Residents at the Long Biên health insurance office. — VNA/VNS Photo

HÀ NỘI — As Việt Nam moves to modernise its social welfare system, businesses across Hà Nội are facing greater pressure to understand and implement the latest changes in social and health insurance legislation.

For many firms, particularly small and medium-sized enterprises, the revised regulations come with real challenges, from new administrative procedures to increased compliance responsibilities.

In response, the Hanoi Support Centre for Enterprise and Investment Promotion (SCE) on Thursday held a dialogue conference aimed at helping businesses navigate the complexities of the Law on Social Insurance 41/2024/QH15 and the amended Law on Health Insurance 51/2024/QH15.

The event offered companies a rare chance to receive direct guidance from experts, raise pressing concerns and clarify the policies that will shape their obligations in the years ahead.

The revised laws introduce a series of important reforms designed to extend social protection and improve benefits for workers. Among the most notable changes are: broader eligibility for both social and health insurance, covering groups previously outside the formal scheme, including part-time and flexible workers; updated benefit levels for sickness, maternity, pensions and medical care; stricter requirements for employers on reporting, documentation and administrative processes.

The new framework is expected to create fairer access to welfare entitlements and reduce gaps within the workforce.

According to SCE, the revised legislation is expected to bring significant changes. The agency stressed that the measures would influence millions of workers and hundreds of thousands of businesses, underscoring the need for businesses to stay informed, interpret the rules correctly and implement them promptly.

Dương Thị Minh Châu, head of the Communications and Participant Support Division, answers questions from Hà Nội business representatives at the dialogue conference on Thursday. — VNS Photo Minh Hằng

At the conference, Hà Nội Social Insurance representatives walked businesses through the key updates. Dương Thị Minh Châu, head of the Communications and Participant Support Division, highlighted the main changes in the revised law, helping both employers and employees better understand their rights and obligations under the social insurance system.

She also explained how the new regulations could impact payroll management, wage calculations, employee registration and compliance timelines, giving companies the clarity they need to implement the changes effectively.

The explanations addressed both technical legal language and real-world scenarios that enterprises face daily, such as managing employees on short-term contracts or handling overlapping benefit claims.

Questions flowed freely from the audience. Some businesses sought clarity on processing timelines for health-insurance reimbursements. Others raised concerns about administrative workloads tied to updating employee records or adjusting contribution levels. Throughout the discussions, it became clear that many of the bottlenecks enterprises encounter stem not from the content of the laws, but from the uncertainty surrounding their implementation.

Many attendees raised issues around the handling of maternity and sickness benefits, unemployment insurance, occupational accident insurance and the application of the law to foreign employees.

Châu emphasised that the revised laws would provide significant advantages for employees, particularly in pension arrangements for late entrants along with improved sickness and maternity entitlements.

Companies also sought clarification on documentation requirements, procedures for registering part-time staff and how to adjust allowances and administrative workflows in line with the new rules.

The exchanges highlighted how essential open dialogue is to effective implementation. Businesses not only gained clearer guidance but were reassured that their challenges were being acknowledged by relevant authorities.

By organising the dialogue conference, SCE demonstrated its commitment to helping businesses adapt to regulatory changes that directly influence workforce management and daily operations.

SCE said the laws represented an important milestone in Việt Nam’s social security reform, noting that the expansion of coverage to part-time and flexible workers was a vital step in widening access to sickness, maternity, pension and healthcare benefits for groups that had long been more vulnerable.

As the revised regulations take effect, ongoing conversations between policymakers and the business community will be vital.

For Hà Nội’s enterprises, forums like this one are not just information sessions – they are an essential tool for building confidence, strengthening compliance and ensuring workers receive the protection they deserve. — VNS