The Ministry of Home Affairs is seeking opinions on the draft law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on Social Insurance (BHXH).
Notably, in the draft submission, the Ministry of Home Affairs said that it has proposed a number of amended and supplemented contents on social insurance regimes and policies. Among them is a proposal related to reducing the age for enjoying social pension benefits.
Article 21 of the 2024 Law on Social Insurance stipulates that the age for enjoying social pension benefits is 75 years old for ordinary cases and 70 years old to under 75 years old for poor and near-poor households.
According to statistics from the Department of Social Protection, Ministry of Health, after implementing the reduction in the age of enjoying social pension benefits from 80 years old to 75 years old, the number of people after retirement age who receive monthly pensions, social insurance and social pension benefits increased by about 500,000 people, contributing to raising the rate of beneficiaries to nearly 42% by 2025.
However, this number is still far from the target set by Resolution No. 28-NQ/TW: In the period up to 2030, strive for about 60% of people after retirement age to receive monthly pensions, social insurance and social pension allowances.
Meanwhile, the number of subjects receiving monthly pensions and social insurance allowances (resolved by the social insurance agency) has only increased by about 100,000 people/year, so if there is no policy adjustment, it will be difficult to achieve the target set by the Central Executive Committee.
From there, in the draft amended law, the Ministry of Home Affairs (the drafting agency) proposed 2 options.
Option 1, keep it as currently regulated (in case it is not possible to immediately allocate state budget to implement this policy).
Option 2, amend and supplement in the direction that the Government decides to gradually reduce the age of starting to receive social pension benefits to 70 years old, in accordance with socio-economic development conditions and the capacity of the state budget for each period, in order to create flexibility for the Government to implement according to the capacity of the state budget for each period.
Submit to the National Assembly Standing Committee to decide to gradually reduce the age of enjoying social pension benefits to below 70 years old when the necessary conditions are met.
