Workers serving prison sentences still receive pensions

Photo is for illustration purposes only. Photo: Minh Tu/VNA

The Prime Minister answered the question of delegate Do Van Sinh (National Assembly delegation of Quang Tri province) about paying pensions to workers who were imprisoned and forced to quit their jobs before January 1, 1995.

Regarding the question of delegate Do Van Sinh, the Prime Minister said that according to the provisions of the Law on Social Insurance 2014, from January 1, 2016 onwards, those who are serving a prison sentence and are eligible for a pension can authorize another person to complete the procedures for settling the pension regime and receiving the pension; those who are receiving a pension and are sentenced to imprisonment will continue to receive pension payments for the time they are serving the prison sentence.

Specifically, for those who are receiving pensions and were imprisoned between January 1, 1995 and December 31, 2015, according to Clause 2, Article 123 of the Law on Social Insurance 2014, “People who are receiving pensions, allowances for loss of working capacity, work-related accidents, occupational diseases, monthly death benefits, monthly allowances for commune, ward, and town officials who have retired, people whose benefit period has expired and are currently receiving monthly allowances, and people whose social insurance benefits have been suspended due to violations of the law before the effective date of this Law shall still comply with previous regulations.”

For those who were imprisoned or forced to quit their jobs before January 1, 1995, according to Clause 6, Article 123 of the Law on Social Insurance 2014, "the calculation of working time before January 1, 1995 to enjoy social insurance is implemented according to previous regulations on calculating working time before January 1, 1995 to enjoy social insurance for cadres, civil servants, public employees, workers, soldiers and people's police."

Accordingly, people who were imprisoned or forced to quit their jobs before January 1, 1995 will not have their working time counted to receive social insurance.

Recently, in response to the opinions of National Assembly deputies and voters, the Government has assigned the Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs to review, evaluate and make recommendations and propose solutions for cases of imprisonment or forced dismissal in the past.

Through the review and evaluation report, it shows that the implementation of social insurance policies in each period is different and based on the characteristics and socio-economic conditions in each period. The social insurance policy before 1995 was a preferential policy of the State and was also a tool for the State to manage its cadres, civil servants, public employees and workers.

At that time, if an employee violated discipline and was forced to quit his job or violated the law and was sentenced to imprisonment, the entire previous working period would not be counted for social insurance benefits. Therefore, if the issue of reviewing and re-solving the policy for those who were forced to quit their jobs or were sentenced to imprisonment in the previous period is raised, it is unfair to those in the same situation who have now passed away or do not have much time left to enjoy the policy.

On the other hand, such cases have been around for more than 20 years, and lost or incomplete documents are also limitations if we consider and resolve the regime for them again. Therefore, recommending and proposing to the National Assembly to amend the provisions of the 2014 Social Insurance Law to consider retroactively on a general basis for all previous cases of employees is not feasible and will create new unreasonable comparisons.

However, in reality, for special cases as mentioned by the delegates, such as employees who are sentenced to imprisonment but have made many contributions to the revolution during their working process; those who are subject to disciplinary decisions to force them to quit their jobs but are later considered to have their disciplinary level reduced... then, based on the proposals of the People's Committees of provinces and cities, the Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs is still considering and resolving so that employees can count their previous working time as reserved to receive social insurance./.