vss.gov.vn (07.04.2020) Earlier, on February 6, 2020, Ministry of Health issued Document No 505/BYT-BH on the payment of medical expenses for treatmentof pneumonia caused by the new strain of coronavirus. According to Circular No 32/2012/TT-BTC of December 29, 2012 issued by Ministry of Finance, people infected, suspected of being infected with the virus and high-risk people will have medical expenses fully covered.

vss.gov.vn (09.04.2020) Starting from April 8, 2020, individuals and organizations with accounts registered at the Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BIDV) may contribute to health insurance and social insurance on the e-Banking application platform. The result of the coordination between Vietnam Social Security and BIDV aims to facilitate people, employees and employers in transactions with social security authorities, especially when the COVID-19 epidemic is maintaining complicated and social distancing is being implemented. Currently, on BIDV's e-Banking applications, namely BIDV Online, BIDV Smart Banking, BIDV Business Online, individuals and organizations can perform two procedures: 1. For participants: Pay for the extension of health insurance card and continue online payment of voluntary social insurance premiums. 2. For employers: Online payment of social, health and unemployment insurance.

The Viet Nam Social Security has implemented policies to support enterprises that are affected by the COVID-19 pandemic,

Social Security Board (21.07.2020) Effective March 28, 2020 the qualifying condition that a person must be employed upon becoming ill has been suspended. This means persons who, as of March 1, 2020, became unemployed, suspended, placed on leave without pay or ceased self-employed may still qualify for sickness benefit.

The following qualifying conditions apply:

1. The person is sick due to Covid-19;

2. Have 50 weekly paid contributions since 1981;

3. Have no less than 5 paid contributions in the 13 weeks immediately before the last week of employment or self-employment.

4. Self-employed persons must have contributions paid for the month immediately before the last month of ceased operations.  

Social Security Board (21.07.2020) Effectively immediately, SSB has extended the deadline for all contribution payments for the months of March and April 2020.

Employers are required to submit their monthly Contribution statement for these months via our online portal. Self-employed persons can submit their monthly contributions certificate electronically to info@socialsecurity.org.bz.

Employers and self-employed persons can opt to make monthly instalments not exceeding six months with no penalties.

The first payment for March and April is due by 31 July 2020.

Social Security Board (21.07.2020) Effective immediately, Social Security Board (SSB) has suspended the required deadline to submit all benefit claims until further notice. This means that customers are free to submit their claims for processing at a later time but not exceeding six months.

vss.gov.vn (09.04.2020) Cash payment of social security benefits (pensions and social insurance allowances) at home for those beneficiaries who receive benefits in cash usually. Payments will be made in this manner for April and May, and hese will be delivered by the post service.

vss.gov.vn (17.04.2020) Vietnam Social Security cooperates with the concerned ministries and branches to promptly issue documents guiding the settlement of social insurance regimes for employees who must follow isolation measures to prevent COVID-19; guiding on the COVID-19 epidemic prevention funding estimates; guiding the temporary suspension of contribution to the retirement and survivorship fund for units, organizations and enterprises in industries and fields affected by COVID-19 epidemic; guidance on the use of primary healthcare funding for the purchase of anti-epidemic disinfectants; receiving and resolving administrative procedures in the peak phase of COVID-19 prevention and control.

vss.gov.vn (28.04.2020) People with meritorious services  (nearly 78,000 in Hanoi city) and social protection beneficiaries (nearly 185,000 in Hanoi city) were among the first groups identified to receive a welfare package by April 30. The benefit amount is 500,000 VND for one person pero month for a period of 3 months.

vss.gov.vn (15.05.2020) The Ministry of Health (MoH) and Vietnam Social Security (VSS) will unify to closely coordinate and make a commitment to build electronic health records for people as in the Resolution 20/NQ-TW and other relevant documents, with quality assurance, effectiveness and in accordance with the basis of social insurance code number, serving the professional purposes of health facilities as well as those of management of medical examination and treatment costs in health insurance agencies, etc. As for VSS, database will be provided in terms of the number of people and health insurance cards to update information, link data and connect with the MoH. Coordinate with IT Department (MoH) to develop and edit software, requesting social security agencies to implement and expand resources for data storage, etc.

vss.gov.vn (25.05.2020) Since May 12 (2020), the National Public Service Portal (launched in December 2019) has provided six additional public services to support people and businesses during the COVID-19 epidemic, namely: supporting workers to postpone labor contracts and take leave without salary; supporting employers to borrow capital to pay workers' discontinued wages; declaring extension of corporate tax payment; declaring extension of personal tax payment; temporarily closing the retirement fund; receiving and handling feedback and recommendations regarding supporting people and businesses with difficulties caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Statistics as of May 2020: There have been 140,000 accounts registered, over 35 million visits, over 7.3 million status sync records and over 68,000 records handled through the National Public Service Portal.

