Worker insurance gets livestream attention

Worker insurance gets livestream attention, illustration photo

Peak periods in advocacy to develop participants and expand the coverage of voluntary social insurance and household health insurance through livestreams are expected to take place in July across all Vietnamese provinces and cities.

Deputy general director of Vietnam Social Insurance (VSS) Tran Dinh Lieu said that it will coordinate with Vietnam Post to develop scenarios and plans to implement livestreams with diverse content to attract a large number of employees.

Lieu said that the diversification of the forms of communication and propaganda not only helps people and employees better understand social insurance and health insurance policies, but also creates trust.

In the context that the pandemic has profoundly changed and impacted every aspect of life, it is essential to strengthen the application of new communication technologies, Lieu said. This helps the social insurance industry to ensure the successful implementation of the goals of both drastically preventing and controlling the pandemic and expanding the coverage of social and health insurance.

This is the first time VSS has implemented a livestream to propagate and mobilise workers to participate in voluntary social insurance.

VSS gives high priority to direct communication and mobilisation of people to participate by the messages showing the meaning, rights, and benefits when participating in social insurance and health insurance. It also helps people better understand the material and spiritual values of enjoying monthly pensions, thereby voluntarily participating in order to ensure the wellbeing of themselves and their families.

Employees will receive information related to the process, insurance rates, deductions, payment methods, and places to register, and the utilities of the VssID application.

The summary report of VSS shows that, although he pandemic has forced voluntary social insurance participants into difficulties, the entire industry still achieved many impressive results with nearly 1.13 million of participants in 2020, an increase of 554,000 people compared to 2019.

During this time, VSS has promptly ensured benefits for participants and beneficiaries in compliance with regulations. With a modern management method, the operation of the social insurance industry has been renewed in the direction of promoting electronic transactions, increasing the use of online public services and online payments, and ensuring the best benefits for participants and beneficiaries of the policies.

In the first four months of 2021, VSS settled nearly 22,000 new monthly beneficiaries of social insurance. Nearly 366,000 people enjoyed one-time allowances, more than three million people gained from sickness, maternity, recuperation, and health rehabilitation benefits, while nearly 200,000 people receive unemployment benefits and vocational training support.

Although initial breakthroughs have been achieved, according to VSS’ Lieu, the formulation and implementation of policies and laws on social insurance still have certain limitations.

The current system of social and health insurance policies and laws has revealed a number of shortcomings during the implementation process, but they have not been adjusted, amended, or supplemented, Lieu said. The applicable social insurance policy also still misses a number of groups that have needs and abilities but have not yet been legally allowed to participate, such as individual business householders, unpaid business managers, and employees working under flexible conditions.

“The voluntary social insurance policy is not really attractive to the participants. The number of people receiving one-time social insurance continues to increase, and the situation of payment evasion, fraud, and profiteering from social and health insurance funds still occurs,” Lieu said.

The total number of people participating in social insurance nationwide so far is over 16.5 million people, accounting for 32.3 per cent of the labour force and reaching 91.3 per cent of the plan set by VSS.

Thus, there are more than 30 million people of working age, accounting for about 67.7 per cent of the labour force, who have not participated in social insurance. If there is no change, there will be a large number of elderly people and employees who are out of working age and will not be entitled to social insurance, creating pressures and burdens on families and society, negatively impacting social security policies in particular and the economy and the wider society in general.

The COVID-19 pandemic outbreaks have been causing bankruptcy for many businesses, making workers suffer job losses and income reduction, and knock-on effects will occur for the expansion of social insurance coverage.

Therefore, one of the key tasks that the social insurance sector will focus on is the application of technology to promote communication of social insurance policies, focusing on diversifying forms in order to raise awareness of enterprises and people in participating in social insurance.

Dinh Mai Hanh - Deputy director, Department of Social Insurance Book and Health Insurance Card As of June 2021, the total number of people contributing to social insurance in Vietnam was recorded at 16.5 million. Among them, 15.2 million people contributed to compulsory social insurance, 1.27 million people contributed to voluntary social insurance. The expected revenue of voluntary social insurance by the end of June is VND2.5 trillion ($108 million). Compared to 2020, the number of people participating in social insurance increased by about 344,000 people. However, that is made up largely of voluntary social insurance, while the number of participants in compulsory social insurance did not increase compared to 2020. The number of people participating in health insurance was 88.1 million people, an increase of about 133,000 people compared to 2020. Millions of workers have lost their jobs and many businesses temporarily closed because of the coronavirus, making the number of people participating in compulsory insurance not increase compared to 2020. Meanwhile, persons aged full 15 years or older are entitled to participate in voluntary social insurance, regardless of labour contracts with enterprises. Therefore, a lot of employees who have quit their jobs have switched to participating in voluntary social insurance. People in Vietnam who have paid social insurance premiums for at least a full 20 years are entitled to a pension, free health insurance cards covering medical examination and treatment, and pension increases according to the general regulations of the state. In the process of developing participants in voluntary social insurance, the social insurance industry continuously propagates and mobilises people to continue participating in voluntary social insurance. Every year, Vietnam Social Security signs contracts with collection agencies, extending to communes, wards, and businesses and service organisations. The system of collection agencies will propagate and mobilise people to participate in social insurance.