Upset about the delay in one-time social insurance withdrawal procedures
Mr. Hoang Minh Hien, a freelancer living in Yen Bai, is currently facing many difficulties when carrying out procedures to withdraw social insurance (SI) at one time.
Mr. Hien said that he has quit his job at Meiko Thang Long Power Company (Bac Thang Long, Dong Anh, Hanoi) for more than a year now. Due to difficult family circumstances, his wife is about to give birth, and he needs money to cover his living expenses.
Mr. Hien said indignantly: On March 25, when I came to submit a one-time social insurance withdrawal application at the Luc Yen District Social Insurance agency, the social insurance employee scheduled that the application would be processed after 5 days. However, up to now, 1 month has passed, but my application has not been resolved. Many people who make documents here are very resentful but no one dares to speak up.
Mr. Hien lamented that workers work hard, participate and pay insurance every month, but when times are difficult, if they want to withdraw once to solve the problem, the Social Insurance agency makes many appointments with all kinds of reasons.
Most recently, the Luc Yen District Social Insurance Agency scheduled him to pay his benefits on April 21, but when he arrived, the Social Insurance staff continued to disappoint him when they informed him that his application had just begun to be approved, telling him to continue waiting without a specific payment date.
The long journey and traveling many times make me very frustrated, the immediate problem cannot be solved, now I just know how to wait and cannot do anything, Mr. Hien said and shared that many people also have to go to outside services because of the complicated procedures and the long time to solve the problem, so they have to go to outside services to get money right away and accept facing many risks.
Mr. Hien is not the only case. On the official Fanpage of Vietnam Social Security with nearly 100,000 followers, many people reported that the application for one-time social insurance withdrawal and some other services were delayed, the support hotline did not respond, causing outrage in the community.
To verify this information, the reporter proactively contacted the hotline number 19009068 that was publicly announced by Vietnam Social Insurance during office hours many times, but the results still did not change when the switchboard replied: "Currently, all switchboard players are busy, please wait or call back later".
Difficulty in resolving procedures related to social insurance books is one of the reasons why workers self-admit to groups that provide collateral and sell social insurance books to solve immediate economic problems. Although they know that providing this type of service can cost them some and violate the provisions of the law.
Disbursement after 5 minutes, accepting to lose 20-40% of the book value
This activity took place widely on groups such as " one-time Social Insurance Outreach", "Caring social insurance books", or " One-time Social Insurance Outreach, Thai San Insurance" - where tens of thousands of members participated, most of whom were workers and laborers.
In the above groups, it is not difficult to find posts asking how to withdraw one-time social insurance or find replacement services. Right below these posts are a series of comments from anonymous accounts advertising services such as "quick social insurance withdrawal", "disbursement within 5 minutes" with contact phone numbers.
Ms. Pham Thu Trang (Hanoi) said that her relative had a stroke twice, was no longer able to work, and had paid social insurance for nearly 26 years. When she posted a post asking whether to withdraw at one time or receive a pension, a series of "insurance brokers" immediately came to offer a book withdrawal service, even advising to withdraw at one time, even though this could cause workers to suffer disadvantages and lose all the time of paying insurance before.
Notably, some groups also use images and logos of Vietnam Social Insurance agencies, causing many people to mistakenly believe that this is an official channel. However, the content inside the group was flooded with advertisements for book sales and social insurance collection services, especially in Ho Chi Minh City and Binh Duong - where there were many workers.
Posing as someone who needs to sell books, the reporter contacted an account named "B.N" - specializing in collecting social insurance books via social networks.
This person commits to handling all documents, including lost covers, unfinished leave, incorrect information, or having many books that need to be merged. This account is allowed to process insurance books for leave from work from August 2024 onwards for the Southern region; and insurance books for leave from work from July 2024 onwards will be processed in the Northern region.
"The transaction is complete, customers will receive the money after 30 minutes," this person affirmed.
In addition to committing to withdrawing money quickly, brokers also offer attractive pink discounts if customers introduce more book sellers.
However, to use the service, workers must accept losing 20% - 40% of the real value of the book after withdrawal. In particular, there are cases where they can only receive half of the actual amount that can be received if they follow the correct procedures and processing time of the insurance agency.
In the Hanoi area, an "insurance broker" (residing in Long Bien) said that customers in need will have to send information via Zalo (including social insurance books and citizen identification cards).
When the reporter refused to provide on the grounds that the information was revealed and the issue would like to refer to the price first to do the service, this stork said that to calculate the fee will need to monitor the process of closing and participating in the monthly social insurance of the employee. The service fee is not calculated according to the percentage as other parties are based on the "real value" of the insurance book.
According to this broker, the closer the time limit for withdrawing the book is, the higher the price will be. If the insurance book can be withdrawn for about 70 million VND, then after deducting service costs, the employee will actually receive only about 37 - 39 million VND.
Transactions are all conducted in the form of authorization, with signed documents and provided with citizen identification numbers before receiving money.
Realizing that the behavior was illegal, when the reporter suggested meeting in person to discuss, this person repeatedly urged him to submit insurance book information in advance for "checking". If the information is correct, a new meeting will be arranged to "ensure safety" for both sides.
Selling social insurance books: Workers suffer double losses
Talking to Lao Dong, Ms. Duong Thi Minh Chau - Head of the Social Insurance Communications Department (SI) of Hanoi City - said that selling social insurance books not only causes economic losses for employees but also loses their long-term social security benefits.
According to Ms. Chau, workers selling books often only receive about 1/3 or half of the actual amount if they complete the procedures to withdraw social insurance at one time.
It is worth mentioning that after withdrawing social insurance at one time, the entire period of participation in social insurance before will be deleted, which means that it is very difficult for employees to return to the system and be eligible for pension when they are old.
Regarding the process of handling documents, Ms. Chau said: According to Resolution 93/2015/QH13, employees after a year of retirement, if they have not paid social insurance for 20 years and do not continue to participate, have the right to request a one-time social insurance payment.
The processing process is carried out according to Decision 166/QD-BHXH, with a maximum processing time of 5 working days from the date the Social Insurance agency receives the complete dossier.
However, in reality, there are still cases where processing time has to be extended due to problems related to the social insurance participation process.
Ms. Chau gave an example: A worker can have overtime at two units at the same time, such as in May 2025. At that time, the Social Insurance agency must adjust the participation process and refund the excess payment, leading to a delay in handling the application.
