Social Insurance Debt Arrears Ratio in Non-State Enterprises

equal to about 80% of actual salary. For employees who are subject to social insurance contributions according to the salary scale prescribed by the state (state sector or paid by the state budget), the monthly salary for social insurance contributions is also much lower than the actual salary (about 60% of salary), while for employees who are subject to social insurance contributions according to the salary regime set by the employer, this figure is about 80% of salary. Employees working in the service sector, construction, production and processing have a much lower social insurance contribution salary than the salary of the employee (only about 55-65%), this rate is higher for professional activities, activities of agencies and units, but still only accounts for over 70% of salary [49].

3.3.4. Social insurance debt ratio in non-state enterprises

The results of the data on social insurance debt of Hanoi Social Insurance show that: in 2017, non-state enterprises owed 1,954,225 million VND in social insurance contributions, accounting for 15%. If comparing the social insurance debt ratio with 02 state-owned enterprises (11.5%) and foreign-invested enterprises (2.3%), non-state enterprises have the highest social insurance debt ratio.

In 2018, non-state enterprises participating in social insurance accounted for 12.5%. The social insurance debt ratio in non-state enterprises tended to decrease compared to 2017. If comparing the social insurance debt ratio with 02 state-owned enterprises (10.5%); foreign-invested enterprises (1.6%), non-state enterprises still have the highest social insurance debt ratio compared to other enterprises.

In 2019, non-state enterprises participating in social insurance accounted for 12.5%; The social insurance debt ratio in non-state enterprises remained the same as in 2018. If comparing the social insurance debt ratio with 02 state-owned enterprises (10.5%); foreign-invested enterprises (1.6%), non-state enterprises still have the highest social insurance debt ratio compared to other enterprises.

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The above data results show that: the problem of social insurance debt is common in non-state enterprises compared to state-owned enterprises and foreign-invested enterprises. The data results show that the implementation of social insurance payment in non-state enterprises is not good, in addition, the inspection, supervision,

The inspection and examination of social insurance payment of non-state enterprises by social insurance agencies in the past time has not been good.

The results of document analysis also show:

Evading social insurance payment proves the fact that the coordination between employees, trade unions, social insurance, the Department of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs, including the People's Committees of districts where enterprises are operating, is not good, and has not performed well the activities of regular inspection, review, and timely detection of enterprises that owe social insurance, and requesting enterprises to pay social insurance.

Evading social insurance payment also shows loopholes in the law on social insurance due to the level of administrative fines for social insurance debt, the mechanism for monitoring the activities of enterprises in paying social insurance, preventing delays in paying social insurance; In addition, evasion of social insurance payment is due to employers' lack of strict compliance with the law on social insurance, failure to properly implement the provisions of the law on social insurance collection and payment, some administrative units receiving the state budget also owe social insurance; The handling after inspection and examination at enterprises with debts still has many limitations, there are no measures to thoroughly handle violations of social insurance evasion and debt. Many enterprises do not implement the conclusions after inspection and examination. The lawsuit has not been implemented: According to the Social Insurance Law No. 58/2014/QH13, from January 1, 2016, the Social Insurance agency does not have the right to file a lawsuit in court for violations of the law on social insurance, but assigns the right to file a lawsuit to the Trade Union organization.

However, it is also necessary to recognize that some non-state enterprises are slow to pay social insurance due to difficulties that negatively impact production and business activities.

3.3.5. Advantages and disadvantages of participating in social insurance for employees in non-state enterprises

3.3.5.1. Advantages

Firstly, Vietnam Social Security also regularly revises and improves procedures and documents in all areas from collecting, issuing social insurance books, and paying social insurance benefits in the direction of increasingly reducing inappropriate administrative procedures and shortening the time to complete social insurance payment procedures to facilitate businesses and

workers. Specifically: cutting from 263 administrative procedures (in 2009) to 32 administrative procedures (in 2016): in which: collection from 76 procedures to 7 procedures; social insurance book issuance from 46 procedures to 02 procedures; social insurance regime settlement from 89 procedures to 15 procedures; applying information technology, network connection between social insurance agencies and enterprises in reporting increases, decreases, and adjustments of personal information...

“Previously, every time we reported an increase or decrease in the number of employees, we had to go directly to the city’s Social Security agency to declare our illness or maternity records. In case of errors, we had to do it over and over again. But now, the increase or decrease reporting has been done via the Social Security agency’s email with correction information, not through the Social Security agency. Regarding the illness, maternity, and health recovery records, it is also convenient after completing them. The post office will directly receive them and send them back to the business after they are completed.”

PVS. Female; Employee, non-state enterprise.

In addition, the Social Insurance sector has also promoted propaganda and dialogue with business owners, social insurance policy officials and employees at non-state enterprises. Along with that, the city's Social Insurance directly dialogued with employers and policy makers about difficulties and obstacles in adjusting information on social insurance books. This propaganda has helped employers and employees better understand social insurance policies to ensure the rights of employees.

