First proposal to add maternity benefits to voluntary social insurance policy

March 11, 2023 07:30

The draft revised Law on Social Insurance is seeking public opinion, with a new point that people who have paid voluntary social insurance for 6 months or more in the 12 months before giving birth can receive a subsidy of 2 million VND for each child.

Consulting on developing voluntary social insurance participants

According to the Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs, the agency in charge of drafting this revised law, for the first time it has proposed adding maternity benefits to the voluntary social insurance policy (Chapter VI): The draft law stipulates that employees participating in voluntary social insurance when giving birth are entitled to a subsidy of 2 million VND per child, guaranteed by the state budget.

In case only the mother pays social insurance and unfortunately passes away after giving birth, the father or the person directly raising the child is entitled to maternity allowance.

The voluntary social insurance policy in Vietnam has been implemented since 2008, for working-age workers in the informal sector, without any relationship or labor contract. After 15 years of implementation, the country has nearly 1.46 million workers participating, covering 3% of the working-age population.

Voluntary social insurance currently has two beneficiary regimes: retirement and death, without maternity, sickness, occupational diseases or work accidents like compulsory social insurance. At many conferences and seminars to collect opinions, experts proposed adding maternity regimes for workers to increase the group of young people.

According to Tin Tuc Newspaper