Do not pass the burden on to future generations

Speaking to the press on the sidelines of the National Assembly, Minister of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs Dao Ngoc Dung said that the adjustment of retirement age has been clearly stated in Resolution 28 of the Central Committee. The purpose of adjusting retirement age is to take into account growth, employment, ensuring sustainability and based on many other goals such as ensuring the sustainability of the Social Insurance Fund in the long term, the issue of population aging, gradually reducing the gender gap, etc. Adjusting retirement age must have a long-term vision but must act quickly to adapt to population aging by 2035.

In general, first, we affirm that Vietnam is in the golden population period, but in fact, at this time, Vietnam's population began to shift from "aging" to "aging" in 2014. Specifically, if in 2000, the average number of people entering working age was 1.2 million per year, now this labor force has decreased to 400,000 people/year. The decreasing rate of people entering working age shows that the population is aging and Vietnam is also the country with the fastest aging population today.

Second, if we talk about working age, our retirement age is 60 for men and 55 for women as it is now, which has been regulated since 1961, that is, more than 60 years ago. At the time of this regulation, the average life expectancy of Vietnamese people was just over 45 years old, but now the average life expectancy of Vietnamese people is 76.6 years old. Vietnam is also one of the countries with high life expectancy in the Asia Pacific region.

Third, looking at the issue of ensuring the stability of the Social Insurance Fund, it can be seen that currently the time of social insurance contribution for men and women is generally low, we pay on average more than 20 years but receive very high benefits. Normally, in other countries, the benefit level is 30% - 45%, but in Vietnam the highest benefit level is 75%, the average is 70%. Through calculations, it shows that if an average person pays social insurance for 28 years, it is only enough for him to enjoy for 10 years, the remaining 9 and a half years are taken from the contributions of the next generation to share with the current generation. Therefore, to ensure the balance and stability of the Social Insurance Fund, adjusting the retirement age is necessary.

In short, increasing the retirement age is part of a whole range of options and solutions in parallel with many other laws and policies, such as adjustments to insurance, employment, and the labor market, not just the Labor Code.

Workers have the right to early retirement.
“I also hope that the press will widely propagate so that workers understand that this is a gradual adjustment plan, an adjustment on a slow roadmap. If following option 1 as proposed by the Government, men will retire at the age of 62 in 2028, and women will retire at the age of 60 in 2035. And this retirement age is under normal working conditions and normal health,” the Minister expressed.

Regarding the right to retire early for workers, the Minister affirmed, "workers in the following cases: health decline, heavy or toxic labor have the right to retire 5 years earlier than the age."

He said, we are currently designing a policy, there may even be people retiring at the age of 50. For example, a person who has done heavy work and is also in poor health will have to retire earlier. The policy is designed in the direction of "retirement rights", meaning that workers have the right to retire earlier, they can retire when they have paid enough social insurance or if they are not old enough, they can still retire and wait to retire and enjoy the policy according to current regulations.

Thus, we do not “force” workers to be of age and have enough years of social insurance contributions to be eligible for retirement. This issue, for workers, we are particularly concerned - the Minister affirmed and said, the Government will also review all occupations, fields, and heavy, toxic jobs to issue with the Labor Code, when the law is issued, there will be a list immediately.

He gave an example, today, in the coal and mining sectors alone, we have 24 sectors that can retire earlier than the regulations. As for those subjects, the highly qualified workforce, special professions such as: courts, prosecutors, professors, associate professors, good scientists, we must encourage them to work all their lives so that when they can still contribute to the country, they can contribute.

According to Minister Dao Ngoc Dung, in this issue, we need to distinguish between career age and retirement age. He explained: Retirement age is the regulation for you to be eligible to enjoy state policies, to enjoy social insurance. Career age is different, some jobs are done in a short time, some jobs are done for a long time. For example, jobs like circus, football, volleyball, people can only do it for a very short time, then you are trained to change to another job, so career age is associated with the nature of the job. There are also people who stop being managers and continue to work in the profession, for example, lawyers can do it for life.

Therefore, “we fully understand the need to increase the retirement age. At this point, it is impossible not to adjust the retirement age. Look at other countries, if by 2035 we do not adjust the retirement age, Vietnam will fall into a state of population aging like Japan and many other countries today.”

There is no such thing as old people "fighting" for places with young people.

Answering the question "Will increasing the retirement age affect job opportunities for young people?", Minister Dao Ngoc Dung emphasized that when adjusting the retirement age, the first thing is to ensure economic growth, the second is to stabilize and ensure jobs for young people.

According to the Minister, the Government's calculation of option 1 has balanced both ensuring current jobs for young people and calculating for the elderly. He cited: Statistics show that currently, 46% of workers after retirement age are still working. Besides, our labor force at this time is no longer abundant. If you go to the countryside, you will see that in many rural areas there are only old people and women, there are no more young people in the countryside. We have to look at the reality that Vietnam is now not at the peak of the golden population but is moving into the aging population stage.

Minister Dao Ngoc Dung emphasized: There is no such thing as increasing the retirement age because the elderly compete for the young's place, or because officials keep their seats to work. This is what we are thinking about for the future, for the next generation. If we do not adjust the retirement age, it means we are transferring the burden to the next generation.

The Government submitted to the National Assembly plans to increase retirement age and overtime hours.

Submitting to the National Assembly the draft Labor Code (amended) on the morning of May 29, the Government officially proposed increasing the retirement age and a number of other notable issues...