- Hanoi Social Insurance always pays attention to implementing well the collection management work for non-state enterprises in the city. Assign specialized staff to monitor, urge, guide the registration to participate and pay social insurance; regularly organize inspections of enterprises in implementing social insurance regimes and policies. The staff of Hanoi Social Insurance is increasingly improved in both professional qualifications and political theory, always aware of cultivating knowledge about social insurance as well as professional ethics and always trying their best to achieve high efficiency in work. Create a healthy working environment, maintain and launch emulation and reward movements. The organizational system of Hanoi Social Insurance is compact and scientific, this is one of the bases for the city Social Insurance to operate effectively.

- Awareness of the need to participate in social insurance and the awareness of law compliance of the labor-using units are increasingly raised, more proactive in coordinating with social insurance agencies to register to participate and pay, and resolve social insurance regimes for employees. Employees' awareness of the role and significance of social insurance policies is increasingly raised; life and income are increasingly stable, so they pay more attention to social insurance policies.

3.3.5.2. Difficulties in participating in social insurance for employees in non-state enterprises

In recent times, in the process of participating in social insurance, non-state enterprises have encountered many difficulties. Qualitative research results from document analysis and in-depth interviews with leaders of non-state enterprises show that:

Firstly , information technology software for electronic transactions is not convenient and effective: Some businesses also encounter difficulties when conducting electronic transactions through the software of the Social Insurance industry. For example:

- Slow transmission, errors and omissions, not updated regularly: The process of declaring labor fluctuations using electronic transaction records faces many difficulties due to slow transmission, slow processing and follow-up staff, leading to enterprises submitting 15 days later but still not receiving an appointment notice about processing their records, enterprises do not have time to submit additional records within the month to match the data on social insurance. This leads to the situation of: arising unnecessary penalty interest for enterprises; In addition, if enterprises do not have time to edit within the month, enterprises must redo the entire record the following month, causing many other procedures. The data declaration software (Ivan) has not been updated regularly with the latest data, the information on the software is incomplete, there is no information about foreign employees, or the software has not automatically deducted sick leave for foreign employees for 14 days. Social insurance staff still have to update manually.

- Electronic transactions via social insurance software are not convenient and difficult to use.

“In the process of performing social insurance procedures using electronic software, when transacting, new software is often updated frequently. When registering for an increase or decrease, it is not possible to confirm whether the registration for an increase or decrease is successful or not. The comparison

After entering the changed data on the software with the insurance agency, there are still many difficulties and it takes a lot of time"

PVS. Nam, Officer in charge of social insurance, non-state enterprise

- The application for notifying application results via email is not yet available, so businesses must regularly update the software to monitor, check application status and download results.

- When encountering problems with software usage, the support of the Social Insurance is still slow. Sometimes, businesses have to submit hard copies of documents, which wastes time and effort, and incurs additional costs for the business. Meanwhile, for businesses with few employees, electronic transactions do not really bring much change.

“ The new declaration software can only be used for social insurance collection. Other functions are not yet available while the declaration software currently in use (TS24) still has many shortcomings in the declaration process. The enterprise has asked the social insurance agency and was told that other functions (health insurance, social insurance regime) are not yet applicable and the enterprise does not know when they can be applied, it still takes time to prepare paper documents and time to travel to submit documents directly between the enterprise and the social insurance agency.”

PVS. Female, officer in charge of social insurance, enterprise with non-state investment capital

Second , the processing and return of documents via post by the Social Insurance agency is still slow and late, causing difficulties for enterprises in paying allowances to employees. In order to save maximum time for traveling and waiting when participating in transactions with the Social Insurance agency, Vietnam Social Insurance has implemented a method of receiving documents and returning administrative procedure results via the electronic transaction system (up to now, 90% of enterprises have participated); for documents not yet processed via the electronic transaction system, the Social Insurance agency will deliver and receive them at the enterprise via the postal delivery service (postal system), enterprises do not have to go directly to the Social Insurance agency to transact. However, many enterprises encounter difficulties because this method depends on the post office. All transactions with the Social Insurance agency via the post office are only convenient when the documents are error-free. In case of mistakes or errors that need to be corrected, conducting transactions via the post office is costly and time-consuming, even exceeding the deadline, affecting the payment of benefits to employees.

Third , regarding the Social Insurance policy, many businesses responded that the procedures are still cumbersome, with many unnecessary and complicated steps.

“ Specifically, for the sick leave and maternity regime, the settlement of the one-time regime for men whose wives give birth but do not participate in social insurance, because the social insurance is managed by the province, it is not possible to check the wife of the male employee if she participates in insurance at a unit in another province. Or in the case of employees whose children are sick and do not want to go to the hospital because of the cumbersome and complicated procedures, they go to private facilities for examination. Because they do not have the right to issue leave certificates to the social insurance, private medical facilities are only allowed to issue sick child books to employees. According to regulations, the social insurance does not accept sick child books, so the rights of employees have been narrowed. Employees who are on sick leave for more than 14 days must wait for the social insurance agency to complete the settlement of the sick leave regime before reporting a reduction, causing difficulties for the enterprise."

