Twice I anxiously awaited my pension.

"If I were healthy, I would gladly wait for my pension. Now that I'm sick, I just want to get back the money I contributed to social insurance for 17 years," said Mrs. Hua Thi Mai from Son Duong district ( Tuyen Quang province) with difficulty.

The 58-year-old woman's voice was choked with despair and hopelessness as she said, "I don't want to wait any longer," due to her deteriorating health and financial ruin after five years of treatment for ovarian and colon cancer. After three surgeries and dozens of chemotherapy sessions, Mrs. Mai now maintains her health daily with medication. For all those years, she paid for health insurance herself.

Ms. Hua Thi Mai is among thousands of individual business owners whose social insurance contributions were collected illegally from 2003 to 2021, despite not being eligible, according to a report by the People's Petition Committee of the National Assembly Standing Committee. As of May 2023, 3,567 business owners were still awaiting resolution of their benefits, 37% of whom had contributed to social insurance for over 15 years.

After battling cancer for many years, Ms. Mai no longer wants to wait for benefits but instead wants to receive the money she has already contributed to social insurance. Photo: Cuong Pham

In a resolution issued in June 2023, the National Assembly requested the Government and relevant agencies to definitively resolve the issues within 2023 to ensure the rights of these household heads. Nine months after the resolution, the relevant parties are still discussing and calculating solutions. In a report submitted to the Government at the end of January, Vietnam Social Security proposed three options: calculating the contribution period for benefits according to regulations and incorporating it into the amended Social Insurance Law; returning the collected money without interest; and integrating the two contents into a final option.

After nearly a year of waiting for a solution without any progress, Ms. Mai wants to receive back the money she paid into social insurance to pay off her bank debt and medication expenses. She is willing to accept even if the refund is only one-tenth of the original amount.

In 2005, the woman who sold groceries and grains joined the mandatory social insurance scheme after repeated visits from social insurance officials in Son Duong district. Saving up a few dozen dong in profit from selling a few kilograms of peanuts and beans at each market day, she collected the money in installments, hoping to have a pension so she wouldn't burden her children in her old age.

After 14 years of mandatory contributions, Ms. Mai switched to voluntary social insurance in 2017 following a notice from the social insurance agency. This was the time when Vietnam Social Insurance requested localities to stop collecting contributions after discovering that individual business owners were not subject to mandatory contributions. However, the incorrect collection continued until 2021.

In May 2020, she received a notice from the social insurance agency stating she "was not eligible, so contributions should be stopped and preserved pending a decision." Although she didn't understand, Ms. Mai "just followed the instructions and waited." To this day, she doesn't remember how many government agencies she and other individual household heads in Tuyen Quang have contacted to inquire about their rights. Unable to travel after chemotherapy sessions, she entrusted her applications to other household heads to submit on her behalf.

According to current regulations, Ms. Mai has contributed to both mandatory and voluntary social insurance for 17 years and still needs three more years to be eligible for a pension. She had considered making a lump-sum payment for the remaining years to receive her pension, but illness caused her to change her mind. "Now, I'm struggling to afford medication, so I just hope to receive the money as soon as possible."

The process of a sole proprietor participating in mandatory social insurance in Tuyen Quang. Photo: Pham Cuong.

Sharing the same impatience, Mr. Nguyen Viet Lam (Tuyen Quang City) has been waiting for his retirement pension for four years. He calculates that he has waited twice already, since the Tuyen Quang Social Insurance agency "closed the books" in April 2020, and now he is waiting again for the relevant agency to announce the plan following the National Assembly's resolution.

A 64-year-old man sued the Social Insurance agency because he had paid enough years of social insurance contributions and reached the required age but had not received any benefits. For nearly a year, he has continued to approach various government agencies to inquire about the progress of his case, but has received no response from some and has been told to wait.

He recounted that the Tuyen Quang Social Insurance agency said that if the relevant department agreed to combine his contribution periods, they would fully reimburse him for the health insurance premiums he had paid over the years. He kept all the receipts, anxiously wondering when he would receive the money, "while the relevant department said it had to be resolved completely in 2023." Facing an uncertain old age, Mr. Lam still chose to wait for his pension rather than simply accept the reimbursement. He believed that if he contributed, he should receive the benefits, "not beg for them."

