The 2024 Law on Social Insurance (BHXH) takes effect from July 1, 2025 with many breakthrough changes in social security policies in our country.
One of the prominent new points, which has a profound impact on millions of workers, is the adjustment of the minimum social insurance contribution period to receive a pension from 20 years to 15 years.
According to Vietnam Social Security, this regulation is designed on the basis of ensuring harmony between the goal of expanding coverage and the principle of contribution - benefit of social insurance policy.
Some opinions are concerned that when the contribution period is reduced, the pension level will also decrease, thereby making social insurance participation no longer really attractive.
However, Vietnam Social Security believes that this view is only considered from the perspective of the monthly amount received, not fully reflecting the overall value of the policy.
Accordingly, the new regulation will be especially beneficial for middle-aged workers who start participating in social insurance late, freelancers, or those who have non-continuous participation time. Thanks to this, they still have the opportunity to accumulate enough conditions to receive pensions, instead of being "removed from the system" as before.
In fact, people not only stop at receiving monthly periodic pensions, but also come with many important social security benefits. Pensioners are issued free health insurance cards (HI cards) throughout the benefit period, with a higher level of medical examination and treatment benefits compared to the group that self-contributes HI.
In addition, pensioners are also guaranteed death benefits, including funeral allowances and death benefits for relatives.
Notably, pensions are not "fixed" income over time but are periodically adjusted by the State, based on consumer price index and economic growth. This mechanism helps ensure the real value of pensions, limit the impact of inflation, thereby maintaining a stable living standard for beneficiaries.
Thus, although the initial pension level may not be high if the contribution period is short, but overall, having a monthly pension accompanied by long-term social security guarantees is still a plan that brings sustainable benefits to workers in their old age.
Although creating more favorable conditions, the social insurance agency affirms that the social insurance policy is still consistent with the principle: Pay - receive. Accordingly, the higher the participants contribute, the longer the contribution period, the higher the pension received.
This shows that reducing the minimum time to 15 years does not mean encouraging short-term participation, but is expanding opportunities to access policies. Meanwhile, workers, if they have the conditions, should still participate in social insurance for a longer time to optimize their benefits.
According to a report by Vietnam Social Security, through practical implementation, the adjustments of the 2024 Social Insurance Law have initially been effective.
Right in 2025 - the transitional period and implementation of the Law, the number of people receiving one-time social insurance benefits decreased by 24.43% compared to 2024. In the first 2 months of 2026, the number of people receiving one-time social insurance benefits decreased by 28.29% compared to the same period in 2025.
This is a remarkable decrease in the context that in previous years, the situation of withdrawing one-time social insurance had an increasing trend and was a major challenge to the goal of ensuring sustainable social security.
These figures show that workers are tending to consider more carefully, choosing to stay in the system instead of withdrawing one-time social insurance benefits as before.
