Criticism of local social insurance after illegal collection

The Director of Vietnam Social Security said he had severely criticized the leaders of 54 localities for illegally collecting insurance premiums from business owners.

At a press conference on the afternoon of June 5 in Hanoi , Mr. Nguyen The Manh, Director of Vietnam Social Security, explained that the incorrect collection of social insurance (SI) from 4,240 business owners from 2003 to 2021 was due to the local authorities not fully understanding the group of mandatory contributors.

This also comes from the desire of business owners to participate in the system to receive pensions. Because 20 years ago, many business owners both produced and created jobs and were also workers, only lacking contracts or agreements.

Mr. Nguyen The Manh, General Director of Vietnam Social Security at the press conference on the afternoon of June 5. Photo: Hong Chieu — Mr. Nguyen The Manh, General Director of Vietnam Social Security at the press conference on the afternoon of June 5. Photo: *Hong Chieu*

Speaking more about the solution, Head of the Social Insurance Policy Implementation Board Do Ngoc Tho said that in addition to considering the responsibility of officials who collect wrongly, it is necessary to urgently resolve the benefits for business owners. This agency and the Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs proposed that the Government soon issue a separate resolution to resolve the benefits of business owners while waiting for the law to be amended. The solution is to allow the payment period to be calculated to enjoy the regime for compulsory social insurance participants.

Mr. Tho cited a precedent for this. In 2021, the Government issued a resolution allowing some groups not subject to mandatory contributions to count their participation time, such as deputy commune militiamen, deputy commune police chiefs, and people working under labor contracts at the commune People's Committee. About 10,000 people are entitled to this regime.

"Now if thousands more households enjoy benefits, it will be good for the social safety net," said Mr. Tho.

According to the reflection of the Petition Committee of the National Assembly Standing Committee, the Social Insurance agencies of 54 provinces and cities have illegally collected compulsory social insurance from business owners who were not required to pay from 2003 to 2021.

Statistics up to September 2016 showed that 4,240 households were wrongly collected. Vietnam Social Security has sent a document requesting local Social Security to stop collecting from this group, but the wrong collection still continues until the end of 2021.

After this period, some people stopped participating, closed their books and reserved their payment time. Some people switched to voluntary social insurance and the system recorded their previous mandatory payment time, but because of policy problems, some people still had to wait until they reached retirement age.

In addition, some people are entitled to pension and social insurance benefits at one time. Because they previously paid compulsory social insurance when they were civil servants or employees in enterprises, and later switched to business owners.

By the end of 2021, about 730 household heads in provinces and cities were still paying compulsory social insurance even though they were not eligible to pay.

Hong Chieu

Source link