Vietnam Social Security has just issued an official dispatch instructing local Social Security agencies to handle retirement, one-time social insurance, sickness, maternity, and death benefits for employees of bankrupt enterprises and absconding employers according to the principle of "pay as much as you receive". The handling is based on instructions from the Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs.

Regarding retirement , employees who are of retirement age and have actually paid social insurance for 20 years or more, excluding the period of social insurance debt, will receive a pension at the time of eligibility. If the enterprise later pays the social insurance debt or has other financial sources to supplement, this time will be added to recalculate the benefit level and pay the difference.

People who are of retirement age and have participated in social insurance for less than 20 years, including more than 10 years of actual contributions, can voluntarily make a one-time payment for the remaining years to receive a pension. The time of receiving the pension is calculated from the first day of the month following the month of full payment.

If the enterprise pays the debt or other financial sources supplement the debt, the social insurance agency will add the debt period to recalculate the benefit level and pay the difference. However, the amount voluntarily paid by the employee for the remaining years will not be refunded.

One-time social insurance benefits are paid in the following cases: Employees working under normal conditions, who have not paid enough 20 years of social insurance (including the time of debt); people settling abroad; people suffering from one of the life-threatening diseases as prescribed by the Ministry of Health; officers, professional soldiers, professional non-commissioned officers, people working in the key positions in the armed forces who are demobilized, discharged, or quit their jobs without meeting the conditions for pension; employees paying compulsory social insurance after one year of unemployment and people paying voluntary social insurance after one year of not paying again but not having paid enough 20 years.

The lump sum benefit is calculated based on the actual number of years of contributions, not the period of debt. If the debt is later paid by the enterprise or other financial sources, a one-time supplementary social insurance payment will be settled.

Similarly, sick leave and maternity leave are also resolved on the actual payment time. For employees who give birth or adopt a child and the enterprise still owes insurance premiums, they will still receive benefits if they have paid 6 months or more into the Sickness and Maternity Fund. If the debt is paid later, the employee's benefit level will be adjusted.

The death benefit is settled for those who have paid compulsory social insurance for 12 months or more or the total period of compulsory and voluntary contributions is 60 months or more, not including the period of debt. Employees who have actually paid compulsory social insurance for 15 years or more and have relatives who are eligible for monthly death benefits but do not want to receive them all at once will receive them monthly.

One-time death benefits are paid to employees who have not paid 15 years of compulsory social insurance; those who have paid 15 years or more; those who have paid 15 years or more but do not have relatives eligible for monthly death benefits. If the social insurance debt is later paid, the employee will be paid an additional one-time death benefit as with one-time social insurance.

According to statistics from the Vietnam Social Security, by the end of 2022, there were more than 2.13 million employees nationwide whose businesses had delayed paying social insurance from one to less than three months; 440,800 people owed payments for three months or more and nearly 213,400 people had their books "suspended" at dissolved or inactive businesses, with difficult-to-recover social insurance debts. The number of people who are owed social insurance accounts for 17.4% of the total number of employees participating in compulsory social insurance.

Late payment occurs in all types of enterprises with interest amounting to more than 13,150 billion VND. Compared to 2021, late payment interest increased by more than 660 billion VND. Particularly, the debt that is difficult to recover at bankrupt, dissolved, inactive enterprises, and absconding owners is more than 4,000 billion VND.

Employees can check the time of late payment, social insurance debt, unemployment insurance debt through the VssID application. In the Participation process section, if the system displays the time of unpaid payment, the user selects to view Details to know if the business owes payment or not and the time of debt.

Hong Chieu