Can employees who have withdrawn social insurance once pay it again?

The Government Office issued Official Dispatch No. 8868/VPCP-QHDP dated November 13, 2023 on the implementation of the Notice of Conclusion of the Standing Committee of the National Assembly on the Report on the People's Aspirations of the National Assembly in September 2023. To implement the Report on the People's Aspirations of the National Assembly, the Prime Minister directed the Ministries and People's Committees of provinces and cities to perform a number of tasks.

Accordingly, the Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs (MOLISA) will coordinate with the Vietnam Social Security and relevant ministries and agencies to research and propose solutions to limit the situation of unpaid wages, unpaid social insurance, arbitrary layoffs, and employees requesting one-time social insurance benefits.

At the same time, there are mechanisms and policies to create conditions for employees who have resolved the one-time social insurance regime to return to paying social insurance.

The Prime Minister also proposed to study and supplement regulations on the responsibilities of employees and employers to limit the exploitation of unemployment insurance benefits.

According to a report by the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs, in the first 10 months of 2023, the number of people receiving one-time social insurance benefits was 947,322, an increase of 31.38% over the same period in 2022, accounting for about 5% of the total number of participants.

In the period 2016 - 2022, there were about 4.85 million people receiving one-time social insurance benefits, of which the number of people returning to pay social insurance was 1.24 million people (accounting for 25.56% of the number of people receiving one-time social insurance benefits).

The main reason why nearly 950,000 people withdrew their social insurance at one time was because businesses were facing many difficulties, leading to an increase in unemployment and underemployment. Most workers had low incomes, limited savings capacity, and faced huge immediate financial needs.

Along with the lack of connection and support from unemployment insurance policies, people's trust in social insurance agencies has shown signs of decline when there are cases of social insurance collection not in accordance with the law, and social insurance employees taking advantage of social insurance policies.

Another reason why employees withdraw their social insurance at one time is that the regulation requiring a minimum contribution period of 20 years to receive a pension is too long.

To reduce the situation of receiving social insurance benefits at one time, helping employees to enjoy maximum long-term benefits when they reach retirement age, the draft Law on Social Insurance (amended) has many amendments and supplements in the direction of increasing benefits, increasing attractiveness to encourage employees to reserve social insurance payment time to receive pension, instead of receiving social insurance at one time. That is, reducing the conditions for receiving pension from 20 years to 15 years; receiving monthly allowance in case of having social insurance payment time but not meeting the conditions for receiving pension and not reaching the age for receiving social pension; receiving health insurance guaranteed by the State budget during the period of receiving monthly allowance.

In addition, during the time workers lose their jobs and are unemployed, they will also enjoy credit support policies to solve immediate difficulties.