What does the Ministry of Health say about the proposal that women who give birth to two children should be given priority to buy social housing?

The Ministry of Health has proposed adding the criteria that women who give birth to two children and men who have two children whose wives have died will be given priority in buying social housing to the draft Population Law, which is being prepared to be submitted to the National Assembly for consideration and approval at the 10th session.

Men without wives due to divorce will not be given priority to buy social housing.

At the press conference to inform about the draft Law on Population and the draft Law on Disease Prevention organized by the Ministry of Health on the morning of November 7, Master, Doctor Dang Quynh Thu, Head of the Population Size Department, Department of Population (Ministry of Health) said that the policy of giving priority to buying or renting social housing under the Housing Law has stipulated the beneficiaries of housing support policies, including the poor, near-poor, low-income people, civil servants, public employees, workers in industrial parks, regardless of whether they have children or not.

The draft Population Law proposes to add criteria for women who have given birth to two children and men who have two biological children whose wives have died to be given priority in buying social housing. "This policy helps couples with two children to be given priority in housing to reduce burdens and difficulties, without creating additional subjects," Dr. Thu affirmed.

MSc. Dr. Dang Quynh Thu answers the press at the meeting.

For more information, Mr. Le Thanh Dung, Director of the Department of Population, said that up to now, no country in the world has a Population Law, Vietnam is the first country to draft this law.

"The Population Law cannot cover all the wishes of more than 100 million people, but it aims to maximally meet the needs of the people," Mr. Dung commented.

Mr. Dung said that the draft law has many policies to maintain replacement fertility, respond to aging population, etc. During the process of drafting the law, the drafting committee received many comments and shares so that the law can soon come into life. One of the most notable policies is the priority for buying social housing.

According to Mr. Dung, previously, the bill stipulated that women who gave birth to two children or men who had two biological children but were unmarried or had a deceased wife would be given priority in enjoying social housing policies to reduce the housing burden so they could focus on caring for and raising their children.

After that, many opinions and people commented that there are still loopholes when "couples divorce to buy social housing, buy it and then remarry".

Mr. Le Thanh Dung shared information at the press meeting.

To ensure that the law is enacted without any legal loopholes, the drafting committee has made appropriate amendments. The latest revised draft stipulates that "men with two biological children and a deceased wife" will be given priority in purchasing social housing.

"For men with two biological children without a wife, priority will not be proposed as before to ensure relevant legal gaps," said Mr. Dung.

Women get 1 more month of maternity leave, men get 5 more days off when their wife gives birth

Sharing about the policy to maintain the replacement fertility rate, MSc. Dr. Dang Quynh Thu said that the goal of building the policy is to ensure and maintain a stable replacement fertility rate on a national scale to have a reasonable population size, contributing to slowing down population aging and ensuring fertility rates.

This proposal continues to inherit Decree 07 of 2025, amending and supplementing Article 10 of the Population Ordinance stipulating each birth, the interval between births. At the same time, adding a number of measures with direct incentives for each couple to have more children and give birth to 2 children, included in draft Article 13 of Law No. such as: Increasing maternity leave for the second child, women take 1 more month off, men take 5 more days off when their wife gives birth; financial support according to the State's policy when giving birth for ethnic minority women with a small population, women who give birth to 2 children before the age of 35 and women in localities with low birth rates; priority to buy or rent social housing for women who give birth to 2 children and for men with 2 biological children whose wives have passed away.

Dr. Thu said that in reality, according to current regulations, women are already among the priority groups for purchasing social housing. The addition to the draft Population Law to increase access for families with two children is also a policy to encourage births.

Representatives of the Ministry of Health , the Department of Population and the Department of Disease Prevention provided information related to the two draft laws.

"Currently, the social housing fund may be small, with many priority subjects but it is still difficult to access. However, in the future, the housing fund may be larger, and when included in the law, it will help families with two children still have the opportunity to buy or rent social housing," Dr. Thu emphasized.

In addition, localities are assigned to base on the socio-economic conditions of each period to make specific regulations, ensuring flexibility and budget suitability. In addition, the government can expand social benefits for families with two children such as reducing tuition fees, prioritizing childcare services, and supporting preschool education.

"These policies aim to encourage births, help families, couples, and individuals with two children settle down early, reduce financial burden, and focus on caring for and raising children," said Dr. Thu.

The representative of the Population Department also said that the purpose of promulgating the law is to create a unified and synchronous legal basis to contribute to institutionalizing the Party's guidelines, policies and guidelines on population and overcoming limitations and shortcomings; meeting the requirements of population development work in the new situation.

"The solution to implement this policy has been reviewed, ensuring its feasibility, consistency with current laws, and creating a synchronous legal corridor to firmly maintain the replacement fertility level," said Dr. Thu.

However, this solution also has some negative but insignificant impacts that require amending and supplementing a number of provisions of the Labor Code, Insurance Law, and Housing Law to ensure consistency of the legal system.

Regarding socio-economic impacts, implementing this policy will encourage individuals and couples to have two children, ensuring replacement fertility nationwide, avoiding rapid population aging, reducing fertility to have resources for sustainable development, also stabilizing the labor force, population size and positively impacting the quality of human resources.

Dr. Thu said that maintaining the replacement fertility rate sets a very humane goal of overcoming the fertility gap between regions and reducing the socio-economic gap between regions.

People benefit from policies and support that partly reduce the burden of costs of giving birth and raising children, and also overcome the current situation of many couples not having enough children.

Source: https://cand.com.vn/Xa-hoi/bo-y-te-noi-gi-ve-de-xuat-phu-nu-sinh-du-hai-con-duoc-uu-tien-mua-nha-o-xa-hoi-i787307/