Unprecedented support policies

Answering a question by NA deputy Dinh Thi Ngoc Dung from northern Hai Duong Province about the implementation of support packages for those affected by COVID-19, Minister Dung said after the outbreak of the fourth wave of COVID-19, Party, State and Government leaders directed the ministry to promptly build and propose support policies. “That was what we have never done before, urging relevant ministries and agencies to work day and night, through the weekends,” he said. These policies were then quickly implemented with simplified procedures. For example, under the Resolution 116, within five days, 363,000 businesses benefited from the support policy that allowed them to temporarily stop contribution to the Unemployment Insurance Fund.

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Regarding a question about the results of the implementation of the support package worth VND26 trillion of NA Deputy Lo Thi Viet Ha from northern mountainous Tuyen Quang Province, Minister Dung said after four months of implementation, the policy basically proved effective and was highly welcomed by the society and beneficiaries. 

Disseminating information to help workers understand long-term benefits of social insurance

NA deputy Nguyen Thi Le from HCM City asked questions about measures to prevent workers from selling their social insurance books as well as solutions to draw workers to participate in social insurance scheme. Minister Dung said the selling of social insurance books recently should be understood that a number of workers who are participating in social insurance decided to withdraw from social insurance scheme to get the one-time social insurance allowance but they did not want to deal with related procedures or for other reasons, so they resell the social insurance books for others to take the allowance. Therefore, it was necessary to reduce the one-time social insurance allowance, he said. Since the early 2021, 870,000 people withdrew social insurance to get the one-time social insurance allowance. The figure was much higher than that of 2020.

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There are many reasons leading to the situation, including poverty and the pandemic impacts. In order to address this problem, Minister Dung proposed three basic solutions. He said most of workers who withdrew social insurance books were in disadvantaged situations so it was essential to improve the living conditions of workers. They would not sell their social insurance books if their lives were secured. Besides, increasing information dissemination was also needed to raise awareness of workers of the necessity and long-term benefits of social insurance which provided them with retirement allowance when they get old. “Additionally, it is needed to review the Resolution No 93/2015/QH13 about the implementation of the Article 60 of the Law on Social Insurance relating to one-time social insurance withdrawal. Also, the basic solution is to amend the Social Insurance Law. The ministry has completed dossiers and will submit to the NA for consideration in 2022. It is also necessary to increase other interests for workers,” Minister Dung said.

Ensuring sustainability of social insurance fund and unemployment insurance fund

Answering a question of NA deputy Nguyen Lan Hieu from northern Binh Dinh Province about the balance of the Unemployment Insurance Fund used to support employers and employees and how the support would continue if the pandemic lingered on and whether the balance of the fund was safe enough, Minister Dung said by the end of 2020, the balance of the Unemployment Insurance Fund was VND90,600 billion – that was a good level with high safety. In response to the complicated development of the pandemic which has seriously affected people, including those participating in the unemployment insurance, the Government realised that such huge amount of balance was not good. Therefore, after assessing the impacts and the safety of the fund’s balance in the next five years, the Government proposed the NA Standing Committee give opinions about the use of VND38,000 billion from the fund’s balance to support workers (VND30,000 billion) and reduce contribution rate to the unemployment insurance fund for employers (VND8,000 billion). So after this support package was disbursed, the balance of the fund was around VND56,000 billion, ensuring two times higher than the total expense over the past year. It meant this amount of balance was safe, according to the minister.

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Concerning the adjustment of retirement pension for those retired prior to 1995, Minister Dung said when discussing this issue, the Government told the NA that salary increase should be suspended due to COVID-19 impacts but adjustment of retirement pension should be done, particularly for those who retired before 1995 and have low retirement pension.  The ministry has assessed and is collecting opinions of Government members about this issue and will submit it to the Government in December. “We initially allow the adjustment from July 1, 2022 but now we propose the Government to adjust the retirement allowance from January 1, 2022 with a total cost of VND12,650 billion; the State budget supplemented VND3,648 billion to retirement pension for those retired before 1995 and those whose retirement pension is lower than VND2.5 million will have their allowance increased to VND2.5 million,” he said./.