Delegate Thai Thi An Chung proposed designing additional policies so that workers can still participate in social insurance when facing difficulties.

On May 27, at the National Assembly House, continuing the 7th Session Program, the 15th National Assembly held a plenary session in the hall, discussing a number of contents with different opinions of the draft Law on Social Insurance (amended).

Comrade Tran Thanh Man - Politburo member, Chairman of the National Assembly chaired the meeting. Comrade Nguyen Khac Dinh - Member of the Party Central Committee, Vice Chairman of the National Assembly chaired the meeting.

WORKERS HAVE TO WITHDRAW INSURANCE AT ONCE "AS A RARE RESOLUTION"

Speaking at the discussion on the beneficiaries of social pension benefits, delegate Thai Thi An Chung - Member of the Provincial Party Executive Committee, Deputy Head of the Delegation of National Assembly Deputies of Nghe An province expressed her agreement with the regulation on social pension benefits in this draft law to institutionalize Resolution 28 of the Politburo.

"The draft law inherits and develops part of the regulations on monthly social allowances for the elderly currently stipulated in the Law on the Elderly. Compared to the regulations in the Law on the Elderly, the draft law has a superiority in reducing the age of receiving social pension allowance from 80 to 75 years old and reducing to 70 years old for those in poor and near-poor households residing in communes and villages with special difficulties," the Deputy Head of the Delegation of National Assembly Deputies of Nghe An assessed.

However, the delegate proposed to study and add cases where the age can be reduced to 70 years old for those who have participated in the resistance war to protect the Fatherland and performed international duties; these cases have not yet received monthly social insurance pensions and benefits according to the Law on Social Insurance and have not yet received monthly allowances and benefits for people with meritorious services according to the Ordinance on preferential treatment for people with meritorious services.

“The addition of this subject demonstrates the tradition of “remembering the source of water when drinking” and continues the gratitude towards veterans and former youth volunteers who contributed their strength and youth to bring peace and independence to the nation. At the same time, the addition of this subject also contributes to expanding the coverage of social insurance as the goal set out in the draft law,” the delegate of Nghe An analyzed.

Regarding the level of social pension benefits stipulated in Article 21, delegate Thai Thi An Chung agreed to assign the Government to regulate in accordance with socio-economic conditions and state budget capacity of each period.

However, Clause 1, Article 21 stipulates that “every 3 years, the Government shall review and propose adjustments to the social pension level and report to the National Assembly when submitting the 3-year state financial and budget plan”. According to the delegate, this does not ensure consistency in the authority of the Government or the National Assembly, so it is recommended that the drafting agency and the reviewing agency study to ensure consistency.

Regarding the one-time withdrawal of social insurance, recognizing that this is a matter of great concern to National Assembly deputies and voters, the Deputy Head of the National Assembly Delegation of Nghe An province shared that deciding on any option for individual deputies is also very difficult and confusing.

Regarding the conditions for receiving one-time social insurance benefits, the draft Law on Social Insurance (amended) offers two options:

Option 1:Workers are divided into two groups:

- Group 1 continues to apply the conditions for receiving one-time social insurance as prescribed in Resolution No. 93/2015/QH13 dated June 22, 2015 of the National Assembly on implementing the policy of receiving one-time social insurance for employees, that is: Employees participating in social insurance before the Law takes effect (expected July 1, 2025), after 12 months are not subject to compulsory social insurance, do not participate in voluntary social insurance.

- Group 2, employees who start participating in social insurance from the effective date of the Law onwards, will not be subject to this provision on conditions for receiving one-time social insurance benefits.

Option 2:Employees are partially resolved but not exceeding 50% of the total time contributed to the pension and death fund. The remaining time of social insurance contribution is reserved for employees to continue participating and enjoying social insurance regimes.

Through contact with voters and workers before the 6th and 7th Sessions, the delegate found that the majority of workers had to withdraw or would withdraw their social insurance at one time when they were “in a last resort” or when there was no other solution. Therefore, the delegate agreed with many National Assembly members that the Social Insurance Law needs to design additional policies to support workers when they encounter difficulties so that they can continue to participate in social insurance.

