Hai Phong's People's Council has elevated the city's social assistance standard to 700,000 dong per month, a move that places its social pension benefits among the highest nationwide, matching Quang Ninh. This new standard, 1,4 times the national average, applies across Hai Phong. For context, Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City currently provide 650,000 dong per person per month, while the national average is 500,000 dong, with localities permitted to offer higher amounts based on budget capabilities.

The city anticipates an annual expenditure of over 3,608 billion dong to implement this policy, which will determine specific support levels for each beneficiary group with coefficients ranging from one to five times the base standard.

Hai Phong's social assistance level is among the highest nationwide (along with Quang Ninh).

In addition to the increased social assistance, the People's Council also passed a resolution to support health insurance contributions, broadening the scope of beneficiaries to include the elderly and other specific groups. Individuals aged 60 to 74 years who do not receive a pension or monthly social assistance; party members with 40 or more years of party membership badges who are active in grassroots party organizations in communes, wards, and special zones but do not receive a pension or regular assistance; members of the city's Association for the Blind who have not yet received free health insurance cards; and individuals living with HIV/AIDS will all receive 100% of their health insurance contributions covered by the city budget.

Further support extends to near-poor households, which will receive an additional 30% of their health insurance contributions from the city, complementing the 70% already covered by the state budget. Households engaged in agriculture, forestry, fishery, and salt farming with average living standards will also receive an extra 20% support, in addition to the 30% provided by the state. Manual waste collectors in villages and residential areas, not affiliated with enterprises or cooperatives and confirmed by the commune-level People's Committee, will have 70% of their health insurance contributions supported by the city budget.

Current regulations provide free health insurance cards to individuals receiving pensions or assistance, those aged 75 and above who receive social pension benefits, and certain other groups whose costs are covered by the state budget. The current monthly health insurance contribution for the first person in a household is 105,300 dong; subsequent members pay 70%, 60%, 50%, and 40% of this amount, respectively.

The introduction of this new policy aims to standardize support levels across the city, addressing discrepancies in benefits between areas that previously applied different regulations before mergers. Notably, support levels in the former Hai Duong province area were lower.

Le Tan