Removing bottlenecks, definitively handling social insurance debt

Debts that "cannot be recovered

Ca Mau is one of the localities that clearly shows difficulties in handling social insurance debts. According to the provincial Social Insurance, the whole province has 380 enterprises that have been late in paying social insurance for 6 months or more with a total amount of more than 147 billion VND. 5 enterprises alone accounted for more than 75.6 billion VND, equivalent to 51.44% of the total amount of late payment in the whole province. Notably, these 5 enterprises currently only have a total of 12 employees; of which 4 enterprises no longer have employees.

Typically, Cadovimex Seafood Processing and Import-Export Joint Stock Company. In 2014, Ca Mau Provincial Social Insurance sued the enterprise when the amount of social insurance debt was 6.63 billion VND. After many years of judgment enforcement, the enterprise has only paid 130 million VND. To date, the amount of late payment has increased to more than 21.57 billion VND. According to Ca Mau Provincial Social Insurance, all assets of the enterprise have been mortgaged to the bank, and there are no assets left for judgment enforcement. As a result, many workers, even after quitting their jobs, still cannot close their social insurance books and have not been resolved for benefits such as maternity, unemployment, pension or lump-sum social insurance.

Not only Ca Mau, Ho Chi Minh City Social Insurance also admits that handling businesses that are late in paying and evading payment still faces many difficulties when many businesses have stopped operating, dissolved, abandoned business addresses or business owners have absconded. Meanwhile, some businesses are still deliberately delaying and not cooperating even though they have been reminded, inspected and fined.

In Hai Phong, in the first half of 2026, the city's Social Insurance issued 67 decisions to inspect and request retroactive social insurance contributions for 169 employees with an amount of nearly 1.65 billion VND; retroactively collected contributions from 125 employees with an amount of 94 million VND; requested units to remedy the amount of late payments of more than 5.1 billion VND. The Social Insurance agency recovered nearly 728 million VND to the Health Insurance Fund, proposed to recover 484 million VND for improper benefits to the Social Insurance Fund; administratively sanctioned 2 units with an amount of 8 million VND, handled more than 8,000 cases related to social insurance book issuance and over 1,000 cases related to health insurance card issuance.

Increase early warnings, strictly handle cases of intentional violations

According to Prof. Dr. Giang Thanh Long, senior lecturer at the National Economics University, one reason why businesses are still delaying is that the sanctions and current implementation are not strong enough, not deterrent enough. Businesses can use the money that should be paid for social insurance to serve production and business activities or deposit in banks, while the level of administrative penalties is not large enough to prevent this behavior. Therefore, it is necessary to strictly implement legal regulations, select a number of typical cases to handle thoroughly to create deterrence; and at the same time put the protection of workers' rights first. In addition, it is necessary to strengthen propaganda so that workers can proactively monitor their social insurance payment process on the VssID application.

Prof. Dr. Giang Thanh Long proposed to have a mechanism to notify businesses immediately in the first month that they have not paid social insurance, instead of letting employees only detect when regimes arise or they quit their jobs.

From a management perspective, Ms. Phan Thi Mai - Head of Collection Management and Social Insurance Participant Development Department of Ho Chi Minh City - assessed that it is necessary to continue to improve the coordination mechanism and data sharing between social insurance agencies and tax, business registration, banking and state management agencies to detect early businesses with signs of violations; and at the same time improve the effectiveness of specialized inspections and increase deterrence against acts of intentionally delaying and evading social insurance contributions.

According to Ms. Duong Thi Minh Chau - Head of the Propaganda and Support Department for Participants - Hanoi Social Insurance, the handling is carried out in two phases. The first phase is prevention, in which Social Insurance invites businesses that are late in paying or evading payment to work, propagate the provisions of Articles 214, 215 and 216 of the 2015 Penal Code, and at the same time coordinate with the Police to classify cases. If the business has been administratively sanctioned for evading social insurance payment but continues to violate, the file will be transferred to the investigating agency to propose prosecution according to regulations. A positive signal has appeared in Quang Ninh, when the People's Procuracy of Quang Ninh province coordinated with Quang Ninh Provincial Social Insurance to resolve public interest proceedings related to businesses that are late in paying or evading social insurance, and recovering more than 7 billion VND for the Social Insurance Fund.

However, to prevent prolonged debts from recurring for many years, it is necessary to combine synchronously solutions: Early detection of violating businesses, increased inspection efficiency, strict handling of cases of intentional delay, and mechanisms to protect workers' rights right from the time businesses start to delay payment.