Long-term social insurance debt, workers struggling
By the end of August 2026, Da Nang City Social Insurance managed 29,468 labor-using units. Of which, 8,376 units were late in paying or evading social insurance, health insurance, and unemployment insurance, accounting for about 28%.
The total amount to be collected is up to 480 billion VND, including 341 billion VND of late payment and evasion and 139 billion VND of interest.
According to Mr. Nguyen Tri Dai - Director of Da Nang City Social Insurance, each late payment amount is directly related to the right to medical examination and treatment, sickness benefits, maternity benefits, occupational accident benefits, unemployment benefits, pensions and many other social security benefits of employees.
In fact, there are people who have been deducted monthly social insurance and unemployment insurance money from their salaries, but businesses do not deposit it into the fund. When they quit their jobs, have children, or apply for benefits, it is discovered that their insurance participation has not been fully recorded.
The case of Minh Hoang 2 Garment Co., Ltd. in Dien Nam - Dien Ngoc Industrial Park is an example.
The situation of late payment of social insurance at this enterprise has lasted for many years. When the company stopped operating in March 2025, the late payment amount exceeded 10.3 billion VND. More than 250 workers resigned, but many benefits related to social insurance could not be resolved definitively.
For a long time, workers had to go through many dialogues, mediation, making dossiers and asking the Trade Union for legal support to claim their rights.
Ms. Nguyen Minh Thu (character name changed), working at the company since 2018, when taking maternity leave at the end of 2024, she learned that the business owed social insurance for a long time. No longer having salary, and maternity benefits have not been fully resolved, her family has to borrow money to cover living expenses.
By September 2026, an important bottleneck has been removed. Mr. Pham Dinh Tuan Dung - Director of Dien Ban Base Social Insurance - said that the Da Nang judgment enforcement agency has coordinated with Social Insurance to recover more than 10.7 billion VND, including late payment fees and interest from May Minh Hoang 2.
For Ms. Thu and many colleagues, this is good news after many years of waiting: "We have waited too long. Hearing the news that the money has been recovered, everyone is happy and only hopes to be fully updated with social insurance soon to stabilize work and life.
More tools to protect workers
From cases like May Minh Hoang 2, Da Nang is shifting the handling method from "chasing" long-term debts to early detection and intervention.
The city's Social Insurance has divided late payment units into 4 groups.
In which, 4,738 new units are late in payment for less than 3 months, involving 34,942 workers, with the amount of 59.5 billion VND being determined to be regularly reviewed and urged not to turn into prolonged debt.
In particular, 1,213 units that are still operating, have labor and have financial capacity but are late in paying 178 billion VND are prioritized for handling. This is the time when the recovery capacity is still high, before the business falls into difficulty or stops operating.
Another significant advantage is Resolution No. 205/2025/QH15 of the National Assembly on piloting the People's Procuracy to initiate civil and public interest cases.
In the process of implementation, Da Nang City Social Insurance coordinated with the Procuracy to provide information, dossiers, and documents about units showing signs of late payment or evasion of payment to verify, request rectification and handle according to regulations.
For Dien Ban grassroots social insurance, after only 2 months of coordination with the People's Procuracy of Region 10, it has worked with 9 units; the amount collected is about 13.3 billion VND.
However, the leader of Da Nang Social Insurance admitted that the biggest difficulty still lies in old debts. The whole city currently has 779 units without workers but still on the system, late payments of 78.6 billion VND; 1,646 units have ceased operations, late payments of up to 164.1 billion VND.
Many businesses have gone bankrupt, business owners leave the locality or cannot determine their place of residence. At that time, although the rights of workers are still "suspended", verifying assets and recovering money is very difficult.
City Social Insurance proposes to continue to improve the handling mechanism for businesses that are no longer able to fulfill their obligations, and at the same time, there must be a direction to resolve the rights of employees instead of letting them continue to wait for the debt" - Mr. Nguyen Tri Dai said.
