An 87-year-old woman in Nghe An province 'suddenly' had her survivor's benefits cut off.

This unfortunate story happened to Mrs. Tran Thi Nu (87 years old, residing in Phuc Dien 1 hamlet, Hung Tay commune, Hung Nguyen district). Although slightly hard of hearing, Mrs. Nu's health and memory are still sharp. On the afternoon of January 8th, in an interview with Nghe An Newspaper, Mrs. Nu stated that she had not yet received her survivor's benefit for three months (from August to October 2019).

Despite the elderly woman and her son having visited the Hung Tay commune post office many times to inquire, her entitlement has still not been resolved.

Mrs. Tran Thi Nu, now 87 years old, is still very sharp-minded. Photo: PB

Over 20 years ago, Mrs. Nu's husband, Mr. Phan Vinh Ngoc, a retired civil servant, passed away. According to state regulations, Mrs. Nu is entitled to a monthly survivor's benefit of 596,000 VND.

In previous years, she would often go directly to the commune post office to collect her pension, sometimes asking her children or grandchildren to do it for her. In August 2019, she fell ill and was unable to collect her pension in person, and her children and grandchildren were busy and forgot about it. Two months later, due to a lack of information, she also failed to go and collect her pension.

It wasn't until November 2019, when Ms. Nữ went to the Hung Tay commune post office to collect her death benefit, that the post office staff were surprised. For three months prior, Ms. Nữ hadn't come to collect her benefit, and the post office staff had recorded her as deceased. From there, the Hung Nguyen district post office processed the paperwork and sent it to the Hung Nguyen district Social Insurance office to terminate Ms. Nữ's monthly death benefit.

Mr. Phan Vinh Hong, the son of Mrs. Nu, was quite upset about the postal worker's mistake. Photo: PB

Mr. Phan Vinh Hong (son of Mrs. Nu) expressed his frustration: "Because my mother was often ill, and I was busy working, I didn't remember the date to receive her survivor's benefits. When I went there, I was informed that my mother's benefits had been cut. Our family went to inquire many times, but the post office officials kept giving vague and evasive answers, saying the money wasn't available yet."

Explaining the incident, Ms. Ho Thi Hien, a postal worker in Hung Tay commune, said that the elderly woman's monthly survivor's benefit was cut due to a mistake. "At that time, Ms. Tran Thi Thuy Trang was assigned by the Hung Nguyen Post Office to pay benefits to residents in Hung Tay commune. Because she had just started working there, and it coincided with a time when many people in the commune were also receiving benefits, when she saw Ms. Nu's name on the list – she hadn't received her money for three months – she thought Ms. Nu had passed away," Ms. Hien said.

More than three months have passed since the error was discovered, and Mrs. Nu is still not on the list of those eligible to receive the survivor's benefit. From November 2019 until now, the Hung Nguyen District Post Office has been using its own funds to pay Mrs. Nu.

Despite receiving payments since November 2019, Ms. Nu's name is still not included in the social insurance benefit payment system. (Photo: PB)

Acknowledging responsibility for this error, Mr. Vu Cong Nam, Director of the Hung Nguyen District Post Office, stated that the payment officer had failed to fulfill their assigned duties.

“According to regulations, if you want to create a file to terminate the benefits, you have to conduct verification, but this officer saw that the elderly woman hadn't come to collect them for three consecutive months, so they thought she had passed away. From there, the Hung Nguyen District Post Office created the file to send to higher authorities to terminate her benefits,” Mr. Nam said, adding that Ms. Nu has now been added to the list of recipients of monthly death benefits, but because the benefits for January and February 2020 were approved in December 2019, Ms. Nu's death benefit was only approved in March 2020.

Following this incident, employee Tran Thi Thuy Trang was reprimanded, had her performance rating lowered, and was transferred to handle payments in a different area.

It is known that since 2012, monthly pensions and social insurance benefits have been paid through the postal system. In addition to the payment task, the postal service is responsible for monitoring changes in the number of beneficiaries.

According to Decision No. 828 dated May 27, 2016, of the Vietnam Social Security, for cases where recipients of monthly pension or social insurance benefits are elderly, lonely, sick, or disabled individuals residing at their place of residence who are unable to go to receive their benefits or authorize someone else to receive them on their behalf, postal workers must deliver the payments directly to the recipient's residence.