Lowering the retirement age to 75 will add millions of people to the safety net.

According to the latest revised Draft Law on Social Insurance, Vietnamese citizens are entitled to social retirement benefits when they are 75 years old or older, do not receive pensions, monthly social insurance benefits and do not receive monthly social benefits according to Government regulations.

People from poor and near-poor households residing in particularly difficult communes and villages are entitled to social pension benefits, provided they are between 70 and under 75 years old.

In the report on receiving, explaining and revising the draft revised Law on Social Insurance, the National Assembly Standing Committee said that social pension is the minimum social security floor for the elderly without pension, social insurance benefits, and social benefits, which is regulated in accordance with the state budget capacity in each period.

According to this agency, lowering the age for receiving social pension benefits is necessary to institutionalize the viewpoint stated in Resolution No. 28-NQ/TW with the goal of striving to achieve by 2030 "about 60% of people after retirement age receiving monthly pensions, social insurance and social pension benefits".

Hạ tuổi trợ cấp hưu trí xuống 75, thêm triệu người được phủ lưới an sinh - 1 — Proposal to reduce the age of receiving social pension benefits (Illustration: Bao Ky).

According to statistics, by the end of 2022, Vietnam will have about 14.4 million people over retirement age (55 years old and above for women; 60 years old and above for men).

Of which, the total number of people receiving monthly pensions, social insurance benefits, and social retirement benefits is only about 5.1 million people, accounting for about 35% of the total number of people after retirement age.

Specifically, the number of pensioners is 2.7 million people; the number of monthly social insurance beneficiaries is about 0.63 million people; the number of social retirement beneficiaries (elderly benefits) is more than 1.8 million people.

There are still about 9.3 million people over retirement age (65%) who are not covered by the social insurance system.

Thus, striving to achieve the goal set out in Resolution No. 28 "by 2030, about 60% of people over retirement age will receive pensions" will be a huge challenge.

The draft law also includes the content of "assigning the National Assembly Standing Committee to decide to continue to gradually reduce the age of receiving social pension benefits in accordance with socio -economic development conditions and the capacity of the state budget in each period based on the Government's proposal".

In response to the opinions of National Assembly delegates, the draft law stipulates that the age to receive social pension benefits is 75 years old instead of 80 years old as in the Law on the Elderly (and from 70 years old to under 75 years old for some special subjects).

In addition, the draft law shows the design of the layered linkage between social pension policy and basic pension and social allowance.

At the same time, the draft law has also been revised to more clearly show the linkage between social insurance levels so that participants can clearly see the benefits of reserving social insurance payment time to enjoy the policy when not eligible for retirement benefits.

Regarding the regime for employees who are not eligible for pension and are not old enough to receive social pension benefits, Vietnamese citizens who are old enough to retire but are not eligible for pension benefits according to the law and are not eligible for social pension benefits according to the regulations but have a period of social insurance payment, if they do not receive one-time social insurance or reserve social insurance but have a request, they will receive monthly benefits from their own contributions.

The duration and level of monthly benefits depend on the total payment period and the basis for social insurance payment of the employee.

Source