The proposal to reduce the age of starting to receive social pension benefits from 75 to 70 years old shows the spirit of humanity and the goal of not leaving any elderly people behind in the social security system.
According to the draft amendment to the Law on Social Insurance, the Ministry of Home Affairs proposes a plan to gradually reduce the age for enjoying social pension benefits to 70 years old, or even lower when socio-economic conditions permit.
In Vietnam, millions of workers in agriculture, small businesses, freelancers or working in the informal sector do not have the conditions to participate in full social insurance.
When they are old and weak, they do not have a pension, do not have a stable source of income, and their lives depend on their children and grandchildren or small savings.
Many elderly people in rural and remote areas still have to work as hired laborers or live in hardship with small jobs to cover living expenses.
Every time they are sick, the economic burden becomes even greater. Therefore, expanding the scope of social pension benefits is a very practical policy.
Although the allowance is not large, it is of special significance to the poor, reducing dependence on the family.
It is worth noting that some groups of subjects are also issued health insurance cards with a benefit level of 100% of medical examination and treatment costs within the scope of benefits.
This is very practical support because the need for healthcare is increasing sharply as age increases.
In particular, the policy of free periodic health check-ups for people and the establishment of electronic health records for the whole population in the coming years will create an additional "shield" of social security for the elderly.
When combining social assistance and health policies, the spending burden of poor elderly people will be significantly reduced.
In some provinces and cities, they proactively raise the allowance level higher than the general regulations, with the highest reaching 700,000 VND per month.
Investment in social security is becoming a priority for many localities.
Expanding the beneficiaries of subsidies means the pressure to increase budget spending, but this is an investment for social stability and sustainable development goals.
Reducing the age of receiving social pension benefits to 70 years old is a sharing of responsibility for the elderly. A timely allowance is very meaningful, especially for the elderly and lonely group.
Therefore, the Ministry of Home Affairs' plan to reduce the age for enjoying allowances is very worthy of support so that more and more elderly people are less burdened.
