Eligible for enjoyment, from 2026 no unemployment benefits will be received

The Law on Employment (amended and supplemented) officially takes effect from January 1, 2026, in which the policy on unemployment benefits for workers has many important adjustments, some regulations directly affect workers, who are the beneficiaries.

Notably, the Law on Employment stipulates that for employees who terminate their contracts when they are eligible for pension benefits, they will not be able to carry out procedures to receive unemployment benefits, whether they have carried out procedures to receive pensions or not.

Specifically, Article 38 of the 2025 Employment Law stipulates Conditions for enjoyment, according to which employees specified in Clause 1, Article 31 of this Law who are paying unemployment insurance are entitled to unemployment benefits when they meet the following conditions: Termination of labor contract, working contract or termination of work according to the provisions of law that does not fall into one of the cases where employees unilaterally terminate labor contracts illegally according to the provisions of the Labor Code or employees quit their jobs when they are eligible for pension.

It can be seen that this is a completely new regulation compared to the provisions of the 2013 Employment Law. Previously, when quitting a job or terminating a labor contract, even if they had met the conditions (sufficient time to pay social insurance, age according to regulations) to go to work for retirement benefits, many workers still chose either to receive unemployment insurance benefits first, or after the period of receiving unemployment insurance benefits has expired (Regulations on receiving unemployment benefits are up to 12 months depending on the contribution period) to start working for retirement benefits. Even many workers apply for resignation, terminating labor contracts one year or a few months in advance to complete procedures for receiving unemployment benefits.

With seniority and time in charge of policies and regimes in a business for more than 20 years, I see the reason why workers in the past, when they quit their jobs, even if they are eligible to go through procedures to receive pensions instead of choosing the policy of receiving monthly unemployment benefits, is because they believe that after so many years of participating and contributing to the unemployment insurance fund but not receiving benefits, it is too wasteful and disadvantageous. Furthermore, many workers choose to go through procedures to receive unemployment insurance benefits first because the amount of unemployment insurance benefits in 12 months if they have paid enough time according to regulations will also be higher than the monthly pension benefits if a comparison calculation is made.

It is thought that, to avoid the above situation, first of all, the provisions of law, especially the provisions on regimes and policies related to beneficiaries who are workers and social insurance contributors, need to be transparent and fair in the beneficiary policy.

In principle, "having contributions means having benefits". Employees who have contributed to the social insurance and unemployment insurance funds for decades, when they quit their jobs, they also need to enjoy their "achievements" throughout a process of participation. That is, there needs to be regulations on paying an amount of money corresponding to their contribution time to the unemployment insurance fund to ensure fairness in the process of enjoying regimes and policies.

In addition, it is necessary to continue to change the pension policy, the retirement policy to enjoy the current pension regime, and change the pension calculation method to be consistent with the participation process of employees. In other words, the level of pension benefits needs to be higher than other policies, especially the unemployment insurance allowance policy.

So that when workers have met all the conditions on age, seniority and social insurance contribution time, they will be excited to go to retirement procedures without facing any worries, choosing which one to enjoy first and which one later, or at least taking advantage of loopholes in legal regulations to enjoy regimes and policies.

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