The Law on Employment (amended and supplemented) officially takes effect from January 1, 2026, in which the policy on unemployment benefits for workers has many important adjustments, some regulations directly affect workers, who are beneficiaries.
Notably, the Employment Law stipulates that employees who terminate their contracts when they are eligible for a pension will not be allowed to carry out procedures to receive unemployment benefits, whether they have done it or have not done the procedures to receive a pension.
Specifically, Article 38 of the 2025 Employment Law stipulates the Conditions for enjoyment, accordingly, employees specified in Clause 1, Article 31 of this Law who are paying unemployment insurance are entitled to unemployment benefits when they meet the following conditions: Termination of labor contract, employment contract or termination of employment according to the provisions of law that does not fall into one of the cases where employees unilaterally terminate labor contracts illegally according to the provisions of the Labor Code or employees quit their jobs when they are eligible for pension.
It can be seen that this is a completely new regulation compared to the provisions of the 2013 Employment Law. Previously, when resigning or terminating a labor contract, even if they are eligible (sufficient time to pay social insurance, old age according to regulations) to go to carry out procedures to enjoy retirement benefits, many workers still choose to either enjoy unemployment insurance benefits first, after the unemployment insurance benefit period has expired (Regulations on enjoying unemployment benefits up to 12 months depending on the contribution period) to start working on retirement benefits. Even quite a few workers resign or terminate their labor contracts one year or a few months in advance to carry out procedures to enjoy unemployment benefits.
With seniority and time in charge of policies in a business for more than 20 years, I realize the reason why employees who previously retired, even if they were eligible to carry out retirement benefits procedures, instead of choosing the policy of receiving monthly unemployment benefits is because they believe that after so many years of participating and contributing to the unemployment insurance fund but not receiving benefits, it is too wasteful and disadvantageous. Furthermore, many employees choose to carry out procedures to receive unemployment insurance benefits first because the amount of unemployment insurance benefits in 12 months if they have paid enough time according to regulations will also be higher than the monthly pension benefits if a comparison calculation is made.
It is thought that, to avoid the above situation, first of all, the provisions of law, especially the regulations on regimes and policies related to beneficiaries who are workers and social insurance contributors, need to be transparent and fair in the policy of beneficiaries.
In principle, "while contributing, there must be enjoyment". Employees who have contributed to the social insurance and unemployment insurance funds for decades, when they quit their jobs, they also need to enjoy their "achievements" throughout a process of participation. That is, there needs to be regulations on paying an amount of money corresponding to their contribution to the unemployment insurance fund to ensure fairness in the process of enjoying benefits in terms of policies.
In addition, it is necessary to continue to change the pension policy, the retirement policy to enjoy the retirement regime as it is now, and change the pension calculation method to suit the participation process of employees. In other words, the level of enjoyment of the pension regime needs to be higher than other policies, especially the unemployment insurance allowance policy.
From there, when workers have met the conditions for age, age of occupation and time of social insurance contribution, they will be excited to go to retirement procedures without having to face concerns, choosing which benefits to enjoy first and which benefits later, or at least taking advantage of loopholes in the provisions of law to enjoy regimes and policies.
