Raising retirement age: Why is there so much opposition?

Increasing retirement age while labor management efficiency is not good, labor productivity is not high, and social insurance fund management still has many weaknesses...

The adjustment to increase the retirement age is being studied by management agencies to be included in the Draft Amendment to the Labor Code, expected to be submitted to the National Assembly in 2017. This is a regulation that affects most workers in society and has caused much controversy in recent times.

First of all, the reasons given by the drafting agency are: the risk of fund bankruptcy, population aging and in line with the general trend of many countries in the world. In the face of population aging, the solution applied by developed countries is to increase the retirement age and has been successfully implemented for a long time. But why is a solution applied effectively by progressive countries with developed economies, but when planned to be introduced in Vietnam, it has caused so much controversy?

Through monitoring, the opinions opposing the increase in retirement age are mainly due to reasons that exist in society and in the current social insurance system.

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According to the general assessment, the way the Social Insurance Fund has been managed in the past and is currently not stable and effective. It is easy to see that the human resources to manage the fund (management agency) are increasingly expanding. The management apparatus receives very high salaries and many places have built many magnificent headquarters. Working in Social Insurance is the dream of many people.

Social insurance officers and employees are entitled to a salary payment level 1.8 times higher than the current salary regime for civil servants and public employees. The source of payment is taken from the investment profits of the Social Insurance Fund. However, it is worth mentioning that in the past, the investment activities of the Social Insurance Fund have been carried out in accordance with the Social Insurance Law but have not achieved the goal of preserving and growing the fund. Although the average annual investment interest rate tends to increase, it is still relatively low in real terms, and the Social Insurance Fund has even lost assets because the investment interest rate is lower than the inflation rate.

Strong team, high salary, but weak management, evidenced by the situation of abuse and profiteering causing loss of sick leave fund, maternity fund, unemployment insurance fund is still complicated with increasingly sophisticated tricks and has not been effectively controlled...

That is for the social insurance sector alone, but in general, we are currently making efforts to streamline the payroll according to Resolution 49 of the Politburo. With the principle of "2 out, 1 in", that is, 2 people have to leave the system (retire or streamline) before being allowed to receive 1 new payroll. However, in reality, over time, the administrative apparatus, state management agencies... have become more and more bloated. It is worth mentioning that this bloated number is not effective but has become a burden on the budget.

Talking about increasing the retirement age while our management of the payroll is still loose, the efficiency of labor management and labor productivity is not high. With the number of civil servants and public employees "going to work with an umbrella in the morning and coming home with an umbrella in the evening" still too large as it is now, extending the retirement age is a form of legalization for the stagnation of the system that is becoming increasingly serious.

Secondly, the appointment and use of officials in recent times have had too many problems that have upset public opinion. The situation of "the whole family being officials" is not uncommon. This makes public opinion lose confidence that a social security policy will be implemented objectively and fairly. Who knows, among those whose retirement age has been extended, the majority are relatives and the quality of the resources is not outstanding.

In the current situation of masters and doctoral training, many people study with money, with connections, so where can we find quality human resources? They sit in the system like blocks, blocking development. Now that there are legal regulations for these “blood clots”, who would want to support them?

In many exchanges with VOV.VN, Mr. Dang Nhu Loi, former Vice Chairman of the National Assembly's Committee on Social Affairs, a person who has studied the issue of wages, always emphasized the transition from a real-payment pension system to a personal savings account system to reduce risks caused by population aging and create fairness between generations. With this method, social insurance contributions of social insurance participants will be accumulated into a separate account and invested to create a source of payment for workers when they reach retirement age. This account is like a savings account, if you save a lot, you will receive a lot when you are old, but if you contribute less, you will receive less, avoiding the current unfair situation of "contributing less, receiving more" beyond the fund's capacity.

When the "blood clots" in the current system are resolved, the issue of whether or not to extend the retirement age will no longer be a matter that consumes as much ink as it is today./.

According to VOV