Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City alone have nearly 40,000 units and enterprises that are late and owe social insurance
The Social Insurance of the XXVII region (HCMC) has just announced information about a company that is late and owes insurance for 3 months or more. The list is updated to July 8, 2025: Nearly 19,000 enterprises, exactly 18,676 enterprises are slow, social insurance debts affect the rights of hundreds of thousands of employees.
According to this list, leading in the "top 100" of enterprises announced by the Social Insurance agency as Hoa Binh Construction Group Joint Stock Company, Vo Thi Sau Street is also late in paying the amount in 21 months up to nearly 58 billion VND. Investment and Construction Joint Stock Company No. 8, address No. 400/5, Ung Van Khiem Street. The company has been late in paying for many years with an amount of more than 10 billion VND.
The branch of American International Education Joint Stock Company AIS - American International Primary, Secondary and High School at 220, Nguyen Van Tao Street is also late in paying social insurance for more than 3 years. Currently, the outstanding amount has reached more than 16 billion VND. Or Danh Khoi HOLDINGS Investment Joint Stock Company in the past 21 months has also been late in paying more than 6.8 billion VND in social insurance for employees. Hoang Sinh Cau Import-Export Company owes 27 months, over 31 billion VND.
The Social Insurance Agency also named a number of new enterprises that were "difficult" in owing large sums of money. For example, QH PLUS Steel structural Joint Stock Company, located in Ba Ria - Vung Tau ward, was late in paying for more than 6 months but the amount was up to 13 billion VND; Stepmedia Software Vietnam Co., Ltd., Phu Nhuan district, was late in paying for more than 6 months, the amount was 8.5 billion VND; Hoang Sinh Import-Export Joint Stock Company, located in Binh Duong, is also late in paying more than 31 billion VND...
Quang Dien International Joint Stock Company, located in Ho Chi Minh City High-Tech Park, currently owes more than VND 4.8 billion; Phuoc Nguyen Supporting Industry Joint Stock Company, High-Tech Park, is late in paying more than VND 10 billion; Saigon Post and Telecommunication Services Joint Stock Company is late in paying more than VND 40 billion to employees.
Similarly, the Social Insurance Agency of Region I (Hanoi) has just announced a list of late, social insurance debts (updated to July 5, 2025) up to... 20,214 units. In which, the first group had Chinese-language joint stock company APAX owing 64 months with a total amount of over 62 billion VND; LILAMA3 Joint Stock Company owed 123 months with over 48 billion VND...
There are no official statistics nationwide, but in the first 4 months of 2025, the amount of late social insurance payment accumulated was nearly 17,700 billion VND. Notably, debts of 3 months or more account for nearly 64%. The main reason is that many businesses have cut labor due to lack of orders, especially in industries that employ a lot of labor such as garment, footwear, seafood, wood processing, construction materials, etc.
The new law is
From July 1, 2025, the amended Social Insurance Law 2024 officially takes effect. Notably, this Law has strengthened strict sanctions for late payment and evasion of social insurance payment to ensure maximum protection of the legitimate rights and interests of employees, in the hope of further improving compliance with social insurance laws by employers.
The new point is that the Law clearly defines acts such as late payment as under-payment, late payment, and incomplete social insurance payment within 60 days. Payment capital is not to establish or not to establish a complete list of employees participating in social insurance after 60 days from the prescribed date. From there, additional specific sanctions are added, direct to employers.
According to the provisions of Articles 40 and 41 of the Law on Social Insurance 2024 for the act of late payment and evasion of social insurance: Compulsory to pay the full amount of late payment and evasion; Pay an additional amount equal to 0.03%/day calculated on the amount of late payment, evasion of social insurance and the number of days of late payment and evasion of social insurance fund; Be administratively sanctioned according to the provisions of law.
For evasion of payment, employers may also be prosecuted for criminal liability according to the provisions of law.
In fact, Article 216 of the current Penal Code (Criminal Code 2015) also stipulates the crime of "Evading social insurance, health insurance, and unemployment insurance for employees". Accordingly, violators must be administratively sanctioned for this behavior to have enough basis for criminal proceedings.
However, so far, only 1 enterprise in Phu Yen (old) has been prosecuted in March 2024.
According to the authorities, the petition for prosecution by the transferred social insurance agency only concerned administrative violations for late payment and payment not in accordance with the prescribed level.
In addition, the records and evidence transferred by the Social Insurance to the police agency for investigation were mostly photocopies, which had no legal value; the Social Insurance agency could not provide documents proving that it had issued a decision to sanction administrative violations to the enterprise for the act of evasion of social insurance payment but they still deliberately violated...
Although the social insurance sector has applied technology to screen and zoning violating units, the handling of post-inspections still has many problems - especially when businesses are slow or have "disappeared".
Lack of supervision and inspection, social insurance agencies also need to be handled
Speaking with Lao Dong, lawyer Nguyen Minh Ngoc, The Light Law Firm, Hanoi Bar Association commented: The law has clearly stipulated the responsibility of social insurance agencies in collecting, spending and managing funds.
