Long-term benefits when preserving social insurance

Not receiving one-time social insurance because receiving a pension is more beneficial

At the beginning of April 2026, Ms. Lan Hoang (born in 1969), formerly a worker at a company in Linh Trung 1 Export Processing Zone, Ho Chi Minh City, after more than 1 year of resignation, came to Thu Duc Base Social Insurance to carry out procedures to receive one-time social insurance benefits. According to Ms. Lan Hoang, the amount of one-time social insurance benefits she receives after more than 8 years of social insurance contributions will be about nearly 60 million VND. This is a large amount of money for Ms. Lan Hoang in the context that she has quit her job, has no salary, and her family life is facing many difficulties.

After being consulted by social insurance officials, Ms. Lan Hoang realized that receiving one-time social insurance will have a large amount of money in the short term, but in the long term she will suffer many disadvantages, especially she will not have a pension when she reaches retirement age and will become a burden for her family and society.

Before the reasonable and emotional analysis of social insurance officials, Ms. Lan Hoang decided not to receive social insurance again, preserved the time she had paid social insurance and continued to participate in voluntary social insurance to receive a pension later.

Ms. Lan Hoang's case is just one of many typical examples of not receiving one-time social insurance because she realized the effect of having a long-term pension.

Reducing the number of years of social insurance contribution to receive a pension leads to positive changes

A Ho Chi Minh City Social Insurance official analyzed that when receiving one-time social insurance, employees will suffer many disadvantages compared to preserving the social insurance contribution period to receive a long-term pension. That is, employees are no longer in the social insurance system protected by the State, losing the opportunity to receive a monthly pension, a stable and useful source of income in old age.

According to current regulations, the total amount of social insurance contributions to the pension and survivorship fund is 22% of the monthly salary as the basis for social insurance contributions of employees. Of which, employees contribute 8% and employers contribute 14%, the total amount of contributions to the annual social insurance fund is equal to 2.64 months of salary. If employees enjoy one-time social insurance benefits, the benefit level per year of social insurance contributions is only equal to 1.5 months of the average monthly salary for social insurance contributions for years paid before 2014 and equal to 2 months of the average monthly salary for social insurance contributions for years paid from 2014 onwards. Thus, if receiving one-time social insurance, employees will lose about 1.14 months of salary for each year of social insurance contributions before 2014 and about 0.64 months of salary for each year of social insurance contributions after 2014.

An important reason leading to the decrease in the number of one-time social insurance recipients is due to changes in the provisions of the 2024 Law on Social Insurance (effective from July 1, 2025). Accordingly, the 2014 Law on Social Insurance stipulates that employees must have at least 20 years of social insurance contributions to receive a pension. But the 2024 Law on Social Insurance has stipulated that employees only need to have paid social insurance for 15 years or more to receive a pension when they meet the age conditions.

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