deputy General Director?

VSS Deputy General Director Le Hung Son: For employees currently participating in unemployment insurance at enterprises, the social security agency will pay through the employee's personal bank account. Currently, we are implementing the Government's Resolution on strengthening non-cash payments. In particular, in the context of the complicated development of the Covid-19 epidemic, the payment of support policies for employees through accounts is both timely and transparent to employees and meets the Government's non-cash policy as well as ensures good prevention and control of the Covid-19 epidemic, avoiding direct contact.

Accordingly, employees working at enterprises only need to coordinate to provide their personal bank account information for the enterprise to add to the list to send to the social security agency. With information related to personal identity such as ID card number/citizen identification number and time of participation in unemployment insurance of employees, the social security agency will print it out for the businesses and employees to check.

In some special cases where the employee cannot open a personal bank account, the social security agency will send the payment to the enterprise. However, to ensure the timeliness, the VSS recommends that employees should quickly open personal accounts through the banking system so that they can receive the fastest and most accurate support.

For employees who reserve their time to participate in unemployment insurance from January 1, 2020 to the present, or those employees who have stopped working or suspended their labor contracts, are no longer at the enterprise, and have returned to localities, the provincial-level/district-level social security agencies shall be available to accept requests for support policies from employees, regardless of administrative boundaries.

Strengthening the non-cash payment of support policies (Illustrative image)

Reporter: Resolution 116/NQ-CP of the Government requesting the implementation of the support package to employees in 3 months (from October 1, 2021 to December 31, 2021). Recently, the MOLISA has set out the determination to complete the implementation of the support package in 1.5 months. What has the Vietnam's social insurance industry prepared to implement this support policy as quickly as possible, Mr. Deputy General Director?

VSS Deputy General Director Le Hung Son: Immediately after the Government's Resolution No. 116/NQ-CP was issued, with the industry's information technology background, the VSS General Director directed the professional units and local social security agencies to be ready: on data sources to identify beneficiaries as well as benefit levels; in terms of forces, people, and funding sources to serve the implementation and payment of support policies. Thoroughly grasping the spirit of the Resolutions and with drastic direction, I think that the expected progress in implementing the support policies of the MOLISA is feasible. The VSS General Director even directed to complete this sooner if businesses and employees actively coordinate with the social security agency. Because, on the side of the VSS, the implementation is ready, but there are certain difficulties as about 2.5 million employees who are reserving the process of participating in unemployment insurance and now scattered to localities. Therefore, the participation of media agencies and local authorities to propagate and disseminate to employees who are eligible for active support to the provincial-level and district-level social security agencies is extremely crucial. This is the deciding factor whether the implementation of the support package is completed on schedule or not.

PV: Thank you very much, Mr. Deputy General Director!