Provincial Employment Service Center advises and guides loan support policies for workers.

Still having problems

Last year, Nguyen Thanh Thao, from Thuy Xuan Ward, Hue City, registered to work in Japan under the trainee program. The cost for the entire process of preparing documents, learning the language, learning a trade, basic skills, and leaving the country was about 150 million VND. Ms. Tuyet, Thao's mother, said that in order to have money to take care of her child working in Japan, the family had to run around borrowing money. Although it was known that each worker going to work abroad under a contract would be supported with a loan of up to 80 million VND, Ms. Tuyet's family still could not access this loan source.

In fact, many workers going to work abroad have "missed" this preferential loan source, even though they really need it. Others have access to loans, but the amount disbursed is quite low, the disbursement time is slow, causing difficulties for the departure schedule.

According to Mr. Ho Dan, Deputy Director of the Department of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs (DOLISA), most of the people working abroad are in difficult economic circumstances and need to borrow capital to cover expenses. To solve this problem and avoid a shortage of loan capital like in the last months of 2023, from the beginning of 2024, the DOLISA has advised the Provincial People's Committee to allocate 40 billion VND of provincial budget capital entrusted through the Provincial Social Policy Bank for lending to poor households and other policy beneficiaries. Of which, the loan capital for workers working abroad is 23.5 billion VND.

Remember in 2023 and before, a representative of a service company sending workers to work abroad shared that many workers had difficulty confirming the forms (issued by the Provincial Social Policy Bank) at the commune and ward where they resided because the forms were not on the list of confirmations of the Commune People's Committee. To resolve this problem, the Department of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs coordinated with the Provincial Social Policy Bank to disseminate the policy on borrowing capital to work abroad under contracts as well as the forms to local authorities across the province.

However, recently, according to the reflection of Tin Phat InternationalEducation Investment Cooperation Joint Stock Company, many workers sent by the unit to work in Japan and Korea still face difficulties due to cumbersome and inconsistent loan application procedures. There are documents that have to go through several rounds, while the borrowers are in urgent need to leave the country in time, plus the low loan capital, so many workers are discouraged and give up.

The representative of the provincial Social Policy Bank also admitted that in the past 3 months, the disbursement rate has been slow, possibly due to "blockages" at local credit institutions. Another problem is that according to provincial regulations, the maximum loan amount for overseas labor is 80 million VND/loan, but there are some applications that the bank received from businesses requesting disbursement of only 12 million VND/case or slightly higher. This is also the reason for the low disbursement rate.

Accelerate loan disbursement

Since the beginning of the year, the province has sent about 2,000 workers to work abroad, reaching over 94% of the 2024 plan. It is expected that by the end of this year, nearly 3,000 workers will be sent to work abroad.

Despite the large number of workers going abroad, since the beginning of the year, the Department of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs has only received and resolved support policies for 318 workers going to work abroad, with a total amount of more than VND 877 million. Of which, there are 13 cases from poor households, near-poor households and 10 cases from poor districts and coastal communes with a total amount of nearly VND 216 million. The two localities of Nam Dong and A Luoi have also paid attention to implementing the policy of supporting initial costs for more than 60 policy beneficiaries who are poor households, near-poor households, and ethnic minorities going to work abroad with a budget of over VND 720 million.

According to the report of the Provincial Social Policy Bank, up to now, more than 16 billion VND of loan capital for the overseas work program has not been disbursed yet. It is expected that in the last 3 months of the year, more than 2.9 billion VND will be collected from customers. After deducting 69 files that need to be disbursed by the end of the year, it is estimated that this loan capital still has more than 14.6 billion VND remaining.

Mr. Nguyen Van Tuan, Head of the Department of Labor - Employment, Department of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs, said that the reason why the disbursement rate of this capital source is still low is because some enterprises operating in sending workers to work abroad have not really paid attention to credit policies for loans and initial cost support for workers. This has led to a situation where workers do not know or do not fully know about preferential loan policies and initial cost support policies. This has affected the rights and legitimate interests of workers when working abroad.

To ensure timely disbursement of capital, support for the right loan limit, and the right exit target, the Department of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs continues to direct specialized units to promote the dissemination of credit policies and support for initial costs. In particular, it requires service enterprises sending workers to work abroad to review the number of workers who will leave the country, forecast the capital needed to borrow; at the same time, actively guide and support workers to prepare loan applications and support initial costs in accordance with the State's policies and regulations for workers going to work abroad under contracts - Mr. Ho Dan said.

Article and photos: HOAI THUONG