Like Mr. Lam, Ms. Le Thi Ha (Yen Son district) chose to wait to receive her pension rather than get her contributions back without interest. Having participated since 2005, Ms. Ha contributed a total of 13 years of mandatory social insurance, 3 years of voluntary contributions, and deducted over 72 million VND to pay the remaining 45 months in a lump sum to finalize her pension application.

"The price of a sack of rice used to be 100,000 dong, but now it costs double to buy it. If I repay the loan without interest, it would be too unfair," she said, making the comparison and deciding to use her pension so that "I won't become a burden to society in the future."

Ms. Ha said she had great faith in "the strong statements from all levels of government" regarding the resolution of issues related to the rights of household heads. However, after nearly a year of waiting for action from the parties involved, she filed a second lawsuit against the local Social Insurance agency at the Tuyen Quang Provincial People's Court. She first filed the lawsuit in 2021, later accepting mediation while awaiting a solution, but still received no response. To cover her travel expenses, Ms. Ha continues to run her small grocery store, even though she was supposed to receive her first pension payment on May 1, 2020.

Four years and two missed pension payment deadlines have left the 59-year-old woman "exhausted" but unwilling to give up. Besides the wait without seeing results, she also carries the persistent worry of having borrowed money from relatives at bank interest rates at the end of 2019 to raise 72 million VND in a lump sum to cover the remaining 20 years of social insurance contributions. At the time, that amount could have bought nearly two gold bars, yet she still owes her relatives over 20 million VND.

"Many other companies also offered me life insurance, but I refused them all, choosing only social insurance because it's state-run," she said, expressing her frustration at the interest charged on every penny for late payments in the past, and the fact that she's been waiting for her pension for so many years without receiving it.

Individual business owners gathered at Mr. Nguyen Viet Lam's house in Tuyen Quang City, May 2023. Photo: Pham Cuong

According to a report submitted to the Government by the Vietnam Social Security, there are three options for resolving the benefits for individual business owners.

Option one involves calculating the duration of mandatory social insurance and unemployment insurance contributions by the household head to determine eligibility for benefits as prescribed. Simultaneously, the draft revised Social Insurance Law would include provisions requiring mandatory contributions from business owners, to be submitted to the National Assembly for decision. The Social Insurance Fund would cover the payments from the household head's contributions, based on the contribution-benefit principle, and would not draw from the state budget.

Vietnam's social insurance agency chose this option because it expands the social safety net and strengthens people's trust and motivation to participate in social insurance. "According to legal regulations throughout different periods, the participation and payment of mandatory social insurance, health insurance, and unemployment insurance by the head of the household are not prohibited acts," the report stated.

Option two involves refunding contributions and recovering funds already spent on mandatory benefits such as sickness, maternity, and unemployment insurance. These refunds and recoveries will not accrue interest.

The proposing agency is concerned that this could easily lead to prolonged disputes and complaints due to disagreements from many household heads. Currently, 200 household heads are eligible for a pension upon reaching retirement age and having contributed to social insurance for over 20 years; 380 people have reached retirement age and have contributed to social insurance for over 15 years, and wish to voluntarily make a lump-sum payment for the remaining years to receive a pension. Current law also does not specify how much additional interest must be paid if the payment is made in a lump sum.

Option three integrates the two aforementioned contents , calculating the mandatory social insurance contribution period for household heads and incorporating this into the amended Social Insurance Law. If a household head changes their mind and wishes to refund the contributions, the Social Insurance agency will reimburse them without interest. Vietnam Social Insurance stated that they are applying the 2016 guidance document from the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs, but expressed concerns about its implementation due to many household heads having already received short-term benefits such as sickness or maternity leave; refunds would require the recovery of these funds.

Mr. Nguyen Viet Lam argued that if the competent authority decides to refund the money to the households, both the principal and interest should be fully calculated because the value of money 20 years ago is different from now.

"If they return the money without interest, I won't accept it because that's not social welfare," he stated firmly.

Hong Chieu

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