However, it is noted that some meritorious people have not yet received the new subsidy level.
Three diseases, stroke, osteoarthritis, and prostate, have tormented Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Lan (76 years old, Nam Dinh) for decades. The disease is getting worse, the pain is getting worse, Mr. Lan just hopes to increase his allowance soon so he can have money to buy better medicine for treatment without bothering his children.
“My two allowances for disability and Agent Orange are currently nearly 4 million VND, of which 2.5 million VND must be spent on medicine. I cannot live without medicine,” said Mr. Lan.
Mr. Lan said that his children are not well off and also have to take care of their own families so they dare not ask for much help for fear of causing trouble. His wife has no income so they all depend on nearly 1.5 million VND in allowance from her husband after deducting medical expenses, which is also very difficult.
Seeing his sick wife working hard day and night to take care of him, Mr. Lan could not help but feel sad.
"After paying for medicine, the remaining allowance is 1.5 million VND, but having to worry about food, party expenses, and daily electricity and water bills makes my wife have to save every penny," said Mr. Lan.
More than anyone else, he is looking forward to receiving the new increase in subsidies this October to make life less difficult.
“When I heard that the government increased the allowance for meritorious people by more than 35%, I calculated that it would be more than 5 million VND. I waited every day to receive the new allowance,” Mr. Lan shared his plan to use the money when the allowance was increased.
Every day, when he opens his phone to read the news, Mr. Pham Van Bien (80 years old, Nam Dinh) carefully reads information related to meritorious people. Among them, the part about the increased allowance according to the new level is what interests him the most.
“I have been waiting since July for 3 months now and still have not seen any increase in benefits according to the new regulations. In the past few days, I have seen a lot of information online saying that payments will start in October,” said Mr. Bien.
The reason Mr. Bien hopes to receive the new subsidy soon is because recently, food prices have increased a lot. At the same time, the couple's own food supply is no longer available, causing their daily expenses to increase.
“Pork increased by 130,000 VND/kg, vegetables doubled after the storm, electricity and milk bills also increased but the subsidy has not increased. Before, we had a garden to grow vegetables and raise chickens for eggs to eat every day, now we have to buy everything for our children to build a house,” Mr. Bien shared.
With the current subsidy of 4.5 million VND, Mr. Bien said that there is no money left after paying for medicine, ceremonies and daily living expenses for the couple. If they want to have extra money to buy nice clothes, improve their meals or support the village when needed, they all have to wait for the upcoming new increased subsidy.
