A company that owes social insurance is not only a debt of money, but also an occupation of the social welfare of employees. The money should have been transferred to the insurance fund to protect them during times of loss, accidents or unemployment, and then kept.
As a result, workers - the most vulnerable people in this story - bear the biggest risks. It is worth mentioning that there have been many cases of business owners fleeing or going bankrupt, causing hundreds of workers to fall into the situation of "not being able to close their books, not being able to receive benefits".
Such cases cannot only be blamed on the fault of the enterprise, but are also the consequences of lack of early warning and timely sanctions from the management agency.
According to current law, acts of evasion, fraud or appropriation of social insurance, health insurance, and unemployment insurance contributions have been legalized, along with very high penalties.
However, in reality, criminal prosecution and handling of acts of evasion of social insurance payment is still very rare, causing legal regulations to lack deterrence. Therefore, many businesses are still " complying with the law" and continue to occupy the insurance fund.
It is worth mentioning that the 2024 Social Insurance Law has expanded the right to inspect and examine for social insurance agencies, but in reality, that right has not been effectively used.
In many places, social insurance still follows the correct administrative procedures: Sending an official dispatch, making a record, imposing a fine... and then waiting for the enterprise to fix it itself.
Meanwhile, the social insurance fund has a surplus of more than 1.2 million billion VND (ads up to the end of 2024), while employees who lose benefits do not have an advance payment support mechanism, further raising doubts about the responsibility to protect employees instead of only managing the fund of the social insurance industry.
When the law has given the right to handle and propose handling, allowing the situation of long-standing debts is a manifestation of laxity, not fulfilling responsibility.
Another major vulnerability lies in local governments. Many places still consider social insurance as a matter of the "vertical industry", not proactively participating in supervision as well as proactively proposing strong measures such as enforcing social insurance debts, or putting businesses in debt for many years without being classified as risky, temporarily suspending incentives...
The core goal of social insurance is to protect the social security rights of employees, so that all people are protected from the risks of life, not simply a financial mechanism. Therefore, the social insurance system is only truly meaningful when it is capable of protecting the disadvantaged.
For workers, social insurance benefits are a citizen's right, so they cannot be in debt, and then go to collect the debt all year round. And when an employee loses this right due to the ineffective participation of authorities, it will cause many consequences, including the decline in the trust of employees and society.
