Retirement age will not be increased for workers doing hard and poisonous work. — Photo zing.vn

HÀ NỘI — Retirement age will not be increased for workers doing hard and poisonous work, said Bùi Sỹ Lợi, deputy chairman of the National Assembly’s Social Affairs Committee, during a debate held by the Government Portal on Friday.

Deputy chairman Lợi said adjusting the retirement age was a sensitive problem which would affect many aspects of life, so competent organisations should consider the issue carefully and closely to reach consensus.

During the debate, the Deputy Minister of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs Phạm Minh Huân said there were two options for increasing the retirement age.

The first option is increasing the pension age from 60 to 62 for male workers and from 55 to 58 for female workers. The second option is increasing the pension age from from 55 to 60 for female workers.

Deputy Minister Huân said increasing the retirement age was necessary because at present total social insurance expenditures nationwide exceed the Government’s income specifically designated for such expenses.

The country’s average life span is 73 years old . If retirement age stays the same, individual pensions must be paid for about 20 years, according to a Vietnam Social Insurance report.

Only about 40.5 per cent of state workers retire at the regulated age, which is 60 for men and 55 for women. This leads to imbalances in the social insurance fund.

Trần Đình Liệu, deputy director of Vietnam Social Insurance, said Việt Nam pays the highest amount for social insurance of all Asian countries, but the amount of people receiving pensions is also high.

Increasing the retirement age has been under consideration by the Government since 2008. The Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs is studying the issue and setting up the project. The Ministry will take residents’ opinions before submitting recommendations to the Government and National Assembly next year.

191,000 people of working age with bachelor degrees are currently unemployed nationwide, the Government said in a report released at the opening session of the 14th National Assembly’s (NA) second meeting on October 20. — VNS