Proposal to correct pension policy of 92-year-old man: New grounds

MORE DISADVANTAGES

Sending us the petition of Mr. Pham Anh Tuan (5th time), Ms. Pham Thi Tuyet (Mr. Tuan's daughter) informed: after Nghe An Newspaper proposed to find someone with the same position, retired at the same time to have a comparison, the family was lucky to find such a person.

That is Mr. Hoang Van Hanh, born in 1932, residing in Tam Hop commune, Quy Hop district, former Director of Quy Hop Pharmaceutical Store. Mr. Hoang Van Hanh was Director for 7 years (from July 1977 to July 1984), then retired according to the regime.

Regarding the records and documents related to Mr. Hoang Van Hanh's pension regime, they are basically complete, especially the documents on the times the State implemented salary reforms according to Decree No. 235 (1985), Decree No. 27 (1993)...

Mr. Pham Anh Tuan.

Specifically, in the Pension - Allowance Adjustment Form dated October 1, 1993 of Mr. Hoang Van Hanh, the main salary was adjusted with the reason "Adjusting the salary of leaders according to Decree 27". From the old salary of 310, Mr. Hoang Van Hanh was adjusted to increase to 420. From April 1, 1993, Mr. Hoang Van Hanh received a monthly pension of 170,974 VND.

As Nghe An Newspaper reported in the articles "Need to resolve a rare proposal on retirement regime reasonably and emotionally" (Printed Newspaper issue dated September 19, 2019); "Rare story of 92-year-old man petitioning to correct pension system” (electronic newspaper, October 4, 2019). The reason for the error in Mr. Pham Anh Tuan's retirement regime is that between 1985 and 1987, the authorities changed his pension regime from the position of Store Manager to the position of a regular Pharmaceutical officer (in 1985, his salary was ranked at level 281; in 1987, it was reduced to level 272). Therefore, the adjustment of the main salary according to Decree No. 27 (1994) for Mr. Pham Anh Tuan only increased from level 281 to level 346; the monthly pension received after the adjustment was 125,728 VND.

Comparing the salary scale of Mr. Hoang Van Hanh with Mr. Pham Anh Tuan, although the two worked in the same unit and held the position of Store Manager for the same period of time, the difference is clearly too large.

One person received a salary of 420, while the other only received a salary of 346. In 1994, the difference in the actual pensions received by Mr. Hanh and Mr. Tuan was up to 45,246 VND/month. Currently, Mr. Hoang Van Hanh's salary is 5,236 million VND/month; while Mr. Pham Anh Tuan's salary is only 3,996 million VND/month (salary data for September 2019).

Pension and benefit adjustment slip in 1994 of Mr. Pham Anh Tuan (left) and pension and benefit adjustment slip in 1993 of Mr. Hoang Van Hanh.

In the fifth petition, Mr. Pham Anh Tuan wrote: “The wrongdoing of the state agency in 1985 led to the loss of my pension for too long, causing too much loss. After 4 years of continuously sending petitions to state agencies and waiting for a response, I found that the agencies could not provide any convincing evidence or basis to respond to my petition. Now I have found a living witness, with full evidence and information to ensure the legal basis to prove that my complaint is well-founded. I hope that the competent authorities will be kind, willing, and enthusiastic to consider and resolve the matter, and restore justice to me…”.

Need to correct the error soon

On October 7, 2019, Nghe An Newspaper reporters had a meeting with Ms. Le Thi Dung - Deputy Director of the Provincial Social Insurance and related officials of this agency. Presenting all of Mr. Pham Anh Tuan's pension records, the provincial Social Insurance officials said that after receiving instructions from the Provincial People's Committee, the provincial Social Insurance agency coordinated with the Department of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs to conduct inspections and reviews to respond to the petition. However, the response to the petition was not yet agreed by Mr. Tuan, and he continued to have new petitions, with new developments. To check and clarify a content that has been around for decades will take a lot of time, but the provincial Social Insurance's viewpoint is to continue to collect related records and documents for inspection. If any errors are found, the contents under its authority will be considered and resolved, and the contents beyond its authority will be recommended to superiors for guidance.

"The provincial Social Insurance will pay attention and prioritize time to resolve Mr. Pham Anh Tuan's petition."

Ms. Le Thi Dung - Deputy Director of Provincial Social Insurance

Discussing with the provincial Social Insurance officers about the contents published by Nghe An Newspaper; at the same time, informing about the fact that Mr. Pham Anh Tuan's family found a living witness, Mr. Hoang Van Hanh, we requested that the Social Insurance agency, in addition to continuing to check, review and implement the matching method.

Receiving the information that Nghe An Newspaper reporters discussed and provided, Deputy Director of the Provincial Social Insurance, Ms. Le Thi Dung said that she will arrange a working schedule with the Department of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs to continue checking and reviewing, then will have a written response. "The Provincial Social Insurance will pay attention and prioritize time to implement and resolve Mr. Pham Anh Tuan's request..." - Ms. Le Thi Dung exchanged.

Mr. Pham Anh Tuan and his daughter - Mrs. Pham Thi Tuyet.

Also within the framework of the working session with the representative of the provincial Social Insurance, we request to be provided with Document No. 91/BHXH-QLC of 2001 of the Vietnam Social Insurance regarding adjustments to cases discovered due to incorrect policies for beneficiaries before October 1995.

This document stipulates: "The adjusted subsidy level of the subject is implemented from the date of the decision, without retrospective payment for subjects whose allowances are increased or without recovery for subjects whose allowances must be decreased" as the Department of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs reported to the Provincial People's Committee in Document 3002/LDTBXH-LD dated August 25, 2018. At the same time, there is information here that the regulations in the document have received unanimous opinions from the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs (Official Dispatch No. 3779/LDTBXH-BHXH dated November 7, 2000) and the Ministry of Finance (Official Dispatch 6151TC/HCSN dated December 17, 1999).

However, through studying Official Dispatch No. 3779/LĐTBXH-BHXH, the opinion of the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs on handling errors when checking social insurance benefit records is to assign the Social Insurance of provinces and cities to coordinate with the Department of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs of provinces and cities to handle and make adjustments. Specifically, this content is stated as follows: "For cases where policy errors are discovered for beneficiaries, the Social Insurance of provinces and cities is requested to inspect and make specific conclusions to have sufficient legal basis to adjust the benefit level. After that, the Social Insurance of provinces and cities decides to make adjustments. Before making adjustments, it is necessary to notify and clearly explain to the beneficiaries the reasons to avoid errors, leading to complaints".

An immutable principle is that when citizens have a petition, it must be considered and resolved thoroughly and in accordance with the law.

Regarding the viewpoint on handling Mr. Pham Anh Tuan's petition, as Nghe An Newspaper stated in the previous article, the mistake of the state agency was more than 30 years ago, to clarify there are complications; besides, policies have changed over time, so it is difficult to propose a solution that achieves the consensus of the petitioner. However, an immutable principle is that when a citizen has a petition, it must be considered and resolved thoroughly and in accordance with the law.

For a citizen who is 92 years old and has been in the Party for 70 years like Mr. Pham Anh Tuan, it is even more necessary to be careful in verifying and clarifying to ensure a reasonable and sympathetic solution. Now, through a living witness, Mr. Hoang Van Hanh, the reasons for the mistakes and the disadvantages of Mr. Pham Anh Tuan have become clearer. Therefore, it is necessary to conduct an early inspection to have an accurate conclusion, thereby proposing a direction to compensate for the disadvantages of Mr. Pham Anh Tuan.