Textile production at Scavi Hue Company (Illustration photo)

Increasing number of people withdrawing social insurance at one time

Ms. Nguyen Thi Ha, 39 years old, a former worker at a factory in Phong Dien Industrial Park, has just completed the procedure to receive a one-time social insurance payment after 12 years of participating in social insurance. Ms. Ha said: “Because of the nature of my job, I sit a lot and have little movement. After a general health check, I was diagnosed with arthritis and neck and shoulder pain, and my health was poor, so I decided to submit a resignation letter. Although the social insurance agency had promoted, instructed and encouraged me to continue paying social insurance to receive a pension later, due to difficult conditions, I did not have enough money to continue paying, and I wanted to receive a large amount of money to open a business, so I completed the procedure to receive a one-time social insurance payment.”

Like Ms. Ha, after 10 years and 5 months of participating in social insurance, Ms. Tran Thi Thu Ly, a line technician at Scavi Hue Company, decided to quit her job and complete the procedures to receive a one-time social insurance benefit with an amount of more than 124 million VND. This is a large amount of money for a worker like Ms. Ly, but in the long run, she will lose many other benefits as well as not receive a pension when she reaches retirement age, becoming a burden for her children and grandchildren.

Through research, Phong Dien is one of the localities with a fairly high number of people withdrawing social insurance at one time, with more than 100 people completing the procedure in the first 2 months of the year. This number is many times higher than before. This is a very worrying reality, not only directly affecting the rights of workers but also affecting the socio -economic situation as well as the goals, efforts and determination of the Government in implementing social security policies for all people.

Phong Dien Social Insurance officers advise and encourage workers not to withdraw social insurance at one time.

According to the Director of Phong Dien District Social Insurance, Mr. Le Dinh Hoa, the reason for the increase in the number of employees in the area withdrawing their social insurance at one time is partly due to the impact of the economic crisis, leading to a shortage of orders for businesses and many difficulties for employees, so they choose to withdraw their social insurance at one time to have money to spend and cover their living expenses. In addition, some people, for immediate benefits, want to withdraw their social insurance at one time to have an investment in business, trading or personal expenses. In addition, after the Lunar New Year, the number of employees working abroad or in provinces and cities across the country returned home for Tet and did not return to work, so they also decided to withdraw their social insurance at one time instead of continuing to reserve it until they found a new job.

Strengthen communication

Receiving social insurance at one time is beneficial in the short term, but harmful in the long term. Because as soon as receiving social insurance at one time, the entire process of paying social insurance of the employee will no longer be preserved, as well as the other benefits of the employee will be much more limited than participating in social insurance until the conditions for receiving pension are met.

Mr. Le Dinh Hoa emphasized that in order to limit the situation of employees withdrawing their social insurance at one time, the district social insurance has coordinated with relevant departments and branches to widely and deeply communicate the meaning and value of receiving monthly pensions, specifically participating in social insurance so that when they retire, they can receive pensions, ensure their lives and be granted free health insurance cards. At the same time, it is necessary to propagate so that people understand that the time of paying social insurance is the result of the labor process, an accumulation of themselves when they are still healthy, and have income to save for when they retire.

Regarding the form of communication, according to the one-stop staff of Phong Dien District Social Insurance, Mr. Vo Ba Binh, the unit proactively set up Zalo groups to connect with businesses and related departments and post articles of Vietnam Social Insurance; post information boards on benefits as well as the benefits of continuing to participate in social insurance so that people understand and do not withdraw social insurance at one time. On the other hand, when employees come to do procedures to receive one-time social insurance at the one-stop department, the staff continues to advise, explain and mobilize employees with the desire to minimize the number of people doing procedures to receive one-time social insurance.

According to the leader of the provincial Social Insurance, to encourage employees to reserve their time to participate in social insurance instead of receiving social insurance at one time, the provincial Social Insurance has implemented many synchronous solutions, including comprehensive innovation in content, form and communication methods to provide information, orient public opinion, helping employees fully and deeply perceive the humane meaning of social insurance policies.

On the other hand, strengthen the connection between social insurance policies, unemployment insurance policies, and employment policies in the direction of supporting employees, maintaining jobs, and bringing unemployed people back to the labor market soon; coordinate the organization of communication conferences, and mobilize employees not to withdraw social insurance at one time. In particular, Vietnam Social Security is recommending ministries and branches to study and improve social insurance policies and regimes, consider amending the Social Insurance Law in the direction of reducing the time of social insurance payment to receive pensions at the minimum level from 20 years as at present to 15 years, or even 10 years in the spirit of Resolution No. 28 of the Party Central Committee on reforming social insurance policies.

Article and photos: THANH HUONG