If a worker dies after receiving his pension, how will social insurance pay him?

Workers are worried that if they pass away after being eligible for pension for a few months, they will lose out on benefits when participating in social insurance.

However, according to current regulations of the revised Law on Social Insurance, pensioners who unfortunately pass away will be paid funeral expenses and death benefits; relatives will receive monthly benefits.

Social insurance pays funeral expenses and death benefits

Specifically, Article 66 of the 2014 Social Insurance Law stipulates that if a worker who is receiving a pension passes away, his or her relatives will receive a funeral allowance equal to 10 months of basic salary (currently 18 million VND).

Relatives of employees are also entitled to funeral benefits in the following cases: Employees who die while paying social insurance. Employees who die while reserving their social insurance payment period (having paid social insurance for 12 months or more). Employees who die due to work-related accidents, occupational diseases or during treatment. Employees who are receiving monthly work-related accident or occupational disease benefits and have passed away.

Monthly death benefit

Article 68 of the 2014 Social Insurance Law also stipulates that if a worker who is receiving a pension dies, each relative will receive a monthly death benefit 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.

Thus, the current monthly allowance for each relative is 900,000 VND/month. In case the relative does not have a direct caregiver, the allowance is 1,260,000 VND/month.

The number of relatives who are entitled to monthly death benefits is not more than 4 people (in case of 2 or more deaths, the relatives of these people are entitled to receive 2 times the allowance). The maximum amount of monthly death benefits that relatives of deceased workers are entitled to receive is 3,600,000 VND/month (if there are 4 relatives eligible for the allowance) or 5,040,000 VND/month (if there are 4 relatives eligible for the allowance and there is no direct caregiver).
Conditions for relatives of retired workers to receive monthly survivor benefits: Children under 18 years old; children 18 years old or older if their working capacity is reduced by 81% or more; children born when the father dies while the mother is pregnant.

Wife aged 55 or older or husband aged 60 or older; wife under 55 years old, husband under 60 years old if labor capacity is reduced by 81% or more.

Biological parents, parents-in-law or other family members who the deceased is obliged to support; these people must be 60 years of age or older for men and 55 years of age or older for women.

Biological parents, parents-in-law or other family members who the deceased is obliged to support; these people are under 60 years old for men, under 55 years old for women and have a working capacity reduction of 81% or more.

The Social Insurance Law also clearly states that the above relatives (except children) must have no income or have a monthly income lower than the basic salary.

The maximum one-time death benefit is equal to 48 months of pension.

In case the relatives of the deceased retiree do not fall into the 4 cases eligible for monthly pension, they will receive a one-time pension.
Specifically, in the case of a deceased person whose relatives are eligible for monthly survivor benefits but wish to do so, they will also receive a one-time survivor benefit (except in the case of children under 6 years old, children or spouses with a reduced working capacity of 81% or more).
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 that person dies in the following months, for every additional month of pension received, the subsidy will be reduced by 0.5 month of pension, the lowest level is equal to 3 months of current pension.

Time to resolve the regime, within a maximum of 8 working days (from the date of receiving complete documents), the Social Insurance agency will resolve the regime according to regulations.