Sending a question to Vietnam Social Security, reader N.T.A said: "My grandfather was born in 1938, and has received military pension since 1987, and passed away in March 2025. My grandmother passed away in 1988. My grandfather and grandfather have 2 daughters who are both over 50 years old, so are they entitled to funeral allowance or death? ".
Regarding this issue, Vietnam Social Security responds as follows:
According to the provisions of the Social Insurance Law 2014, those who are receiving pensions upon death are entitled to death benefits for funeral caregivers and relatives, including: Funeral allowance and monthly death allowance or one-time death allowance, specifically as follows:
Funeral allowance
According to the provisions of Clause 2, Article 66 of the Law on Social Insurance 2014, funeral caregivers are entitled to receive a one-time funeral allowance equal to 10 times the basic salary in the month in which the pensioner dies.
Compared with the above regulations, if his relatives are children and are the ones taking care of the funeral, they will receive funeral allowances according to regulations.
Monthly death benefit
According to Point a, Clause 2, Article 67 of the Social Insurance Law 2014, relatives who are children of pensioners are entitled to receive monthly death benefits when they are not yet 18 years old; 18 years of age or older if they have a reduced working capacity of 81% or more; born when the father dies while the mother is pregnant.
Regarding the monthly death benefit level, Article 68 of the Social Insurance Law 2014 stipulates as follows:
- The monthly death benefit for each relative is equal to 50% of the basic salary; in case the relative does not have anyone to directly raise him or her, the monthly death benefit is equal to 70% of the basic salary.
- The number of relatives receiving monthly death benefits shall not exceed 04 people.
One-time death benefit
According to Clause 2, Clause 3, Article 69 of the Law on Social Insurance 2014, relatives who are children of pensioners are considered for one-time death benefits when:
- Not in the following cases: under 18 years old; 18 years old or older if having a reduced working capacity of 81% or more; born when the father died but the mother was pregnant.
- Belonging to one of the above cases and wishing to receive a one-time death benefit, except in cases where the child is under 6 years old or the child has a reduced working capacity of 81% or more.
Regarding the one-time death benefit level, Clause 2, Article 70 of the Law on Social Insurance 2014 stipulates that the one-time death benefit level for relatives of a person receiving a pension who died is calculated based on the time receiving the pension. If he/she dies in the first 2 months of receiving the pension, it will be calculated as 48 months of the pension he/she is receiving; if he/she dies in the following months, for each additional month of pension, the benefit will be reduced by 0.5 months of pension, the lowest level is 3 months of pension he/she is receiving.
Because Mr. T.A's information about the health status and the level of reduced working capacity of the two children was not clear, Vietnam Social Insurance did not have enough information to answer specifically. Vietnam Social Insurance informs about the policy regulations at the time of pensioner's death (March 2025) so that Mr. T.A can know.
