Communication key to bringing voluntary social insurance to life

Facilitating propaganda work is key to putting voluntary social insurance into practice, contributing to ensuring sustainable social security and promoting national socio-economic development, a recent Hanoi seminar on social insurance heard.

Voluntary social insurance is a humanitarian social welfare policy of the State to aid workers in settling down when they retire.

Hosted yesterday by the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs (MOLISA), the event aimed to promote propaganda on policy implementation and organisation of voluntary social insurance.

Reports at the seminar show that after nine years of its implementation, by the end of 2016, there were over 200,000 people participating in voluntary social insurance. However, the figure is still low compared to nearly 13 million people participating in compulsory social insurance. There are almost 40 million workers in the informal sector, farmers and fishermen who are eligible for voluntary social insurance but do not participate.

According to Deputy Minister of MOLISA Doan Mau Diep, the cause of low participation in voluntary social insurance is the limited awareness of labourers of social insurance options and inadequate measures to disseminate and popularise voluntary social insurance policies.

The deputy minister said that along with guidelines and policies to increase popular participation in voluntary social insurance, propaganda and the popularisation of interests when participating in voluntary social insurance among employees also play a very important role.

Delegates at the event agreed that to help voluntary social insurance promote its progressive improvement while expanding coverage of social insurance, in addition to the State and relevant authorities’ policies and coordination mechanisms, communication work on voluntary social insurance should be carried out on an extensive scale to reach the community.

They suggested that each locality actively develop propaganda planning to help local people understand voluntary social insurance.

A representative from Ha Nam Province proposed to publish hand-to-hand propaganda publications, leaflets and posters to deliver to workers during community meetings, while organising oral promotional activities in craft villages and non-agricultural cooperatives and extending voluntary social insurance agencies to the village level.

As voluntary social insurance is a humanitarian social welfare policy of the State to allow aid workers to settle down when they retire, promoting propaganda work to help employees identify benefits when joining voluntary social insurance is critical, helping voluntary social insurance actually promote its role and value.

(Source: NDO)