Workers need to consider when withdrawing social insurance at one time.

When workers “give up” their rights

At the age of 43, Ms. Hoang Thi Hue (living in Quynh Lam commune, Quynh Luu district) looks much older than her age. The hardships of life are etched on her face.

This woman also just went to Quynh Luu Social Insurance to request a withdrawal.Social insuranceonce, even though she had only paid social insurance for 4 years before and the amount withdrawn at one time was not much, less than 15 million VND. “I used to work as a worker at a limited liability company and mainly did cleaning work, earning about 3 million VND. After 4 years of working, I was paid by the company and paid full insurance, but recently the company cut staff so I had to quit my job for nearly a year. Since then, I have been unemployed, the life of my family and three children depends on a few fields and “do whatever they hire”, so it is very precarious, I can no longer pay monthly insurance”, Ms. Hue said.

Consulting for workers at Quynh Luu Social Insurance Agency. Photo: My Ha

Currently, Ms. Hue's family is also classified as poor because her husband passed away many years ago, her two children are in high school, and the annual expenses are quite expensive. With her situation, Ms. Hue is supported by the State with 30% when participating in voluntary social insurance, but she still decided to withdraw, because the monthly payment, although only over 100,000 VND, is still an amount that she can hardly manage.

Another case that was also directly consulted by the leaders of Quynh Luu District Social Insurance is Ms. Tran Thi Luong, who lives in Quynh Hong Commune and has just returned from Binh Duong. Ms. Luong is only 21 years old this year and has only paid social insurance for 1 year but is still determined to withdraw her social insurance at once with the reason "due to maternity leave, there is no income".

Through contact with many workers who came to withdraw their social insurance at one time, Ms. Ho Thi Xuan - Deputy Director of Quynh Luu District Social Insurance said: "There are many different subjects who come to request to withdraw their social insurance at one time. However, for those over 30 years old, with many years of work experience, when we advise them, they will consider whether to withdraw or not. But for young workers, they often prefer to withdraw "cash" instead of thinking about long-term benefits".

Quynh Luu is one of the localities with the number oflaborThe number of people applying for one-time social insurance withdrawal in the province is the largest with more than 1,000 people, a significant increase compared to previous years.

According to the representative of the unit, there are many different reasons why workers are no longer interested in paying social insurance, the main reason being the impact of the epidemic, workers losing their jobs, not having jobs, or many workers returning from epidemic provinces in the South. Besides, there are also cases where workers do not see the benefits of long-term social insurance participation, want to withdraw social insurance at once to have a sum of money to use immediately.

At the Hung Nguyen District Social Insurance Agency, since the beginning of the year, 367 people have come to request a one-time withdrawal of their social insurance. Although this number is not too high compared to many other localities, it is still a concern for those working in social insurance. Meanwhile, the number of people returning to participate in voluntary social insurance is only 19 people.

Increasing the number of workers coming to settle one-time social insurance benefits in localities in 2021. Photo: My Ha

Le Thi Kim Anh and Nguyen Van Thang (Hung Thai commune, Hung Nguyen) have both participated in social insurance for over 10 years. Earlier this week, Kim Anh went to the district social insurance agency to withdraw the social insurance of one of them, saying that “it will take a long time to wait until we get our salary”.

It is worth mentioning that although both of them have been retired from their old agency for more than a year and now have new jobs, both husband and wife have hesitated to pay social insurance again because they do not fully understand the benefits. After being consulted by the staff at the social insurance agency, giving reasons why employees can "lose more, lose more", Ms. Kim Anh has temporarily stopped asking to withdraw once to reconsider.

Need to consider carefully

According to the synthesis of Nghe An Social Insurance, from the beginning of the year until now, Nghe An province has had more than 14,800 cases of workers coming to request to withdraw social insurance at one time. Of these, about 3,300 workers are working in the province; the rest are workers working outside the province. Also through the synthesis, among the workers withdrawing social insurance at one time, the number of workers with a payment period of less than 5 years accounts for the majority with more than 12,000 people, more than 1,900 workers with a payment period of more than 5 years and less than 10 years. In particular, there are more than 600 workers who have paid for more than 10 years but still request to withdraw social insurance.

This is a very worrying reality, not only directly affecting the rights of workers but also affecting the socio-economic situation, as well as the goals, efforts and determination of the Government in implementing social security for all people.

Withdrawing social insurance at one time will also lead to "double losses" for employees. Specifically, previously, Vietnam Social Security stated that if employees receive social insurance at one time, the benefit for each year of social insurance payment will only be equal to 1.5 months of the average monthly salary for social insurance payment for the years before 2014 and equal to 2 months of the average monthly salary for social insurance payment for the years from 2014 onwards.

Consulting for workers at Hung Nguyen Social Insurance Agency. Photo: My Ha

Thus, if receiving social insurance at one time, employees will lose about 1.14 months of salary for each year of social insurance payment before 2014 and about 0.64 months of salary for each year of social insurance payment after 2014. Meanwhile, if employees pay enough years of social insurance, in addition to having a salary to support employees when they retire, employees will also enjoy benefits from this fund including the following regimes: sickness, maternity, work accidents, occupational diseases and death.

In fact, the current voluntary social insurance policy is quite flexible for employees who want to pay social insurance. In case employees are in difficult times and cannot continue to pay social insurance, they still have the right to reserve and then continue to pay (by participating in compulsory or voluntary social insurance) to be eligible for pension and health insurance card to help take care of their health when they are old.

“In recent years, the number of workers requesting one-time social insurance benefits has been increasing, with an increase of 2.96% in 2021 compared to the same period in 2020. There are objective reasons such as difficult social life due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and they need a sum of money to cover immediate difficulties in life.

The fact that employees request to withdraw their social insurance at one time will lead to future risks because we all know that participating in social insurance is an investment for the future, an investment for old age so that later on, there will be savings to ensure life when the employee reaches retirement age. During this time, employees are also entitled to health insurance cards to take care of their health when they retire" - Ms. Le Thi Dung - Deputy Director of Nghe An Social Insurance said.

People participating in voluntary social insurance receive and compare information on their social insurance books at the social insurance and health insurance collection agency in Hung Dung ward, Vinh city. Photo: Provincial Social Insurance

Faced with this situation, the provincial Social Insurance Agency has recently stepped up its communication efforts to help workers see the benefits of participating in insurance and limit one-time withdrawals of social insurance. The agency has also established advisory groups at one-stop transaction points or provided direct advice to workers when they come to resolve policies and regimes.

The representative of the provincial Social Insurance agency also said that at this time, employees need to consider when withdrawing social insurance at one time because the Government will soon discuss the content of the amended Social Insurance Law and one of the important contents of this amendment is to consider reducing the time of social insurance payment to receive pension at the minimum level from 20 years as at present, down to 15 years, or even 10 years. Thereby, to create conditions for elderly employees with low years of social insurance participation to access and enjoy social insurance benefits.