Proposed policy to subsidize officials who are not old enough to be re-elected and voluntarily retire early

Cadres who do not meet the age requirements for re-election or reappointment and have paid compulsory social insurance for 15 years or more, if they submit a voluntary application for early retirement to the cadre management agency, will be entitled to pension benefits according to the provisions of the law on social insurance and will not have their pension rate deducted due to early retirement.

This is the proposal of the Ministry of Home Affairs in the draft Decree regulating the regime and policies for cadres who are not old enough to be re-elected or re-appointed to positions and titles according to their terms in agencies of the Communist Party of Vietnam, the State, the Vietnam Fatherland Front, and socio-political organizations who have retired from work.

According to the draft, the above-mentioned cadres will also be subsidized with 3 months of average salary for each year of early retirement compared to the prescribed retirement age; subsidized with 5 months of average salary for the first 15 years of work, with social insurance contributions; from the 16th year onwards, for each year of work with social insurance contributions, they will be subsidized with 1/2 month of salary.

For cadres with salary classification positions, if they have been ranked at salary level 1 of the current position for 48 months, they will be ranked at level 2 of the current position for retirement.

For cadres with professional and technical salaries and receiving leadership position allowances, cadres who have not yet reached the final salary grade in their current grade and are still 1-12 months short of regular salary increase according to regulations will be given a salary increase before the deadline for retirement.

Cadres who are receiving the final salary grade or are receiving seniority allowance exceeding the current salary scale, and have a university degree or higher, will be promoted to the next higher grade without taking an exam to retire.

The draft decree stipulates that the average salary for calculating the allowance is determined by the average monthly salary actually received in the last 5 years before retirement, including: Position salary or salary according to rank or grade; position allowances, seniority allowances exceeding the framework, seniority allowances, salary retention difference, and party work allowances (if any).

Working time for calculating benefits is the total working time with compulsory social insurance contributions but not yet receiving severance allowance or one-time social insurance benefits or demobilization benefits.

If the total time for calculating the allowance has odd months, it will be rounded up according to the principle: from 1 month to 6 months is counted as 1/2 year and the allowance is equal to the allowance of 1/2 year; from over 6 months to under 12 months is counted as 1 year.

Regarding the regime and policies for cadres who do not meet the age requirements for re-election or reappointment and are allowed to take a leave of absence until they are old enough to retire, the draft decree stipulates that cadres who do not meet the age requirements for re-election or reappointment and have less than 2 years (24 months) of work remaining will reach the prescribed retirement age. If they cannot be arranged for a suitable job position and do not wish to retire early, they will be allowed to take a leave of absence until they are old enough to retire.

During the time off work waiting for retirement age, these cadres are still under the management authority of the working agency and are entitled to the full salary or salary according to the rank, position allowance, seniority allowance beyond the framework, seniority allowance, salary reserve difference, and party work allowance (if any).

Other benefits such as service benefits and telephone benefits (if any) will cease to be enjoyed from the month following the month of decision to stop working and wait for retirement age.

In case these officers are allowed to regularly use cars for work, if they attend meetings, conferences or go to the doctor, they must notify their workplace to arrange for transportation.

In case the workplace cannot arrange a shuttle bus, the employee must take the initiative in using the means of transportation and will be paid according to current regulations. Officials who are on leave waiting for retirement age will not be counted in the payroll of the agency, organization or unit.

The draft decree is being widely consulted.