Vietnam Social Security said that currently, instead of receiving one-time social insurance, many workers are choosing to preserve their social insurance participation time to continue accumulating contribution time, maintaining the opportunity to receive pensions and long-term social security benefits in the future.
The 2024 Law on Social Insurance stipulates that employees who quit their jobs but do not meet the conditions to receive a pension, have not received one-time social insurance benefits or have not received monthly allowances are entitled to preserve the social insurance contribution period.
The entire time spent previously will continue to be recorded to add up when employees participate in social insurance again.
Reality shows that after quitting their jobs, many workers often consider receiving one-time social insurance benefits to solve immediate financial difficulties.
However, receiving one-time social insurance benefits means terminating the entire period of previous social insurance participation; and there is no longer a chance to receive monthly pensions, health insurance cards during the pension period and long-term social security benefits in old age.
Meanwhile, preserving the time of social insurance participation helps employees retain the entire time they have contributed to continue connecting when participating in social insurance again.
This is considered a solution to help workers actively accumulate time to participate in social insurance, maintain the opportunity to receive pensions and stabilize their lives when they reach retirement age.
Notably, the 2024 Law on Social Insurance, effective from July 1, 2025, has reduced the minimum condition on social insurance contribution time to receive a pension from 20 years to 15 years. This new regulation is assessed as creating more favorable conditions for employees to accumulate enough time to participate in social insurance to receive a pension when reaching retirement age.
Not only ensuring the opportunity to receive a pension, preserving social insurance participation time also helps employees maintain their health insurance benefits and death benefits according to regulations.
Accordingly, pensioners are issued health insurance cards throughout their retirement period, contributing to reducing the burden of medical examination and treatment costs when they are old and their health declines. In case of unfortunate risks, relatives of social insurance participants or pensioners are also granted death benefits according to regulations.
According to regulations, the social insurance preservation period is not limited. After resigning, employees can continue to participate in compulsory social insurance at the new unit or participate in voluntary social insurance to continue the period of previous contribution without losing the accumulated social insurance participation process.
For many middle-aged workers, especially freelancers or workers who lose their jobs in their 40s, preserving their social insurance participation period is considered a suitable solution to continue maintaining the opportunity to receive a pension.
Instead of withdrawing all social insurance benefits at once, many people choose to participate in voluntary social insurance with appropriate contributions to continue accumulating contribution time, gradually improving the conditions for enjoying pensions in the future.
This result shows that more and more workers are interested in the long-term social security value of social insurance policies, thereby choosing to preserve their participation time to continue accumulating, towards enjoying pensions when they are old.
Along with the implementation of the 2024 Law on Social Insurance, the Vietnam Social Security sector is continuing to promote propaganda and counseling to help workers better understand the meaning of preserving social insurance participation time and limiting the situation of enjoying one-time social insurance benefits.
Faced with increasingly high requirements for ensuring social security, workers choosing to preserve their social insurance participation time not only helps maintain their own rights but also contributes to the implementation of the goal of universal social insurance, towards building a sustainable and inclusive social security system in the new period.
According to a report by Vietnam Social Security, it is estimated that by the end of April 2026, the number of people receiving one-time social insurance benefits is 222,201 people, down 24.89% compared to the same period in 2025.