PVS. Female, officer in charge of social insurance, non-state enterprise

“Article 2, Clause 2 of the 2014 Law on Social Insurance stipulates that foreign workers working in Vietnam with a work permit issued by a competent authority of Vietnam are entitled to participate in compulsory social insurance according to the Government's regulations. However, this provision can only be applied to foreign workers from countries with which Vietnam has not entered into a general agreement on social insurance to ensure the benefits of these foreign workers when they return to their country or move to work in another country. However, at present, these agreements have not been concluded.

In addition, some enterprises also said that the Social Insurance agency did not confirm the results of receiving the application, and that the arising problems and difficulties of the enterprises had not been satisfactorily resolved by the Social Insurance agency.

Fourthly , regarding the Health Insurance policy, enterprises and employees still face many difficulties when implementing medical examination and treatment using health insurance cards such as: referral procedures, not organizing medical examination and treatment outside of working hours and on weekends, incorrect information about the unit name in the health insurance benefit certificate, handover of health insurance cards to enterprises, revocation of health insurance cards of employees who quit their jobs, limitation of the scope of initial medical examination and treatment registration...

Fifth , regarding the Unemployment Insurance policy, the difficulties and problems that businesses encounter are mainly in the procedures for resolving the Unemployment Insurance regime such as: unemployment registration, file appraisal, subsidy settlement... there are also overlapping regulations, employees

It takes time to travel and wait, and some agencies even process the benefits late, exceeding the prescribed number of days. In cases where the unemployment insurance period has odd months reserved, the employee must bring the social insurance book to the old company to close, causing the employee to have to travel a lot, wasting time and money.

“The time prescribed in the law for handling insurance procedures is reasonable and appropriate. However, the insurance agency does not properly carry out this procedure. The actual processing time is always two to three times longer than the prescribed time.”

"The time to print social insurance books for new employees is still a bit long, normally it takes 2 months for employees to have the book."

"The Social Insurance Agency often returns results later than the appointment letter (on average 5 days)"; "The process of the Social Insurance accounting department transferring social insurance benefits to employees is still slow, usually 1 to 2 months after the application is approved".

Time to print health cards for new employees: takes nearly 02 months from the date of submitting valid documents. "The time to resolve unemployment insurance regime is still long, the procedures are complicated".

PVS. Nam, officer in charge of social insurance, FDI enterprise.

It is worth noting that some businesses say that returning results via post or electronic transaction software is often slower than submitting documents directly to the Social Security agency:

“If you submit your application directly to the insurance agency, the result will be returned on time. If you submit your application via the insurance software, it will take longer, sometimes more than a week.”

PVS. Female, officer in charge of social insurance, non-state enterprise.

In addition, according to the survey results, some businesses said that the coordination between departments of the local Social Insurance unit was not good, especially the one-stop staff and other departments.

“ One-stop staff receive and handle administrative procedures in accordance with regulations. However, the results returned to the unit have not complied with regulations on processing time. The processing has not been truly flexible and has not met the expectations of businesses”. PVS. Nam, staff in charge of social insurance, non-state enterprises.

Sixth, awareness, attitude and belief of employees in participating in social insurance at non-state enterprises are still limited.

According to Vietnam Social Security, the number of employees participating in compulsory social insurance in enterprises in Hanoi is low, accounting for only about 52% of the total number of employees working in enterprises; the rate of enterprises participating in compulsory social insurance also accounts for only about 85% of the total number of enterprises operating in production and business. One of the reasons why employees participating in social insurance is so low is because there are still many employees who are not fully aware of and do not care about this important social security policy. Many employees even want the enterprises where they work not to participate in social insurance so that their monthly social insurance contributions are not deducted. Some employees who want not to participate in social insurance to receive a few hundred thousand more VND do not know that the amount of money they lose is much larger both now and in the future. They do not realize that social insurance brings benefits to employees that no savings can compare to. The results of in-depth interviews show that:

“I don’t actively care much. I only know that every month when I receive my salary, I have to set aside money to pay social insurance. I don’t really care about how much I pay or what the coefficient is.”

PVS. Male worker, 25 years old at a non-state enterprise

“If I didn’t participate in social insurance, I could save some money every month and avoid paying social insurance. He said that in these difficult economic times, I was short of money every month. If I didn’t pay social insurance, I would naturally save some money.”

PVS. Female worker, 26 years old at a non-state enterprise

The results of in-depth interviews also show that many workers still have a misconception when participating in social insurance: they consider saving money to be more beneficial than participating in social insurance.

“I think saving money every month is more beneficial than participating in social insurance because I can manage this source of money and I can withdraw it whenever I want.”

PVS. Male, 28 years old, employee at a non-state enterprise. The qualitative research results also show that:

Most workers understand their responsibilities and rights when participating in social insurance, but due to pressure from work, workers do not dare to fight with their employers to demand the right to participate in social insurance.

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