Speaking at the Conference, Do Ngoc Tho, Director of Department of Social Insurance Implementation (VSS), said that the settlement of social insurance regimes and policies has always been implemented in accordance with regulations. VSS has coordinated with the MOLISA and relevant ministries and agencies to handle and resolve a great deal of shortcomings and problems regarding regimes and policies for employees. At the same time, it has directed the social insurance agencies of provinces and cities to strengthen coordination with state management agencies to manage the participants and beneficiaries of social insurance and unemployment insurance; promptly settled regimes for employees affected by the COVID-19 epidemic, natural disasters, storms and floods.

In 2020, the whole branch has settled for 151,189 beneficiaries of regimes of retirement, survivorship, occupational accidents and occupational diseases, including: 129,578 people enjoying the retirement benefits; 990,796 people enjoying the lump-sum social insurance allowances; solved sickness benefits for 7,975,326 turns of people and maternity regimes for 1,850,278 turns of people and convalescence and health rehabilitation regimes for 375,426 turns of people. It has also coordinateed with the sector of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs in settling unemployment benefits for over 1.019 million people.

It is estimated that in the first 3 months of 2021, the whole branch has settled for 16,387 people enjoying the benefits of retirement, survivorship, and occupational accidents and diseases; 226,397 turns of people enjoying the lump-sum social insurance allowances. It coordinated with the sector of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs to settle for about 140,000 people enjoying unemployment benefits; 45,000 thousand people have received vocational training support.

Director Do Ngoc Tho said that the work of PAR in implementing social insurance policies is the highlight in recent years. The results of the first 3 months of 2021 have showd that the national average rate is 88%, focusing on sickness and maternity regime. Some provincial social insurance agencies have well performed electronic transactions such as: Long An, Da Nang, Dong Nai, Bac Ninh, Quang Ninh, etc.

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It is extremely important to check the data before settling the entitlement of social insurance benefits, helping to detect and promptly handle the situation of falsification of documents, the fraudulent issuance of hospital discharge papers, the certificates of leave covered by social insurance for self-seeking purposes. Some provincial social insurance agencies have well performed this content such as: Dong Nai, Hau Giang, etc. However, the representative of VSS said that some provincial social insurance agencies had a low rate of comparison in 2020.

Regarding the decentralization of settlement for social insurance benefits, according to Decision 166/QD-BHXH, at the latest from January 1, 2021, the district-level social insurance agency must settle all social insurance regimes. Implementing the above regulation, up to now, many provincial and city social insurance agencies have finished decentralization according to regulations. However, some local social insurance representatives said that the decentralization must ensure control and management; If it is not well managed, decentralization shall not be conducted. According to Tran Dung Ha - Deputy Director of Ho Chi Minh Social Security Office, due to the nature and complexity of retirement regimes, the Ho Chi Minh Social Security Office has proposed not to apply decentralization to the district-level social insurance agencies. This is due to the fact that, there are only a few full-time officials at the district-level social insurance agency; The dossiers would be then transferred to the Ho Chi Minh Social Security Office for re-evaluation so it took more time.

Regarding the management of pensioners, social insurance beneficiaries, according to the representative of VSS, currently the social insurance agencies of provinces and cities are managing about 3.2 million monthly pensioners and social insurance beneficiaries, etc. However, there are cases of the dead ones still listed in the payment list (accounting for 0.29%). The recovered amount is up to now 90.19%; persons whose benefits have expired but are still on the pay list; Unemployment insurance beneficiaries are not in compliance with the regulations and have to be withdrawn, etc. In this regard, the representative of Quang Ngai Social Security Office recommends that a common data warehouse is needed; applying nationwide blocking for all cases of withdrawal, at the same time, withdrawal shall be implemented at the place where the employee submits the next settlement dossier, and shall be at any place arising the lump-sum social insurance allowance settlement, etc.

At the Conference, some comments were given that there are a number of problems and difficulties in implementing policies. For example: There is no guidance from a competent agency on settling benefits for employees in enterprises whose owners run away or are missing; a number of policies arising in practice have not been adjusted by the Law on Social Insurance; Some provisions in the guiding documents under the Law are inconsistent, causing difficulties in resolving the regime.

Notably, the prevention work of abuse and self-seeking for the funds of sickness, maternity, and unemployment insurance have been paid attention to, but the results have not been as expected. The situation of self-seeking is still occurring, such as: Collecting social insurance books of employees in some southern provinces, typically in Binh Duong; forging documents for the settlement of the survivorship allowance (such as the case in Quang Binh); purchasing and selling of certificates of leave covered by social insurance, etc.

Commenting on the implementation of social insurance policies over the past time, Pham Truong Giang, Director of the Department of Social Insurance (MOLISA) said that the settlement of regimes and policies is the foundation and an important backbone in implementing policies of social insurance and health insurance. According to Giang, three prominent aspects in the settlement of regimes and policies are that local social insurance authorities have actively implemented policies, especially from 2014 onwards; the coordination between the departments at the local social insurance agency is also much better. Thereby, they have actively discovered inadequacies in policies to propose and suggest solutions. Giang also suggested that the local social insurance agency should strengthen management, in order to minimize abuse and self-seeking; as well as proactively assess problems to come up with solutions, etc.

Son highly appreciated the efforts of the local social insurance agencies in implementing policies and regimes on social insurance and health insurance. Sharing about the difficulties and pressures, Son said that the local social insurance agencies have innovated and successfully completed their tasks. “I request the local social insurance agencies to act immediately and timely to best serve the employees; If something is not wrong and is beneficial for the employees and the people, you must do that at your best and not in a mechanical way. If it goes against the regime and policy, you shall express a clear view to not ever do it." - said Son.

Son also requested local social insurance agencies to strengthen coordination with related branches and units to promptly resolve difficulties and problems in implementation; proactively report to the local National Assembly delegation; flexibly handle or make documents for the VSS to answer. For example, with regard to the situation of borrowing dossiers or names to go to work, it is necessary to classify the cases; For cases of showing evidence against oneself, it is necessary to verify early to ensure employees' benefits.