On that basis, the National Assembly delegate from Nghe An proposed to add 2 more issues:

One is,Supplementing the policy of taking leave to take care of sick children over 7 years old. The provisions on time off to take care of sick children in Article 45 and Article 46 of the current draft law remain the same as the provisions of the current Social Insurance Law. Accordingly, employees are entitled to sick leave when they have to take leave to take care of sick children under 7 years old with confirmation from a medical examination and treatment facility.

However, in reality, in recent times, many workers have quit their jobs to withdraw their social insurance at one time due to difficult family circumstances, such as their children being seriously ill or suffering from a serious illness that requires regular treatment in hospitals, and in this case, the father or mother has to quit their jobs to stay by their children's side during the treatment and care process. Through monitoring the implementation of the National Target Program on Sustainable Poverty Reduction, the rate of poor households having the hardest time escaping poverty is those who are in a situation of illness or disease.

Therefore, to limit the situation of withdrawing social insurance at one time, delegates proposed to add a regulation in Clause 2, Article 44 that employees are entitled to sick leave when they have to take time off work to take care of children from 7 to under 18 years old in case the child has a serious illness and add a regulation that the maximum time to enjoy child care benefits is 20 days.

Second,To support workers in difficulty when they need capital, need money to cover their living expenses without having to withdraw social insurance at one time, delegates agreed with the viewpoint of the National Assembly Standing Committee and many delegates stated that the Government needs to have a project to support workers such as credit loans.

However, if as stipulated in Clause 9, Article 8 of the draft Law, it is strictly forbidden to pledge, mortgage, or deposit social insurance books in any form, then the credit policy for workers in difficulty will not be feasible because most workers, when having to withdraw their social insurance at one time, means they no longer have any assets to mortgage or pledge to borrow credit capital.

Therefore, the delegate proposed that Clause 9, Article 8 only stipulate the prohibited act of buying and selling social insurance books and supplement the provision in Clause 1, Article 9 stipulating the right of social insurance participants to pledge, deposit or mortgage social insurance books according to the provisions of law and assign the Government to specify this content in detail.

CONSIDER THE CONTENT CAREFULLY

There are different opinions

On behalf of the drafting agency, Minister of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs Dao Ngoc Dung thanked the delegates for their enthusiastic comments and contributions to many important contents; the drafting agency will coordinate with the verification agency to fully absorb the opinions and submit them to the National Assembly Standing Committee; at the same time, explain some related contents, especially some contents that delegates are interested in related to the regulations on receiving one-time social insurance benefits.

Concluding the discussion session, Vice Chairman of the National Assembly Nguyen Khac Dinh said that there were 55 opinions expressed by National Assembly deputies, including 2 debated opinions.

The Vice Chairman of the National Assembly requested the Secretary General of the National Assembly to promptly organize a full synthesis of the delegates' discussion and debate opinions, send them to relevant agencies and report back to the National Assembly deputies so that the agencies can study, absorb and explain in a complete and convincing manner.

Regarding the contents that still have different opinions and lack of consensus, Vice Chairman of the National Assembly Nguyen Khac Dinh said that the National Assembly Standing Committee will carefully consider, weigh and coordinate with the Government to decide on sending ballots to ask for opinions from National Assembly deputies to choose options, as a basis for receiving and revising the draft Law.

The National Assembly Standing Committee will closely coordinate with the Government to direct the drafting agency and the reviewing agency to research, absorb, explain, and complete the draft Law with the highest responsibility and report to the National Assembly Standing Committee for discussion during the period between two sessions before completing and submitting it to the National Assembly for consideration.

Based on the opinions of National Assembly deputies and the quality of the draft Law on Social Insurance (amended), the National Assembly Standing Committee will report to the National Assembly on whether to consider passing the draft Law or not at a later stage of this session.