What benefits do relatives receive when a pensioner dies?

According to the Law on Social Insurance (SI) 2014, if a pensioner dies, his/her relatives will receive a death benefit including: Funeral allowance and monthly pension or one-time pension.

Regarding funeral allowance, according to Clause 2, Article 66 of the 2014 Law on Social Insurance, the funeral allowance is equal to 10 times the basic salary in the month in which the pensioner dies. The current allowance is 18 million VND.

Regarding monthly death benefits, according to Article 68 of the Social Insurance Law 2014, the monthly death benefit for each relative of a deceased employee receiving pension is equal to 50% of the basic salary; in case the relative does not have a direct caregiver, the monthly death benefit is equal to 70% of the basic salary.

Currently, the monthly allowance for each relative is 900,000 VND/month. In case the relative does not have a direct caregiver, the allowance is 1.26 million VND/month.

The number of relatives who are entitled to receive monthly death benefits is no more than 4 people. Thus, the maximum amount of monthly death benefits that relatives of deceased workers are entitled to receive is 3.6 million VND/month (if there are 4 relatives eligible for the benefit) or 5.04 million VND/month (if there are 4 relatives eligible for the benefit and there is no direct caregiver).

Regarding the one-time death benefit, in case the relatives of the deceased retiree do not fall into the four cases eligible for monthly death benefit, they will receive a one-time death benefit.

This one-time pension benefit is calculated based on the pension period of the pensioner who passed away.

If the person dies within the first 2 months of receiving pension, the one-time benefit is equal to 48 months of the current pension. If the person dies in the following months, for each additional month of pension received, the benefit is reduced by half a month of pension, the lowest level is equal to 3 months of the current pension.

For example, if an employee dies after only 2 months of receiving pension and the pension he/she is receiving is 5 million VND/month, the one-time death benefit will be 48 x 5 million VND = 240 million VND.

Resolution No. 27-NQ/TW in 2018 clearly states that when reforming the salary policy, the current basic salary and salary coefficient will be abolished, and the state will build a basic salary with a specific amount in the new salary table.

Along with the process of reforming public sector salaries, the Social Insurance Law is also being revised to make appropriate adjustments.