Clause 3, Article 18 of the Law on Social Insurance 2024, the Social Insurance agency is obliged to organize the collection and payment of compulsory insurance types in accordance with the law. At the same time, this agency also has the right to conduct specialized inspections on social insurance, unemployment insurance, and health insurance contributions as prescribed in Clause 5, Article 17 of the law.
"In other words, if violations are detected but the Social Insurance does not take drastic action, it is clear that it has not properly performed the function of supervising and protecting the rights of employees assigned to it", lawyer Ngoc emphasized.
However, through many cases in recent years, lawyer Ngoc has found that the most common measure is just to... send a reminder letter. Many businesses have owed billions of dong, for decades, and have only received an official dispatch "notifying the debt situation" from local social insurance.
Lawyer Nguyen Minh Ngoc believes that, in terms of the process, submitting documents is a mandatory step in the urging process. However, if after 2 submissions the enterprise still does not cooperate, the Social Insurance agency needs to transfer the case to the inspection and examination department to conduct administrative or criminal proceedings.
Sharing the same view, lawyer Hoang Van Ha - Director of ARC Law Firm, Hanoi Bar Association said: The main legal responsibility still belongs to the employer, because they are the subject with the obligation to pay. However, when the social insurance agency is late in urging, lacking determination in inspection - examination, does not enforce or does not transfer documents when there is sufficient basis, it must also consider the responsibility of the collective and the organization.
Although the law does not have specific regulations on how individual social insurance officers must compensate, determining the responsibility of the organization, and even requiring the head of the local social insurance unit to report and review is completely legal.
Notably, some localities have allowed social insurance debts to exceed hundreds of billions of VND. The question is: With such a large debt, where is the management role of the head of the provincial Social Insurance? Who is responsible?
Lawyer Nguyen Minh Ngoc emphasized: "There should be an independent monitoring mechanism or a Government Inspectorate should periodically inspect the implementation of social insurance debt collection in the provinces, to avoid the situation of full documents but no specific actions".
According to lawyers, it is necessary to connect data between social insurance - tax - local government for inter-connected supervision. Each debt file needs to have its own tracking code, a processing log, and can be publicly traced - thereby creating social pressure and administrative responsibility on the enforcement agency.
Responsibility must not only stop at the social insurance sector, but must be shared with the locality - where the enterprise operates. The People's Committees at the commune/ward level need to participate in urging and even handling according to the law on enterprises if there are prolonged violations.
Expanding the rights of trade unions
The 2024 Social Insurance Law also significantly expands the role of trade unions and organizations representing workers in supervising and protecting the rights of workers related to social insurance.
According to Articles 14 and 15 of the law, trade unions have the right to supervise the implementation of social insurance policies, propose handling of violations such as late payment, evasion, or failure to ensure social insurance benefits for employees.
The new law clearly affirms the right of these organizations to file lawsuits against employers who violate the law, even if there is no lawsuit request from the directly affected employee.
Opinions
* Mr. Kha Van Tam - Chairman of Nghe An Provincial Federation of Labor: The fact that businesses have long-term social insurance debts has seriously violated the legitimate and legal rights of workers, especially those in difficult circumstances, with unstable incomes, and dependent entirely on social security regimes.
There have been workers who have owed social insurance for many years, and when they quit their jobs, they could not close their books, were not eligible for unemployment benefits, or took maternity leave according to the regime. Grassroots unions in many places have to support and mobilize businesses, even go to social insurance agencies to work with.
To effectively and sustainably combat social insurance losses, there needs to be a clear mechanism regulating the responsibilities of each level and each industry, especially the local government where the enterprise operates. Along with that, it is necessary to give the role and authority to the Trade Union organization, not only stopping at supervision and recommendation but also directly participating in the inspection process, monitoring units with signs of evasion and late payment of social insurance.
We recommend that there should be a specific coordination mechanism between social insurance - trade union - grassroots government to closely grasp the current situation of enterprises. Once there is a risk of outstanding debt, it is necessary to give early warnings and intervene promptly".
* Ms. Duong Thi Minh Chau - Head of the Communications Department of Hanoi Social Insurance: We regularly publicize the list of debtors on the media, the City Electronic Information Portal and Hanoi Social Insurance. The disclosure has helped many units immediately overcome outstanding debts in a short time. However, many businesses have also reacted by "mental names", but according to the Social Insurance Law, if he does not fulfill his obligations properly, we are forced to make them public.
The Hanoi People's Committee also stipulates that if the unit owes social insurance, it will not be rewarded or participate in bidding for projects managed by the city. This is an effective measure, but according to her, more legal tools are still needed to create pressure for businesses to comply with regulations on social insurance. The problem here is not only publicity, but how to recover effectively from the early days of slow payment. If it is allowed to last for 1-2 years, it will be very difficult to overcome. Giang Ha (singer)
