Director of the Employment Department under the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs Nguyen Dai Dong told reporters on January 14 that the number of laid-off workers to receive unemployment insurance payment remains low because the policy has been enforced just a few days ago. 

Employers’ unwillingness to provide enough documents, including evidence on labour-contract termination, and workers’ poor awareness of the unemployment insurance policy were other reasons, Dong said. 

To tackle these problems, the department will revise and modify documents guiding the implementation of the policy along with increasing the dissemination of information and inspection of the enforcement of the policy, he added. 

The Unemployment Insurance Law took effect on January 1, 2009, but the Vietnam Social Insurance began to pay unemployment insurance benefits to laid-off workers on January 1, 2010. 

To be eligible to unemployment payments workers must have paid their premiums for at least 12 months and signed up with a local job centre for unemployment benefits seven days after losing their jobs. 

Under the policy, laid-off workers will also be supported to take free-of-charge vocational courses, recommended new jobs and enjoy health insurance benefits. 

Kieu Van Minh, an official from the Vietnam Social Insurance, revealed that a total of 5.4 million employees have participated in unemployment insurance. The unemployment insurance fund now has VND3,066 billion, of which 1 percent is sourced from the State budget.