Reasons for proposing that men with 2 children without a wife should be given priority to buy social housing

On October 23, after the Government submitted to the National Assembly the draft Population Law and the draft Law on Disease Prevention, the National Assembly discussed the above draft laws in the Group.

According to the submission, the Draft Law has 1 Article on maintaining replacement fertility. Accordingly, measures to maintain replacement fertility include increasing maternity leave when giving birth to a second child, women are given an additional month's leave, men are given an additional 5 working days off when their wives give birth.

The draft law stipulates financial support when giving birth for ethnic minority women, women who give birth to 2 children before the age of 35, and women in the locality with low fertility rates.

The draft law also prioritizes the purchase or rental of social housing according to the provisions of the law on housing for women who give birth to 2 children or men who have 2 children without a wife or whose wife has died.

This is a content that has received much attention from parliamentary delegates and public opinion.

Speaking in the group, Minister of Health Dao Hong Lan further clarified new points and opinions of delegates related to the draft Population Law.

Minister of Health Dao Hong Lan emphasized that population issues are one of the important issues and have been mentioned in many documents of the Party and State. Most recently, Resolution 72-NQ/TW dated September 9, 2025 of the Politburo also has many important orientations on population policy.

According to the Minister, in recent times, population policies have mainly been implemented according to the Population Ordinance. However, Vietnam is facing an aging population and a decreasing replacement fertility rate, requiring fundamental and urgent solutions.

Addressing some outstanding issues that many people are interested in, regarding the policy of supporting social housing for those who have two children, Minister Dao Hong Lan said that the current demand for social housing is very high, so it is impossible to expand priority to all subjects.

Therefore, when considering that not all subjects registering to buy social housing are approved, Article 79 of the Housing Law lists a number of priority subjects such as people with revolutionary contributions, people with disabilities, etc.

Therefore, the Ministry of Health proposes to add the group of subjects "women giving birth to two children" or "men having two children without a wife or a deceased wife" to the priority list for considering the purchase of social housing, equivalent to other policy subjects, to encourage the maintenance of replacement fertility.

The goal is to help families with two children have more stable living conditions.

"We propose adding priority groups such as families where women have two children, or men with two children whose wives have passed away. Otherwise, if you keep lining up like that, you don't know when you will be eligible to buy social housing. The draft Law approaches from such an perspective" - the Minister said.

In addition, regarding the issue of surrogacy, the Minister said that this content should not be included in the draft Population Law. This issue will be considered and calculated based on many socio-economic factors to make appropriate decisions when the National Assembly amends the Law on Marriage and Family.

Regarding the policies in the draft Law, the Minister said that the Ministry of Health is very eager to have specific policies, especially the monetary support policy. However, this needs to be balanced in many aspects, especially financial resources.

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