The system also supports over 11,000 calls; over 5,600 feedbacks and recommendations from people and businesses; has integrated 395 online public services on the National Public Service Portal, including 232 public services for businesses.

The total social costs saved for applying online public services are about 6,490 billion dong per year, of which, the National Public Service Portal alone contributes 3,036 billion dong per year.

vss.gov.vn (15.05.2020) Viet Nam Social Security has ordered its units in provinces and cities nationwide to check and confirm the list of employees who have been temporarily suspended from the performance of labour contracts or taken unpaid leave, as well as employees who lost their jobs due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This action aims to avoid enterprises illegally profiteering from the policy that allowed COVID-19-affected enterprises to temporality suspend payments of social insurance to the retirement and death fund.

vss.gov.fv (25.05.2020) The Government Office has asked Viet Nam Social Security and localities’ People’s Committees to direct their subsidiaries to help workers impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic to complete administrative procedures and access online public services. Viet Nam Social Security’s hotline at 19009068 is in charge of helping people completing dossiers or redirecting calls to the national public service portal’s hotline at 18001096 for further assistance.

Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (17.07.2020) The Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare introduces a new coronavirus infected person information grasp and management system (HER-SYS) as an urgent response in order to reduce the work burden of public health centers and to speed up information sharing.

businesstech.co.za (16.07.2020) Minister of Social Development Lindiwe Zulu says that South Africa will introduce a universal basic income grant as part of a range of packages to help the country’s unemployed – but this plan is still a couple of years away from becoming a reality, analysts say.

Al Jazeera (09.06.2020) The government started distributing food packages to vulnerable communities.

Arab Reform Initiative (29.05.2020) The government gave all governmental employees aged 55 and above as well as pregnant and nursing women paid leave until further notice.

The Ministry of Public Health and Population (21.03.2020) The Ministry of Public Health and Population announces the state of comprehensive health mobilization for doctors, health personnel, technicians, and preventive quarantine experts, in preparation for facing the Corona virus. The opportunity to volunteer for colleges and health institutes has been opened as a proactive measure to respond to any emergency or outbreak of the Corona virus.

WHO/Europe, the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) (16.07.2020) Government across the European Region and Central Asia have introduced a variety of policy responses to mitigate the consequences of the containment measures on well-being and the economy, employment and incomes, and on families and children who are not able to access social and health services. This discussion paper considers some of the key social protection interventions, including health protection, unemployment, family and child support, and measures against social exclusion and housing insecurity.

Ministry of Labor, Social Affairs and Family (17.07.2020) The unemployment benefit period is extended to those insured persons whose 6-month unemployment benefit period would have expired during the crisis situation related to the spread of COVID-19, ie since the declaration of the emergency on 12 March 2020. If the 6-month unemployment benefit period expired between 12 March and 4 April 2020 (amendment of the Social Insurance Act), this support period is extended from 4 April 2020. An order of the Government of the Slovak Republic of 3 July 2020 set the latest date for the expiry of the support period, which was extended, namely 31 August 2020.

Ministry of Labor, Social Affairs and Family (17.07.2020) In times of crisis, we are extending parental allowance to parents who lost their entitlement to it in March 2020 and later, have no job to return to, and have no other income. We will pay him until the end of the emergency. The parental allowance will be paid in the same amount as it was provided, until the end of the crisis situation.

Ministry of Labor, Social Affairs and Family (17.07.2020) Parents are entitled to pandemic nursing who, during a crisis situation (from 12 March 2020 until its end) related to the spread of Covid-19: treat a sick child up to the age of 16, provide personal and full-time care for a child under 11 years of age, or 18 years of age with a long-term unfavorable health condition. 

Other sickness insured persons are also entitled to pandemic nursing care if they provide care for a descendant (child, grandson, great-grandson) or ancestor (parent, grandparent, grandparent), sibling, spouse, wife, or parent of the spouse if if the social services facility in which the social service is provided to such a person on an outpatient or residential form has been closed by a decision of the competent authorities.

The amount of pandemic nursing is approximately 70% of the net wage (for the insured with an average wage). 

Ministry of Labor, Social Affairs and Family (16.07.2020) If you are an employee and you have been confirmed temporary incapacity for work due to ordered quarantine or isolation, you contact the attending physician (by phone or e-mail), who will confirm your temporary incapacity for work due to quarantine or isolation on the prescribed form and send him to the Social Insurance Agency. From the first day of temporary incapacity for work, in cases where quarantine or isolation has been ordered (employee, SZČO, voluntarily insured person), the Social Insurance Agency will pay a benefit of 55% of the daily assessment base(approx. 70% of net salary).

International Social Security Association (ISSA) (16.07.2020) The Section on Prevention in Transportation of the International Social Security Association (ISSA), together with its member BG Verkehr, has produced five fact sheets on COVID-19 protective measures for various transportation sectors in six languages.