Exhaust unemployment benefits in 1 week
Mr. Vu Duc Long used to be a worker at a battery manufacturing company in Nam Phu commune (Hanoi). Mr. Long's wife was also a garment worker in Ha Dong ward. Since giving birth, she has stayed at home to look after her children and open a grocery store selling watermelon and watermelon to the boarding house where the couple rented a house.
Mr. Long and his wife are currently renting a house in Thanh Liet ward (Hanoi). Although they have just had their first child, they are often sick and have limited income, so their family life is very difficult.
In June 2025, Mr. Long lost his job because the factory cut the staff of a production line due to poor output. With a young child in pain and weakness, Mr. Long decided to apply for unemployment insurance, support his wife in taking care of the child and take advantage of driving a motorbike taxi in the evening to earn more income before finding a new job.
In August 2025, Mr. Long received the first month's unemployment benefit, worth 3.6 million VND. Just 1 week after receiving the allowance, Mr. Long spent all of this money.
"After receiving the allowance, I gave my wife 3 million VND to spend on living expenses, I kept 600,000 VND to fill up with gas and make allowances when necessary. A few days later, my child was sick and had a fever of 40 degrees, so we rushed to take him to the hospital for emergency care. The child was hospitalized for 6 days. When my child came back, the new allowances were gone, and my wife even spent nearly 1 million VND more from sales, Mr. Long said sadly.
Living in poverty and struggling to find a way to take care of his children with his wife for a few more months, in early November 2025, Mr. Long applied to work as a worker for a company specializing in processing handicrafts in Thanh Tri commune because he "could not survive with a subsidy of 3.6 million VND/month".
Ms. Le Thi May is an employee of a company specializing in supplying garment accessories in Viet Hung ward (Hanoi). After losing her job in July 2025, Ms. May immediately completed procedures to receive unemployment insurance while waiting to find a new job.
Having to rent a house in the city, the couple's total income is about 17 million VND/month, and their 2 children are in primary school - these are the reasons why Ms. May does not hesitate to complete the procedures to receive support.
When working, Ms. May's total income was about 8.5 million VND/month, with insurance payment of 6.5 million VND/month. When receiving unemployment benefits, she actually received 3.9 million VND/month.
" Losing my job, the thing that worries me the most is the house fee and the tuition fee of my two children. Eating is not too important, even eating through the loudspeaker is fine, but those things cannot be delayed," Ms. May shared.
According to Ms. May, with a total income of about 17 million VND/month when unemployed, her family rents a house for 5 million VND/month; her two children's tuition is about 4.5 million VND/month; the remaining amount is more than 7 million VND, she has to settle down to have enough money for food, electricity and water, etc. Since Ms. May lost her job, her total income is less than 15 million VND/month, the whole family has more money, spending more frugally.
"Recently, the price of green vegetables has increased sharply after floods, every time I go to the market, I cry because I don't know how to balance and buy and sell properly. Even though I received unemployment benefits, I still took the opportunity to move houses for those in need near the rental location, even taking clothes home to pick up for only a fee of 5,000 VND/house. However, life in the city is too expensive, so everything is still very stressful. I just hope that the allowance when workers and laborers lose their jobs will increase so that we do not fall into predictions when we are both depressed because of job loss and confused because it is difficult to live with the allowance and do not have to bear the current living expenses," said Ms. May.
Minimum living standard increases, unemployment benefits do not increase
Data from the National Wage Council shows that the minimum living standard has increased by 25-30% in the past 5 years but unemployment benefits have not increased.
Basically, the majority of workers, especially workers, only pay unemployment insurance with an amount of 4-5 million VND/month. When unemployed, the actual unemployment benefits they receive are only about 3 million VND/month of unemployment benefits.
Mr. Tran Tuan Tu - Head of the Unemployment Insurance Department, Department of Employment (Ministry of Home Affairs) - admitted, "The current subsidy level is not enough to ensure a minimum living standard for the entire family of the employee when losing a job".
Ms. Nguyen Thi Lan Huong - former Director of the Institute of Social Labor Science - commented that unemployment insurance at only 3 - 4 million VND/month is too low compared to the current price level, especially living conditions in big cities.
If we say that unemployment insurance is a " sustenance" when workers are in need, then in reality, this support is not solid because the actual number of unemployment insurance receipts is too low, if workers have more burden of raising children and renting a house, the money will not be in any way.
