The Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs is collecting opinions and finalizing a draft decree adjusting the social allowance standards prescribed in Decree 20/2021 of the Government.

The draft proposes to increase the standard social allowance from 360,000 VND/month to 500,000 VND/month (an increase of 38.9%).

According to the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs, up to now, the whole country has more than 3.3 million people receiving monthly social benefits in the community and 361,590 people receiving monthly care support funds.

Although the State budget is still difficult, priority is still given to investment in social security. The standard level of social assistance stipulated in Decree 20 is 360,000 VND/month.

The lowest coefficient is 1 and the highest is 2.5 (average coefficient 1.41). Every year, the state budget has allocated more than 27,000 billion VND to implement social assistance policies and issue health insurance cards to social protection beneficiaries.

Social assistance levels are continuously adjusted upward.

Specifically, the standard subsidy level in 2000 was 45,000 VND/month, in 2006 it was 65,000 VND/month, in 2007 it increased to 120,000 VND/month, in 2010 it was 180,000 VND/month, by 2013 it was 270,000 VND/month, a 6-fold increase compared to 2000. In 2021 it was 360,000 VND and has been applied to date.

The Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs believes that over time, the standard level of social assistance has increased slowly compared to the process of reforming social insurance policies, pensions, poverty reduction and subsidies for people with revolutionary contributions.

The subsidy level is very low compared to the minimum living standard of the people, only 24% of the rural poverty line for the period 2021-2025 (the rural poverty line is 1.5 million VND).

From 2021 to present, the standard level of preferential allowance for people with revolutionary contributions has been adjusted to increase by 26.5% (from 1.624 million VND to 2.055 million VND). The basic salary increase after 4 years is 20.8% (from 1.49 million VND to 1.8 million VND).

It is expected that from July 1, 2024, the standard level of preferential allowance for meritorious people will be adjusted to increase by 35.7% (from VND 2,055 million to VND 2,789 million), the basic salary is expected to increase by 30%.

The Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs believes that adjusting the social allowance standards to ensure the lives of social protection beneficiaries is necessary.

The prices of daily consumer goods and services have increased, while social welfare levels have remained unchanged, making life difficult for social protection beneficiaries.

Faced with the above reality, the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs proposed adjusting the standard social allowance level from 360,000 VND/month to 500,000 VND/month.

A representative of the Department of Social Protection (Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs) said that the above proposal not only ensures a minimum living standard for groups of people who cannot take care of themselves such as the elderly and orphans, but also narrows the gap between groups in society when salary reform is implemented from July 1, 2024.

According to the proposal of the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs, if the monthly subsidy increases to VND500,000 per person per month, the budget is expected to spend about VND37,000 billion per year. If implemented from July 1, the additional cost will be VND4,700 billion.