Social insurance fund ensures safety

The National Assembly’s Committee for Social Affairs on April 23 convened its 8th plenary session with the participation of representatives from the Law Committee, the Finance-Budget Committee, and the Economic Committee of the National Assembly; and leaders from the Ministry of Labour Invalids and Social Affairs (MoLISA), the Ministry of Finance; the Vietnam Social Security; the Social Security of the Ministry of Defence; the Vietnam Women’s Union, the Vietnam General Confederation of Labour.

During the session, participants heard a report delivered by the MoLISA Minister on the implementation of social insurance policies; the management and use of the social insurance fund in 2017. They also heard a report delivered by the Minister of Finance on the implementation of Resolution No. 1083/2015/UBTVQH13 of the Standing Committee of the National Assembly on the management costs of social insurance and unemployment insurance in the 2016-2018 period; and the proposal on management costs of social and unemployment insurance in the 2019-2021 period.

While reporting the implementation of social insurance policy, MoLISA Minister Dao Ngoc Dung said 2017 was the second year of the implementation of the Law on Social Insurance 2014.

The Government, the Prime Minister and relevant ministries and sectors issued 37 legal documents guiding the implementation of social insurance policy, he said, adding the implementation was basically on schedule.

According to the report, by December 31, 2017, Vietnam had 13,591,492 people joined compulsory social insurance, up 5.76 percent in comparison to that 2016, meeting the set target (25.8 percent of the workforce is covered by compulsory social insurance). The number of people joining voluntary social insurance surged by 11.59 percent compared to 2016, presenting 78 percent of the set plan. Meanwhile, the number of those joining unemployment insurance increased by 6.46 percent from 2016, lower than the growth rate of 2016.

The collection and payment of social and unemployment insurance were carried out in line with relevant legal regulations, ensuring the balance of the fund. The payment for managing the social and unemployment insurance and the organisational apparatus also was in compliance with expense norms as prescribed in legal regulations; the investment of social insurance fund also ensured safety and was in line with law, with an average profit of 6.9 percent. The profit was used for right purposes.

The Vietnam Social Security’s report also showed that as of December 31, 2017, as many as 136,446 part-time employees working for communal-level agencies joined compulsory social insurance. Up to 84 full-time or part-time female labourers working at communal-level agencies who contributed social insurance premiums for 15 - 20 years were paid monthly pension. The average rate of getting pensions was 49 percent and the average period of joining social insurance was 16.7 years (or 200 months). The average pension at the time of claim was over 1.7 million VND per month (the highest level was over 2.4 million VND per month and the lowest was 986,786 VND per month).

Besides, in 2017, the social insurance sector conducted specialised inspections on social insurance and health insurance contributions at 4,006 units using labourers, and 4,852 inspections at 10,055 units employing labourers.

As a result, 42,263 employees were found to have not yet joined social insurance or have insufficient time of social insurance contributions, with a total amount of unpaid premiums of 88.2 billion VND. As many as 50,734 labourers were found to owe premiums with a total amount of 47.3 billion VND. The total amount of premium debts of the inspected units was more than 2.776 trillion VND, including around 1,464 billion VND being paid during and after the inspections.

While reporting on the cost for social and unemployment insurance management in the 2016-2018 period, Minister of Finance Dinh Tien Dung said that management expense has helped the Vietnam Social Security to have sufficient resources to implement new tasks under the provisions of the Law on Social Insurance, and promote the social involvement in public services in settling the social insurance policy. Especially, administrative reform in implementing the social insurance policy obtained breakthrough results and provided 14 online public services at level 3 and 4.

“The Vietnam Social Security moved 18 steps to the 2nd place in the administrative reform rankings of 25 ministries and ministerial-level agencies that provide online public services. This has made significant contributions to improving Vietnam’s rankings in business climate facilitation”, Dung underlined.

He noted that the VSS has to calculate and arrange expenditure in a proper way to ensure that it can complete the huge load of new assigned tasks. Those include the handover of social insurance books to employees and building a national databasedata base on social insurance, which have not been structured in the management costs.

National Assembly’s surveillance is enhanced

Members of the National Assembly’s Committee for Social Affairs said that the expansion of social insurance and unemployment insurance coverage remained sluggish and there is no breakthrough solution to attract participants to enlarge the coverage as targeted.

Evasion of paying social insurance premiums for workers is popular in most of the localities. Tackling social insurance and health insurance debts is a challenging task while many enterprises have dissolved, gone bankrupt or the employers have run away. All of the issues have already stipulated in the Law on Social Insurance 2014; however, there is no document giving specific guidance yet.

According to VSS General Director Nguyen Thi Minh, after the Law on Social Insurance came into force in 2014, the VSS issued documents regulating responsibilities of each level in providing labourers’ insurance information.

Eighty percent of social insurance books have been delivered to the labourers so far and the figure will increase to 100 percent by the end of this year, she said, adding that the VSS continues its information and technology investment for the 2018-2021 period while maintenance will be carried out in the following years to reduce costs.

Specialised inspections will be enhanced by the sector, she noted, saying that trillions of VND are collected to the social insurance budget every year while social insurance debt rate falls to 2.9 percent from 4.88 percent.

Concluding the meeting, Chairwoman of the NA Committee for Social Affairs Nguyen Thuy Anh recommended the National Assembly to further oversee the implementation of the Law on Social Insurance, particularly the expansion of social insurance coverage.

Relevant ministries and branches should issue guidance to carry out legal regulations like the Labour Code and the Law on Labour Safety and Hygiene, especially the enhancement of instructions to realise the targets set by the NA.

Ms Thuy Anh asked the Government to transfer expenditure from the state budget to the social insurance fund to pay social insurance premiums for the labourers who work in the state-owned sector before January 1, 1995 in line with the Law on Social Insurance.

In addition, guidance on compulsory social insurance participation of foreign workers in Vietnam in the social insurance scheme must be promulgated soon. Regulations on the settlement of social insurance debts of enterprises that suspended operation, dissolved, went bankruptcy or whose owners run away should be issued soon to solve policy for labourers, she added.