Only need to pay from 15 years of social insurance
According to the provisions of the 2024 Law on Social Insurance, from 2026, employees who want to receive a pension need to simultaneously meet the conditions on retirement age and social insurance (SI) contribution time. A noteworthy point is that the minimum SI contribution time to receive a pension has been reduced to 15 years.
Article 64 of the 2024 Law on Social Insurance stipulates that employees participating in compulsory social insurance are entitled to pensions when:
Meeting the retirement age according to the provisions of law;
Having a social insurance contribution period of 15 years or more, applicable to both male and female workers.
Compared to the previous regulation requiring 20 years of social insurance contribution, the reduction to 15 years is assessed to help expand the opportunity to receive pensions for many workers with short social insurance participation periods or interrupted working processes.
However, the above regulation does not apply to cases of retirement due to reduced working capacity, because this group of subjects has their own conditions according to Article 65 of the 2024 Law on Social Insurance.
Voluntary social insurance participants also apply the 15-year mark
For voluntary social insurance participants, the regulations are also similar. According to Article 98 of the 2024 Law on Social Insurance, participants are entitled to pensions when:
Meeting the retirement age according to Clause 2, Article 169 of the 2019 Labor Code;
Having paid social insurance for 15 years or more.
This regulation aims to encourage freelance workers and informal sector workers to participate in social insurance to have a stable income source in their old age.
Reducing the minimum social insurance contribution period to 15 years is considered an important adjustment step of social security policy. The new regulation helps:
Many workers who have not paid social insurance for 20 years still have the opportunity to receive pensions.
Limiting the situation of one-time social insurance withdrawals.
Expanding the coverage of the social insurance system.
