Time of pension according to general regulations
Circular 12/2025/TT-BNV has provided detailed instructions on Article 69 of the Law on Social Insurance on the time of pension payment. Accordingly:
If the employee quits and meets the retirement age requirements along with the social insurance payment period, the pension will start to be calculated from the month following the month in which the employee is of retirement age.
In case the employee is old enough and has paid social insurance for enough time but continues to work and pay compulsory social insurance, the pension will be calculated from the month following the month in which the employee officially terminates the labor contract or quits work. This encourages employees to maintain their work and contribute, while ensuring that benefits are calculated from the time they actually stop working.
Special cases are clearly regulated
To suit the diverse situations of employees, the Circular also provides specific instructions for special cases: Receiving pensions due to reduced working capacity; if the employee meets the conditions for age and the time of social insurance payment, and at the same time has a conclusion of reduced working capacity, the pension receiving time is the month immediately following the month of the conclusion of reduced working capacity.
However, if the conclusion of reduced working capacity is made that the employee is old enough to retire a month in advance, the pension period will still be calculated from the month following the month in which the employee is old enough to retire according to regulations.
For documents that only record the year of birth or month, year of birth without a specific date, the pension will be calculated from the month immediately following the month in which the employee reaches the retirement age according to regulations. The determination of age in this case will comply with Clause 2, Article 12 of Decree No. 158/2025/ND-CP.
Specifically: When determining the pension conditions for cases where the employee's profile does not determine the date and month of birth but only the year of birth, the January 1st of the year of birth will be used as the basis for determining the employee's age. In case the date of birth cannot be determined but only the month or year of birth is used as the basis for determining the age of the employee.
Notably, for employees who are eligible for pension under Article 64 of the Law on Social Insurance and have paid social insurance for 15 years to less than 20 years, the earliest pension will be from the effective date of the Social Insurance Law 2024 (ie from July 1, 2025). This regulation opens up an earlier opportunity for those who have paid social insurance shorter to access pensions.
The pension receipt time for cases with a maximum of 06 months of missed compulsory social insurance payment period to be eligible for a monthly pension or death benefit, the employee or the employee's relatives will continue to pay once for the remaining months with the monthly payment level equal to the total contribution of the employee and the employer before the employee quits or dies in the pension fund and dies.
The continuous payment period is not counted as the time spent working in a heavy, toxic, dangerous or especially heavy, toxic, dangerous job or job on the list of heavy, toxic, dangerous or especially heavy, toxic, dangerous jobs issued by the Minister of Labor - Invalids and Social Affairs (old) - now the Ministry of Home Affairs - or working time in areas with particularly difficult socio-economic conditions.
In case the employee stops paying compulsory social insurance but the remaining social insurance payment period is less than 6 months to be eligible for pension, he/she is entitled to continue paying voluntary social insurance.
If the employee no longer has enough original documents proving his working time in the state sector before January 1, 1995, the pension payment time will be the time stated in the settlement document of the Social Insurance agency...
