Will employees participating in voluntary social insurance receive maternity benefits?

The maternity regime for employees participating in social insurance in Vietnam is highly appreciated in the region in terms of leave time and benefit rate. However, the coverage of the policy is still low, only those participating in compulsory social insurance are entitled to this maternity regime, accounting for over 30% of the workforce.

In the draft revised Law on Social Insurance, which is being submitted by the Government to the National Assembly for comments in the 6th session, the upcoming 15th National Assembly has proposed expanding the coverage of maternity benefits. The draft law adds provisions on maternity allowance levels for female workers giving birth and male workers whose wives give birth who participate in voluntary social insurance.

The condition for maternity benefits is that the employee must have paid voluntary social insurance for at least 6 months within 12 months before giving birth. By participating in voluntary social insurance, the employee will receive a maternity allowance of 2 million VND/child born.

Mr. Nguyen Duy Cuong, Deputy Director of the Department of Social Insurance (Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs) said that maternity allowance for employees participating in voluntary social insurance will be guaranteed and paid by the State budget. Voluntary social insurance participants will not have to pay more than the current level but will still enjoy additional maternity policies.

According to Mr. Cuong, the addition of this policy is implemented according to Resolution No. 28-NQ/TW, which clearly states that the goal of voluntary social insurance will be gradually expanded to other regimes in addition to the current retirement and death benefit regimes.

In particular, adding maternity benefits to the voluntary social insurance policy aims to increase the attractiveness of the voluntary social insurance policy, attracting people, especially young workers, to participate in voluntary social insurance.

On the other hand, a survey summarizing the implementation of the Law on Social Insurance in 2014 shows that there are many reasons for the low number of people participating in voluntary social insurance, the main reason being that the social insurance policy is not attractive, workers have not enjoyed short-term benefits, while the level of support for people participating in voluntary social insurance is still very low.

Since 2018, the State has had a policy of supporting a portion of voluntary social insurance contributions, but the level of support is still low and not attractive to workers. Specifically, the State supports 30% of the monthly social insurance contribution calculated according to the poverty line in rural areas for participants from poor households, 25% for participants from near-poor households and 10% for other subjects.

Support policies are not attractive enough, requiring the amendment of the Law on Social Insurance to soon expand more policies to increase the attractiveness of voluntary social insurance, according to which the State will support the payment of maternity benefits.

Explaining the choice of the support level of 2 million VND, Mr. Cuong said that in practice, the State has had a policy of supporting 2 million VND for ethnic minority women from poor households, residing in administrative units in difficult areas when giving birth in accordance with the population policy, so the law drafting unit proposed to support workers participating in voluntary social insurance with the support level of this policy.

“In addition, the draft also stipulates that the Government decides to adjust the maternity allowance level in accordance with socio-economic development conditions and the capacity of the State budget in each period,” Mr. Cuong added.

The Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs calculates that the budget to support the implementation of the maternity allowance policy for female employees participating in voluntary social insurance who give birth in the period of 2024-2030 is expected to increase the state budget by 750 billion VND (an average of 107 billion VND per year).