Sufficient resources to solve unemployment benefits for civil servants when streamlining the apparatus

On the afternoon of January 6, the National Assembly Standing Committee discussed the draft revised Law on Employment. Chairwoman of the Social Affairs Committee Nguyen Thuy Anh said that at the time of submitting the draft law, agencies had not yet thoroughly implemented the policy of innovation and reorganization of the political system. Therefore, the draft did not foresee the impact of changing the names, functions, and tasks of agencies and organizations; and did not update policies for people who no longer have jobs due to organizational reorganization.

In addition, the arrangement will affect the balance of the Unemployment Insurance Fund when reducing the number of participants and increasing the number of beneficiaries. Ensuring the balance of the Unemployment Insurance Fund in cases of organizational restructuring also needs further study.

Vice Chairwoman of the National Assembly Nguyen Thi Thanh acknowledged that a significant number of civil servants, public employees, and workers are unemployed but do not meet the conditions to receive pensions when rearranging. With the number of people affected after the rearrangement being 100,000, she suggested that the Vietnam Social Security review its resources, implementation capacity, and ensure the implementation of Decree 178 on regimes and policies for cadres, civil servants, public employees, and workers during the process of rearranging the organizational apparatus.

Responding to this content, Deputy General Director of Vietnam Social Security Le Hung Son said that during the arrangement process, there will be civil servants working at public service units who are laid off and do not meet the conditions for retirement benefits, but will receive unemployment insurance benefits. This support includes unemployment benefits and vocational training.

According to the general impact assessment, the Ministry of Home Affairs expects 100,000 people to benefit from Decree 178, including both civil servants and public employees. However, according to the law, only public employees can participate and benefit from unemployment insurance. "If there is an expense for public employees to receive unemployment benefits under Decree 178, the fund for the expense will still be available. Currently, the surplus of the Unemployment Insurance Fund is about 63,000 billion VND, so we can certainly handle it," said Mr. Son.

Mr. Son informed that in recent years, the revenue and expenditure of the Unemployment Insurance Fund have been basically close. For example, in 2023, the revenue was 23,000 billion VND, while the expenditure was 22,995 billion VND. In 2023, there were 1.05 million people receiving unemployment benefits and the Vietnam Social Security paid up to 99.3% through personal accounts.

"The settlement of payments is not related to administrative boundaries. Therefore, if implemented according to the new model, even inter-district will not affect the payment to unemployment beneficiaries," he said.

According to the draft law, unemployment insurance is a compulsory insurance to support workers to maintain employment, provide training, advice, job referrals and partially compensate workers' income when they lose their jobs based on contributions to the Unemployment Insurance Fund. The Unemployment Insurance Fund is managed centrally, uniformly, publicly and transparently; used for the right purposes; ensures safety, growth and is protected by the State.

The monthly unemployment benefit is equal to 60% of the average monthly salary for unemployment insurance contributions of the last 6 months before the termination of the labor contract, work contract or termination of work, but not exceeding 5 times the minimum monthly salary by region.

The duration of unemployment benefits is calculated based on the number of months of payment. For every 12 months of payment up to 36 months, you will receive 3 months of unemployment benefits. After that, for every additional 12 months of payment, you will receive an additional month of unemployment benefits, but not exceeding 12 months.