If the husband is receiving a pension and passes away, what amount of money will the wife receive?

Legal Consulting Department of Lao Dong Newspaper answers:

Firstly, according to the provisions of Article 85 of the Law on Social Insurance, if a person receiving a pension dies, the individual who takes care of the funeral will receive a one-time funeral allowance equal to 10 times the reference level in the month that the person receiving a pension died. According to current regulations, the reference level is equal to the base salary and the current base salary is 2.53 million VND/month.

Thus, if the wife takes care of the funeral for her husband, she will receive a funeral allowance of 2.53 million VND/month x 10 = 25.3 million VND.

Second, regarding survivorship allowances, wives who are subject to regulations will be entitled to monthly survivorship allowances or one-time survivorship allowances.

Regarding monthly survivor's allowance, according to Clause 2, Article 86 of the 2024 Law on Social Insurance, the wife of a deceased pensioner is entitled to a monthly survivor's allowance when reaching retirement age as prescribed in Clause 2, Article 169 of the 2019 Labor Code (in 2026 it is 57 years old in normal working conditions) or not reaching retirement age but having a working capacity reduction of 81% or more.

The monthly survivor's allowance for the wife is equal to 50% of the reference level, in case the wife does not have a person directly raising her, the allowance level is equal to 70% of the reference level. The time to receive the monthly survivor's allowance is calculated from the first day of the month immediately following the month the husband passed away.

Note, monthly survivor's allowance is not applied if the wife is receiving salary and participating in compulsory social insurance or is receiving a pension, monthly incapacity allowance, monthly allowance whose benefit level is equal to or higher than the reference level, not including the allowance according to the provisions of law on preferential treatment for people with meritorious services to the revolution.

Regarding the lump-sum survivor's allowance, according to the provisions of Article 88 and Article 89 of the 2024 Law on Social Insurance, in case the wife is not eligible for a monthly survivor's allowance (or is eligible but wishes to receive a lump-sum survivor's allowance), she is entitled to a lump-sum survivor's allowance.

The one-time survivor's allowance level is calculated according to the time the husband has received the pension. If the husband dies in the first 2 months of receiving the pension, it is calculated as 48 months of the pension being received; if the husband dies from the 3rd month onwards, for every additional month of pension, the allowance level decreases by 0.5 months of pension, but the lowest level is equal to 3 months of the pension being received.

Thus, when the husband is receiving a pension and dies, the wife will receive a funeral allowance (10 times the reference level) and a monthly survivor's allowance or a one-time survivor's allowance depending on the age, health, income or wishes of the family.