Under the proposed draft Social Insurance Law (revised), the ministry suggested that the policy is applied on needy people at the retirement age, which is 62 for men and 60 for women according to an approved roadmap.

The support will be provided until they reach the age of 75. They will then continue to receive pension benefits paid from the State budget, the bill said.

The support level will be based on the duration of their social insurance premium payment, with the lowest amount being 360,000 VND (14.88 USD) per month.

The MoLISA explained that labourers who pay their social insurance premiums basing on the monthly salary of 2 million VND, the lowest among the groups subjected for compulsory social insurance payment, will enjoy only five years of social insurance benefits, which means there will be gap years during which they are eligible to no support policies.

If the proposal is approved, the social welfare system will have three layers. The first is the basic social insurance benefits for labourers starting from their joining of the system until before their retirement age, the second is support to people from the retirement age until 75 years old, and the last is pension for people from 75 years old.

Currently, Vietnam has more than 14.4 million senior citizens who exceed the retirement age, but only 5.1 million of whom, or 35%, are enjoying support policies.

The draft Social Insurance Law (revised) is scheduled to be debated at the National Assembly later this year./.VNA