Saigonese line up since dawn to withdraw social security premiums

More than 50 people sit in front of Thu Duc City’s Social Insurance Agency at 4 a.m. on Friday so that they could be served first when the office opens at 7:30 a.m. They came to register to exit the social insurance scheme and withdraw the accumulated premiums they and their employers had paid.
The condition for employees to withdraw the accumulated premiums is that they have been unemployed for a year and paid social insurance premiums for less than 20 years. Since early April, the withdrawal demand has surged across HCMC, causing overload at almost all social insurance agencies in town, prompting people to show up as early as they could to be the first in line.

Several people shine flashlights from their mobile phone to help a man fill out documents to get the premiums on the yard of Thu Duc Social Security Agency. With the one-time payment, laborers agree to get no pensions once they retire. To be eligible for retirement pensions, employees need to pay the premium for at least 20 years. The retirement age in Vietnam is currently 55 years and eight months for women and 60.5 for men.
Phan Van Men, director of the HCMC Social Security, said in the first quarter, 37,000 people applied for the withdrawal, up 19 percent against the same period last year.

Nguyen Thi Phuong, 40, said she left her home at 3:15 a.m. and was the first to show up at the agency. “I’ve seen many people who showed up at 6 a.m. but still could not get a number so I decided to be here three hours sooner.”

Lanh, 27, left home with her son at 4:30 a.m. Under Covid-19 impacts, she has been unemployed for one year, qualifying her for the one-time payment. “I had paid social insurance six years in a row so now I would get VND70 million ($3,062). I need that money to take care of my son because my husband and I have earned almost nothing during the pandemic.”

By 7:30 a.m., hundreds of people have formed a line of almost 100 meters in front of the agency.

The same situation has been reported at the agency in District 12, with hundreds waiting in line since 4 a.m. Every day, the social insurance agency in each district can only receive 200 applications in person and 300-500 documents via mail though the number of people waiting in line is many times higher. In many cases, they had to leave and return the next day.

People get their numbers at the Thu Duc agency after waiting for over three hours. They will wait until their turn.

The counter to receive applications at Thu Duc Social Security Agency. A staff member reported having to work almost ten hours per day since early April. To deal with the overload, HCMC Social Security said it is developing a policy to shorten the process.

Tang Tien Le, 40, leaves the Thu Duc agency after having to wait for hours for his application to be rejected. The agency requested that he provide additional documents issued by his former employer in order to get the one-time payment.
In the first 10 months of last year, more than 700,000 people in Vietnam registered to exit the social insurance scheme, 5.5 percent higher than same period of 2020, Vietnam Social Security reported. In most cases the withdrawal was due to the economic stress caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, especially in economic and industrial hubs like HCMC and Binh Duong and Dong Nai provinces, it noted.