The Government proposed that the National Assembly reduce the social insurance payment period to 15 years.

The Resolution of the Government meeting on July 28 on the revised Law on Social Insurance also agreed to propose reducing the retirement age from 80 to 75 years old.

Regarding the one-time withdrawal of social insurance, the Government considers this to be a rather complicated issue, with a major impact on economic and social life. Therefore, the drafting agency can propose two options for the National Assembly's opinion, in which it expresses its viewpoint and basis for selection.

At the same time, the drafting agency is researching and prescribing practical measures to support and encourage workers to voluntarily reserve their social insurance participation time to receive pensions, instead of receiving social insurance payments in one lump sum.

The Government agreed that it is necessary to provide budget support to increase benefits, attractiveness, and attract people to participate in social insurance to ensure long-term social security for the people. This demonstrates the policy of "not sacrificing social progress and equity to pursue economic growth alone".

The Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs received opinions from Government members, consulted scientists, looked at international experience, completed the draft law, and submitted it to the National Assembly.

After 6 years of implementation, the Social Insurance Law 2014 has revealed many shortcomings. The payment period is too long, at least 20 years to receive a pension at the rate of 45% of the average monthly salary of social insurance contributions. Many workers cannot wait and choose to withdraw social insurance at one time. People who voluntarily pay social insurance are only entitled to pension and death benefits, not sickness or maternity benefits.

Therefore, the Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs proposed that the Government reduce the minimum social insurance payment period to enjoy benefits.pensiondown to 15 years, moving towards 10 years for workers to reach retirement.

At the meeting between workers and National Assembly deputies in May, many people proposed that the amended Social Insurance Law should divide the social insurance payment period into several levels of 10-15-20 years to enable workers to receive pensions. The pension rate corresponds to the number of years of payment; the longer the participation, the higher the pension.

However, some people think that reducing the payment period will also make it difficult to prevent workers from withdrawing social insurance at one time.

According to the draft Law on Social Insurance, the Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs proposes two options for one-time withdrawal of social insurance.

Option one, one-time withdrawal of social insurance will be handled with two different groups of workers.

The group that paid social insurance before the revised Law on Social Insurance took effect (before January 1, 2025) after 12 months of unemployment without continuing to participate can withdraw one time. This regulation inherits Resolution 93 of 2015 of the National Assembly so that employees can choose to reserve their payment period or withdraw if needed. If they choose to reserve, employees will enjoy additional benefits.

The group that participates after the date the amended law takes effect is not allowed to withdraw social insurance at one time, except for those who are old enough to retire but have not contributed enough years to receive pension; those who have settled abroad or have one of the life-threatening diseases.

Option 2: Employees who have participated in social insurance for less than 20 years and after 12 months do not continue to pay compulsory social insurance or do not pay voluntary social insurance, if requested, can withdraw one time but not more than 50% of the total time contributed to the pension fund. The remaining time is reserved to continue participating in the social security system and enjoying the regime.

Statistics show that in the 2016-2022 period, nearly 4.85 million people left the social security system. Of these, 1.3 million people returned, continued to work and pay social insurance; nearly 3.55 million people have not returned; 907,000 workers withdrew twice; more than 61,000 people withdrew three times.

After the Government agrees, the above contents will be included in the draft Law on Social Insurance, expected to be submitted to the National Assembly for consideration and discussion at the October session.