Streamlining the Unemployment Insurance Process

Cumbersome Procedures

According to current regulations, to receive unemployment benefits, workers must go through the following steps: submit an application (including social insurance book; application form for unemployment benefits; original or certified copy of one of the following: labor contract, work contract, dismissal decision, disciplinary dismissal decision, termination notice, or termination agreement), receive the decision on unemployment benefits, collect the benefits and health insurance card, and monthly job search notification.

Ms. Tran Thi Thu Trang from District 12, Ho Chi Minh City, shared that with this process, she had to visit the unemployment insurance branch in District 12 four times to receive three months’ worth of unemployment benefits. Two visits were for submitting the application, and the other two were for monthly job search notifications. “My documents were relatively complete, so I only had to go four times. Others might have to go more often due to incomplete or invalid documents, which can be time-consuming and inconvenient,” she said.

Ms. Nguyen Van Hanh Thuc, Director of the City’s Employment Service Center, said that the duration of unemployment benefits for workers ranges from a minimum of three months to a maximum of 12 months. On average, a worker will have to visit the Employment Service Center between four and 14 times during one period of benefit collection. Currently, workers can register for unemployment benefit procedures online through the National Public Service Portal or the city’s portal.

However, workers still need to visit the Employment Service Center in person to submit monthly job search notifications (once a month). While there is an increasing trend of workers submitting applications for unemployment benefits through the online portals, the Center still needs to manually update the information on these portals and print out hard copies of the documents for archival purposes as per regulations.

With limited staff and inadequate infrastructure (such as chip-reading devices and scanners), the lack of data sharing and connectivity between the national and city portals results in a time-consuming process for handling applications. Additionally, the Center’s staff are also responsible for counseling, job referrals, vocational training, and approval of unemployment benefit applications, leading to a heavy workload.

“The parallel receipt of applications for unemployment benefits, both online and offline, creates challenges for the implementing unit in policy implementation and is also inconsistent with current regulations. There is a need to standardize one format to simplify the process for both workers and implementing agencies,” suggested Ms. Thuc.

Synchronized Solutions

Commenting on the current procedures and processes for resolving unemployment benefits, Mr. Nguyen Tat Nam, former Head of the Labor, Wage, and Social Insurance Department of the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Labor, Invalids, and Social Affairs, said that they are complicated, lack transparency, and are ineffective.

According to Mr. Nam, the multi-step, paper-intensive process forces workers to spend a significant amount of time on preparation and certification. Personal information, employment records, and insurance information are often not updated promptly among relevant agencies (social insurance, labor management), leading to workers having to resubmit documents already available at other agencies. The lack of a mechanism to inform workers about the process and the progress of their application handling adds to the challenges they face.

Additionally, the complex procedures can result in delays in processing applications, with the time from submission to receiving benefits ranging from a few weeks to several months, causing difficulties for workers in need of timely support. “Despite digitization efforts, the application of technology is not comprehensive. The data management system is not synchronized between agencies, leading to manual processing, which is prone to errors and delays,” Mr. Nam said.

To facilitate workers’ access to the regime and reduce pressure on implementing agencies, Mr. Nam proposed that the Ministry of Labor, Invalids, and Social Affairs and the Government integrate and synchronize the National Public Service Portal and the Ho Chi Minh City portal. He also suggested deploying new technologies and policy recommendations to support the digitization of procedures and applications for unemployment benefits, as well as simplifying the conditions and application requirements based on the data already collected from workers during their participation in unemployment insurance.

Additionally, the counseling and job referral system should be diversified, with connections to professional staff and experts in online and offline career counseling, to facilitate access and utilization by workers and employers, enabling their quick reintegration into the labor market…

Ms. Hoang Thi Minh Tam, a lecturer at Ho Chi Minh City University of Law, said that both the current regulations and the draft amended Law on Employment require workers to submit applications for unemployment benefits in person. However, to align with the spirit of Resolution No. 28-NQ/TW on social insurance policy reform and Decision No. 1333/QD-BHXH on the digitization of paper documents and administrative procedures by Vietnam Social Security, this requirement needs to be reconsidered.

According to Ms. Tam, promoting the use of information technology in receiving applications and issuing decisions on unemployment insurance is a global trend. Forcing workers to submit applications in person is inflexible, and there should be a provision for online submission to facilitate workers and align with the spirit of the aforementioned documents.