On the morning of August 17, the Standing Committee of the National Assembly gave opinions on the implementation of social insurance policies, regimes, management and use of the Social Insurance Fund in 2020.

According to the Government’s report, the total balance of the Social Insurance and Unemployment Insurance funds to date is estimated at over 935,100 billion VND;

Representative of the inspection agency, Chairman of the Social Committee Nguyen Thuy Anh, assessed that basically short-term funds are guaranteed to pay and `have a large surplus`.

The Labor Accident – Occupational Disease Insurance Fund and the Unemployment Insurance Fund have large balances, with high annual balances.

Unemployment Insurance Fund balance in 2019 is more than 9,000 billion VND.

According to Ms. Thuy Anh, reality in recent years has shown that many regimes and policies related to these funds have not come to life and have not promoted the proactive role of unemployment insurance policy as the support of the economy.

The Social Committee requested the Ministry of Finance to soon complete research and propose methods for investing the Social Insurance fund balance to improve efficiency and contribute to ensuring long-term fund balance.

Head of the Delegate Working Committee Nguyen Thi Thanh spoke at the National Assembly Standing Committee session on the morning of August 17.

Head of the Delegate Working Committee Nguyen Thi Thanh assessed that the balance of the 4 types of funds mentioned above is too large.

According to Ms. Thanh, the National Assembly has decided to create a legal corridor with an urgent mechanism, especially for the Government to prevent epidemics, `So should the National Assembly and the National Assembly Standing Committee consider deciding on a specific issue?`

National Assembly Chairman Vuong Dinh Hue also said that the balance of short-term insurance funds is too large, while in principle, only 10% of reserves are kept annually.

National Assembly Chairman Vuong Dinh Hue commented on the balance of Social Insurance and Unemployment Insurance on the morning of August 17.

National Assembly leaders wonder if the above balance is due to the regulation of too large a contribution level?

`Or is it because the spending is too little, workers pay but do not receive benefits, so there is a lot of backlog? Or is it both, meaning the payment is high but the spending is low? The government must make this clear,` Mr. Hue

Regarding the proposal to use the remaining balance to spend for some purposes, such as buying vaccines, the Chairman of the National Assembly said he `disagrees` because `no one can violate this Fund even for a penny`.

Because of the important nature of the above funds, Mr. Hue said `not only will they be considered by the Standing Committee, but in the future they will be arranged for the National Assembly to discuss.`

Hoang Thuy