New policies and regimes for retired and transferred officers

The Government has just issued Decree No. 52/2025/ND-CP amending and supplementing a number of articles of Decree No. 21/2009/ND-CP dated February 23, 2009 detailing and guiding the implementation of a number of articles of the Law on Officers of the Vietnam People's Army on the regime and policies for officers who have stopped serving in the army; active officers who have sacrificed or passed away; active officers who have transferred to professional soldiers or defense civil servants.

Supplementing regulations on regimes and policies for retired officers

According to the new regulations, the beneficiaries of the one-time subsidy regime include: officers who are redundant due to organizational changes, or changes in organizational and staffing schedules according to decisions of competent authorities; officers whose age limit for holding command or management positions in units as prescribed in Clause 3, Article 13 of the Law on Officers of the Vietnam People's Army is expired and the army no longer needs to arrange or use them.

Decree No. 52/2025/ND-CP also supplements Clause 3, Article 2 of Decree No. 21/2009/ND-CP on regimes and policies for retired officers: officers who have been promoted in military rank and have had their salaries raised for 2/3 or more of the term and are assessed as having completed their tasks or higher will be promoted in military rank and have their salaries raised (except in the case of promotion to the rank of general).

Supplementing policies and regimes for officers transferring careers

Decree No. 52/2025/ND-CP also stipulates that officers who change careers and are recruited to work at state agencies, public service units, political organizations, and socio-political organizations receiving salaries from the state budget are entitled to the following benefits:

- Be given priority in job placement appropriate to professional, technical and vocational fields; be trained and fostered in necessary professional and technical skills appropriate to the job undertaken;

- Exempted from entrance exams if transferring to the old agency or unit or transferring to another major at the request of a competent state agency;

- Priority is given to adding points to the results of the civil servant and public employee recruitment exam according to the provisions of the law on cadres, civil servants and public employees at the time of the exam;

- Officers are ranked and paid according to their new job position, new job, new title from the effective date of the decision to transfer their career.

In case the salary according to group, grade, or level is lower than the salary according to the military rank of the officer at the time of career transfer, the salary, seniority allowance, and social insurance contributions and benefits at the time of career transfer will be reserved for a period of 18 months from the effective date of the career transfer decision and will be paid by the new agency or unit.

The continued enjoyment of reserved salary beyond the 18-month period shall be considered and decided by the head of the competent authority managing cadres, civil servants and public employees in accordance with the internal salary correlation.

During the period of enjoying the reservation, the reserved salary difference will decrease accordingly when the cadre, civil servant or public employee receives a salary increase or receives seniority allowance exceeding the salary scale within the grade or is promoted to a grade; in case the salary increase is higher than the salary at the time of changing the industry, the new salary will be enjoyed.

After the salary retention period, continue to enjoy seniority allowance at the time of specialization or be added together to calculate seniority allowance in industries that enjoy seniority allowance regime;

- Officers who have changed careers and are eligible for pension, if the average monthly salary for social insurance payment used as the basis for calculating pension according to the provisions of the law on social insurance at the time of retirement is lower than the average monthly salary for social insurance payment at the time of changing careers, the average monthly salary for social insurance payment at the time of changing careers will be used, converted according to the salary regime prescribed at the time of retirement, as the basis for calculating pension;

- Officers who have changed careers, if they are not eligible for pension and quit their jobs, in addition to receiving social insurance benefits according to regulations, will be paid severance allowance by the agency or unit receiving salaries from the state budget and managing and employing cadres, civil servants and public employees at the time of termination; in which: for each year of service in the military, they will be subsidized by 1 month's salary of the month immediately preceding the change of career, converted according to the salary regime prescribed at the time of termination as a basis for calculating severance allowance; the working time at the agency or unit receiving salaries from the state budget, severance allowance is implemented according to the provisions of the law on labor and the law on cadres, civil servants and public employees at the time of termination;

- For cases of transferring to work at agencies and units receiving salaries from the state budget, with a period of service in the army determined by competent authorities as warrant officers, upon retirement, the salary coefficient used as the basis for calculating average salary as the basis for calculating pension for the period of warrant officers being transferred is 3.9.

According to Decree No. 52/2025/ND-CP, officers who transfer to work at agencies and units receiving salaries from the state budget and then transfer to agencies and units not receiving salaries from the state budget, upon retirement, will be given an additional seniority allowance according to the time of service in the army and the military rank at the time immediately before the officer transfers to another agency, and will be converted according to the salary regime prescribed at the time of retirement when calculating the average monthly salary for social insurance contributions for the working time according to the salary regime prescribed by the state as the basis for calculating the pension for officers.

In addition, officers who have changed careers but due to mission requirements, are decided by competent authorities to return to military service, are arranged new jobs suitable to the needs and capabilities of the officer; the time of changing careers to work at agencies and units receiving salaries from the state budget is counted as continuous working time to consider salary increase, military rank promotion and seniority.

Regimes and policies for officers who transfer to work at agencies, units and enterprises without receiving salary from the state budget

Decree No. 52/2025/ND-CP also amends and supplements Article 4 on regimes and policies for officers who transfer to work at agencies, units, and enterprises without receiving salaries from the state budget.

Accordingly, officers who transfer to work at agencies, units, and enterprises that do not receive salaries from the state budget are entitled to the following benefits and policies:

- The time of social insurance payment is reserved according to the provisions of current social insurance law.

- Receive a one-time allowance, for each year of service, the allowance is equal to 1 month's salary of the month immediately preceding the transfer, paid by the agency, unit, or enterprise under the Ministry of National Defense that manages the officer before the transfer.

- Officers who have changed careers and are eligible for pensions are entitled to social insurance benefits according to current social insurance laws, but the method of calculating the average monthly salary for social insurance contributions is not applied as the basis for calculating pensions according to the provisions of Point d, Clause 1, Article 3 of Decree No. 21/2009/ND-CP, amended and supplemented at Point c, Clause 2, Article 1 of this Decree.