The Ministry of Finance has just sent a letter to the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs regarding the impact assessment of the new wage policy from July 1st to the implementation of social insurance policies.
The Ministry of Finance said that preliminary estimate, the state budget funding needs for 2024 will increase compared to the state budget expenditure estimate for 2024 that has been assigned authority to implement the proposed plan of the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs, which is to increase pensions, social insurance allowances by 15%; increase the preferential allowances for strong contributors by 29.2% (from 2,055,000 VND to 2,655,000 VND); increase social allowances by 38.9% (from 360,000 VND to 500,000 VND).
With the above increase, the total payment cost is 17,276 trillion VND, exceeding the balancing capacity of the state budget expenditure estimate for 2024, which has been maximized by the National Assembly at 7,430 trillion VND.
Therefore, the Ministry of Finance proposes the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs to review and recalculate specific adjustment options to ensure compliance with the principles and legal basis already prescribed for the implementation of the adjustment plan to pensions, social insurance allowances from July 1, 2024 for retirees before January 1, 1995, which are guaranteed by the state budget.
According to the proposal of the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs, pensions, social insurance allowances will be increased by 15%; the preferential allowances for strong contributors will be increased by 29.2%.
According to the Ministry of Finance, there are currently many social insurance regimes, medical insurance regulations in the Social Insurance Law, Labor Safety and Sanitation Law, Health Insurance Law; some regimes on social security (scholarship policy, support for study costs for certain student subjects prescribed by the Education Law, etc.).
When implementing the public sector pay reform from July 1, 2024, it will directly affect the social insurance regime, health insurance, regimes for students, as there will be no longer regulations on basic salary. However, at the time of July 1, 2024, the Social Insurance Law, Labor Safety and Sanitation Law, Health Insurance Law, and Education Law are still in effect, and there is no replacement document.
Therefore, to ensure legal consistency and unity in implementation, the Ministry of Finance has proposed the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs to take the lead, coordinate with the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Education and Training, etc. to review, study and report to the Government to submit to the National Assembly at the meeting in May 2024.
The Ministry of Finance also said that in difficult conditions for balancing the central budget, the allocation sources for pension adjustments and some social security policies are very limited, while some localities continue to have excess sources for significant salary reforms.
Therefore, to proactively manage the adjustment sources for policies and reduce the pressure of allocating central budget to support localities, the Ministry of Finance proposes the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs to report to the authorized level, allowing the use of the accumulated salary reform sources of the central budget and the excess salary reform sources of the localities, after ensuring sufficient needs for salary reforms, to be used for implementing the adjustment of pensions and the above-mentioned allowances.
