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Social welfare policies in spotlight

VGP – A series of social welfare policies were issued in 2013 covering the most vulnerable groups of people amid the hard economic time.

February 03, 2014 3:40 PM GMT+7

The poor, ethnic minority people, handicapped children, unemployed, beneficiaries of social policies, people with merits received the Government’s support.

Poor families get legal and credit assistance

The Government  on February 5, 2013 issued Decree 14/2013/ND-CP amending and supplementing a number of articles of Decree 7/2007/ND-CP, dated January 12, 2007 detailing and guilding a number of articles of the Law on Legal aid.  

Accordingly, near-poor families are invited to join legal aid clubs which help them improve their awareness of legal enforcement to protect their legal rights.  

Under Decision 15/2013/QD-TTg on lending policy to near-poor households, the Bank for Social Policies is in charge of providing preferential credit for near-poor households in favor of sustainable poverty reduction.

Backing ethnic minorities

Decision 54/2012/QD-TTg promulgates polices on provision of loans for production development to ethnic minority households struggling against extreme difficulties during 2012-2015 came into effect since February 1, 2013,

Accordingly, each ethnic minority household may borrow up to VND 8 million (nearly US $400) for a monthly interest rate of 0.1% for their production development, life building and sustainable poverty eradication.  

The Ministry of Finance on May 3 issued Circular No. 52/2013/TT-BTC guiding support to units, organizations recruiting employees who are ethnic minority inhabitants in the mountainous regions, especially difficulty ridden areas.

This Circular guides the implementation of a policy to financially support the payment of social insurance, health insurance and unemployment insurance premiums, short-term vocational training, labor norms, and land rent for organizations and units employing ethnic minority people legally residing in mountainous regions and specially disadvantaged areas as prescribed in the Prime Minister's Decision No. 42/2012/QD-TTg dated October 8, 2012.

Supporting disadvantaged students

According to Decision 12/2013/QD-TTg, prescribing the support policies for upper secondary school pupils in extremely disadvantaged areas. The beneficiaries get financial support for food and rental expenses.

In addition, the Government introduced Decree 19/2013/ND-CP to supplement some articles of Decree 61/2006/ND-CP on policies for teachers and educational managers at special schools and in disadvantaged areas.

Especially, Decision 36/2013/QD-TTg, dated June 18, 2013 allowed the Department of National Reserve to provide rice to students of day-boarding schools in remote provinces.  Under the decision, students, mostly from ethnic minority groups, will receive around 15 kilos of rice a month each for no more than nine months.

Social welfare covers the unemployed

The PM on October 3 issued Decision 55/2013/QD-TTg specifying the level of vocational training support for employees who receive unemployment benefits.

The maximum support is VND 3 million/person/course for participants in training course up to three months.

For participants attending training courses that last more than three months, the maximum support is VND 600,000/person/month.

Decree No. 44/2013/ND-CP dated May 10, 2013 of the Government detailing and guiding the implementation of some Articles in the Labor Code regarding labor contracts stipulates compulsory social insurance, unemployment insurance, compulsory health insurance of the employee when concluding labor contracts with multiple employers.

Social welfare backs handicapped children

The PM approved Decision 55a/2013/QD-TTg on heart surgery support for children with congenital heart diseases.

The policy supports children holding medical insurance cards issued for poor and near-poor households and get monthly benefit from social sponsor.

Accordingly, children with congenital heart diseases will get free-of-charge surgery, food and travel expenses.  

In 2013, the Government also introduced other polices on purchasing and renting State-owned houses, raising subsidiary levels for people with merits and providing emergency relief for the poor and natural disaster victims.

Decree 34/2013/ND-CP, dated April 22, 2013, detailing conditions for those eligible for purchasing and renting State-owned houses stipulates eight eligible subjects such as (1) people with merits; (2) public officials and civil servants working for administrative offices, business units, Party and union organizations; (3) armed force officers and soldiers; (4) workers working at industrial parks, complexes, production and service sites; (5) low-income people, poor households in urban areas; (6) disabled people, lonely older people, (7) people who returned public houses; and (8) households and individuals who have to resettle, but yet have land allocated or resettlement houses./.

By Huong Giang