The new regulations are gradually coming into effect.
The Social Insurance Law 2024 officially came into effect on July 1, 2025, and includes many new and groundbreaking provisions compared to the Social Insurance Law 2014. These include expanding the coverage of compulsory social insurance to several groups, including business owners, enterprise and cooperative managers, part-time workers, non-specialized officials at the grassroots level, and permanent militia members.

The 2024 Social Insurance Law also reduces the required social insurance contribution period to qualify for a pension to only 15 years and adds two new allowance schemes: a monthly allowance for those who have not contributed for 15 years and are not yet old enough to receive a social retirement pension, and a voluntary social insurance maternity allowance.

Notably, the 2024 Social Insurance Law stipulates increased financial support for voluntary social insurance contributions from the state budget; the highest support level can reach up to 50% of the contribution amount (for poor households, households living in island communes, and special economic zones); other groups receive a minimum support of 20% of the contribution amount; near-poor households receive 40% support; and ethnic minorities receive 30% support.

Through the implementation process, with efforts from the Social Insurance agency, the regulations of the 2024 Social Insurance Law are gradually being put into practice. According to data from Vietnam Social Insurance, as of August 2026, the number of people participating in social insurance is 22.41 million, reaching a coverage rate of 46.7% of the workforce. Of these, 19.87 million people participate in compulsory social insurance; and 2.54 million people participate in voluntary social insurance. The 5 groups subject to compulsory social insurance under the new regulations of the 2024 Social Insurance Law have increased by over 337,000 people.

Social insurance benefits under the new regulations are being effectively implemented. By the end of 2025, the total number of people receiving pensions and social retirement benefits will reach 5.98 million, accounting for 41.53% of the total population after retirement age. In the first eight months of 2026, the number of people receiving voluntary social insurance maternity benefits was 12,471, with a total payout of approximately 18.1 billion VND.

Implementing the 2024 Social Insurance Law, the Social Insurance agency’s implementation process has seen many new developments. Administrative procedure reform continues to be promoted. Specifically, four types of insurance (compulsory social insurance, unemployment insurance, occupational accident and disease insurance, and health insurance) have been integrated into a single declaration form; registration procedures have been simplified; the national insurance database is being gradually improved, and data is being linked with tax authorities and business registration agencies to expand coverage. Targets for increasing the number of participants are assigned to each commune in the socio -economic development plan; and communication is being reformed to focus on the people.

The Social Insurance agency also strengthened the decentralization of authority, clearly defining responsibilities and tasks; and delegated the authority to support organizations in developing target groups to operate down to the commune level…

Expanding coverage faces many challenges.
Social insurance is a crucial social policy, a main pillar of the social security system, contributing to social progress and equity, and ensuring political and social stability. The Party and State have also set development goals for social insurance, including striving to achieve 60% of the working-age labor force participating in social insurance by 2030; and 60% of those after retirement age receiving pensions/social retirement benefits.

Government Resolution 403/NQ-CP sets a target of 29.33 million people covered by social insurance by 2030; according to the Vietnam Social Insurance, this is a very significant challenge.

Even for 2026, assuming no unusual factors arise, it is projected that by the end of 2026, the number of people participating in social insurance will be 23.071 million, reaching 48.1% of the working-age labor force, an increase of 1.54 million people compared to 2025.

To achieve the goal of increasing social insurance participation by 8 million people in the next four years, equivalent to an increase of approximately 2 million people per year, new and groundbreaking mechanisms are clearly needed. It should also be noted that the number of social insurance participants may still decrease annually due to job losses, departures from the labor market, or voluntary participants ceasing contributions. Therefore, to achieve sustainable annual growth and reach the 2030 target, it is necessary to maintain the existing group of participants while simultaneously ensuring that the number of new participants exceeds the number of those leaving the system.

According to the Social Insurance agency’s analysis, the current context has undergone many changes, leading to limited room for growth in social insurance, especially compulsory social insurance. Under the impact of the Fourth Industrial Revolution and artificial intelligence (AI), labor-intensive industries such as textiles, footwear, electronics assembly, processing, and manufacturing will accelerate automation and the use of automated machinery and equipment. This will create a new workforce, leading to a trend of businesses cutting direct personnel, potentially slowing down the growth and development of compulsory social insurance participants. This labor force will shift strongly towards self-employment and freelance work such as delivery drivers, ride-hailing drivers, and online sellers.

Even for the group of household business owners (newly included in the mandatory social insurance scheme under the 2024 Social Insurance Law), the implementation process has undergone many changes compared to initial impact predictions. At the time of drafting the regulations (2024-2025), according to tax laws, household businesses with annual revenue of 100 million VND or more were required to pay flat-rate tax or declare and pay value-added tax and personal income tax . However, from January 1, 2026, tax laws have been amended and supplemented so that only household businesses with annual revenue of 1 billion VND or more are required to pay value-added tax and personal income tax (eliminating flat-rate tax), leading to a predicted significant decrease in the number of household business owners subject to mandatory social insurance.

In light of the above situation, the draft amendment to the Social Insurance Law 2024 has developed plans to ensure the expansion of the scope of participation, especially for the group of compulsory social insurance. In the Government’s submission to the Standing Committee of the National Assembly on the draft Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Social Insurance Law, a roadmap has been proposed to expand the coverage of social insurance policies to include those working without employment relationships and those working on digital platforms.

The implementation roadmap must ensure appropriateness and feasibility. Initially, regulations should be developed in the following direction: The Standing Committee of the National Assembly will decide on mandatory social insurance participation for those working without employment relationships and those working on digital platforms, based on proposals from the Government. Based on this, the Government will continue to direct comprehensive research and evaluation during the process of drafting a new Resolution on wage and social insurance policies to be submitted to the competent authority for consideration and decision.

The Vietnam Social Insurance agency has also mentioned and initially identified several groups of individuals who may be included in the mandatory social insurance scheme. These include: owners of household businesses, individual business owners, individuals with income from providing transportation, delivery, and sales services (including lottery agents, mobile lottery ticket vendors of lottery companies and agents), brokers, transaction connectors through digital platforms, technology applications, or flexible employment models and similar activities; probationary workers, apprentices, trainees, and workers employed under labor contracts with a term of less than one month.

The projected total number of workers in the above categories is 12.5 million. After excluding those who have reached retirement age, are receiving pensions, or are participating in mandatory social insurance under other categories, the projected number is approximately 4.4 million.

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