Dương Văn Hào, head of Management Board for collection of health insurance cards and social insurance books, Việt Nam Social Insurance. — Photo baohiemxahoi.gov.vn

Dương Văn Hào, head of the Management Board for collection of health insurance cards and social insurance books, Việt Nam Social Insurance, talked to VnEconomy about some issues related to reducing insurance premiums to help employees and businesses overcome difficulties during the COVID-19 pandemic.

How has Việt Nam Social Security been implementing support policies to reduce payments to the occupational accident and disease fund under the direction of the Government?

The insurance sector has issued specific guidance documents to help the agency's units quickly implement policies to support both employees and employers.

The social insurance agency also directed branches in provinces and cities to proactively contact businesses affected by the COVID-19 pandemic to guide them to file a reduction in insurance premiums.

More than a week after Decision No 23 dated July 7, 2021, over 11.2 million employees, working at 375,000 businesses in the country, have received a reduction in their insurance premiums for occupational accidents and diseases, worth about VNĐ4.3 trillion (US$187.6 million).

The reduction is applied between July 2021 and June 2022.

HCM City takes the biggest share with over 2.3 million employees, working at 101,356 businesses in HCM City receiving total financial support of over VNĐ1 trillion ($43.4 million) through the Government's support package.

Hà Nội City with 1.4 million employees, working at over 87,000 businesses, has received total financial support of over VNĐ640 billion ($27.7 million).

Nearly 11,000 businesses with more than 750,000 employees in Đồng Nai Province also received financial support of over VNĐ330 billion ($14.4 million).

Additionally, Bình Dương, Hải Phòng, Bắc Ninh, Nghệ An, Đà Nẵng, Hải Dương, Quảng Ninh provinces also received large amounts in support. 

Can you tell more about the employers that benefit from this policy?

Most employers are entitled to apply the insurance payment reduction from this policy, except for cadres, civil servants, public employees, people in armed forces, employees in agencies of the Party, the State, administrative agencies, public non-business units which receive salaries from the State budget.

Employers support the entire amount of money from the reduction of the above premium to employees.

Businesses established after July 1 will also benefit from this package.

This insurance premiums reduction policy is applied to support workers and businesses between July 2021 and June 2022. Are employees entitled to benefits as prescribed in the Law on Social Insurance if they suffer from an occupational disease or accident during this time?

Of course, employees are still entitled to all benefits as prescribed if they unfortunately suffer from occupational diseases or accidents during this time.

The support for employees will be considered by the employers. — VNS