Social benefits payment in the community: Many problems remain

(Baonghean) -The policy of supporting social protection beneficiaries according to Decree 67/2007/ND-CP of the Prime Minister has been implemented in our province since 2007. Up to now, thousands of beneficiaries have received subsidies. However, in many places, this policy has not yet reached families.

According to this Decree, 9 subjects receiving monthly allowances are orphans, lonely elderly people from poor households, people aged 80 and over without pensions or social insurance benefits, severely disabled people who are unable to work or unable to take care of themselves from poor families, people with mental illness, people infected with HIV from poor households, families with 2 or more disabled people who are unable to take care of themselves, single people from poor households, with children under 16 years old... Statistics from the Department of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs of the province show that up to now, the whole province has had 89,475 people receiving social allowances in the community with a total budget of nearly 18 billion VND, of which over 50,000 are elderly people. Through the program, thousands of poor households in difficult circumstances and disabled people without support have a regular allowance, contributing to stabilizing their lives.

In order for this policy to reach the right beneficiaries, in recent years, the Department of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs has directly assigned the Labor Departments of districts, cities and towns to make a list and review the applications. However, according to Mr. Phan Bui Hai - Head of the Social Protection Department - Department of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs, many localities are still slow in making and reviewing applications for beneficiaries. For example, in Phong Thinh commune, Thanh Chuong district, many people reported that although the subsidy application has been completed for nearly a year, many elderly people over 80 years old here have not yet received the allowance. Or in Moi hamlet, Chau Phong commune, Quy Chau district, people reported the delay in paying the allowance to the disabled. Statistics from the Nghe An Province Elderly Association also show that although Decree 67 (later replaced by Decree 13) of the Government stipulated that from January 1, 2011, the elderly aged 80 and over will receive a monthly allowance of 180,000 VND, up to now, the payment of the regime to the above subjects is still very slow. Currently, out of 21,483 elderly people who have completed their paperwork, only 1,498 have received the allowance. According to Mr. Dau Van Long - Head of the Department of Labor of Que Phong District - one of the districts that has not completed the target, the most difficult problem of the district is the problem of human resources, especially human resources at the commune level. For a long time, the monitoring and guidance on making records have been carried out by the commune's policy officers, but these are all part-time officers, and the commune area is large, so one person cannot handle all the work. In Quy Chau district, Ms. Hoang Thi Oanh - Deputy Head of the Labor Department said: The process of preparing documents does not encounter many problems but the payment is slow. The reason is that the district usually makes a payment list every 6 months, the finance department also relies on that number to estimate the budget. New subjects established during the above period must wait until the last 6 months of the year to be paid.

Mr. Phan Bui Hai - Head of Social Protection Department added: Decree 67 has specified the subjects that are eligible to receive subsidies, however, due to the general content, many policy officers are confused when reviewing applications. For example, Clause 4, Article 4 stipulates that "severely disabled people who are unable to work or unable to take care of themselves, and are from poor families" will receive subsidies. According to regulations, people who are no longer able to work from the age of 15 and up, so are disabled people under 15 years old eligible to receive this policy or not? Many applications of disabled people are delayed due to this problem.

To resolve the shortcomings, recently the Department of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs has sent a document to the Department of Social Protection - Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs to ask for instructions. In addition, the Labor sector also hopes that departments and localities need to pay more attention to the above issue, urging relevant departments to quickly implement so that the policy can be implemented soon at the grassroots level. In addition, it is also necessary to pay attention to officials doing policy work at the grassroots level, have a clear remuneration regime, focus on training, fostering and training to improve capacity and responsibility in identifying subjects and implementing policies for people at the grassroots level. If the above contents are implemented synchronously, surely in the coming time, policy work in our province will be better implemented, contributing to improving the quality of life of subjects, gradually ensuring social security and justice.

Song Hoang