Social insurance death benefits: funeral expenses, one-time and monthly benefits

What is the death benefit? Conditions for receiving monthly death benefit, one-time death benefit, funeral allowance? Documents and procedures for receiving money and receiving death benefit (download form 09-HSB).

I. What is the social insurance death benefit regime?

Death benefit is one of the benefits of social insurance participants, aiming to share part of the income burden with relatives or those who take care of the funeral of social insurance participants when they pass away. 

Accordingly, the death benefit regime will provide employees participating in social insurance and their relatives with benefits corresponding to the time of participation in social insurance, depending on each condition.

Death benefit benefits include:

• Funeral allowance;
• Monthly death benefit;
• One-time death benefit.

II. Conditions for receiving death benefits for people participating in social insurance

1. Conditions for receiving funeral allowance

According to Article 66, Article 80 of the Law on Social Insurance and Article 12, Article 13 of Decree 115/2015/ND-CP, the person in charge of the funeral is entitled to receive a funeral allowance equal to 10 times the basic salary of the deceased employee if that employee falls into one of the following cases:

• Employees have paid compulsory social insurance for 12 months or more;
• Employees have a total period of compulsory social insurance and voluntary social insurance payment of 60 months or more;
• Workers who die due to work-related accidents, occupational diseases or die during treatment due to work-related accidents or occupational diseases;
• People who are receiving pension or monthly occupational accident and disease benefits have stopped working.

2. Conditions for receiving monthly pension benefits

Article 67 of the Law on Social Insurance and Clause 4, Article 12, Article 13, Clause 1, Article 14 of Decree No. 115/2015/ND-CP stipulate as follows:

➤ To receive monthly pension benefits, employees must fall into one of the following cases:

• Have paid compulsory social insurance for 15 years or more but have not received one-time social insurance benefits (*); 
• Death due to work accident, occupational disease or death during treatment due to work accident, occupational disease;
• Currently receiving monthly occupational accident and disease benefits with a working capacity reduction of 61% or more;
• Currently receiving pension but previously had compulsory social insurance payment period of 15 years or more.

(*): In case the employee is still short of 6 months to complete 15 years of social insurance contributions, the employee’s relatives can continue to pay one more time for the remaining months to the pension and death fund. The monthly social insurance contribution in this case is equal to 22% of the employee’s monthly salary for social insurance contributions before death.

➤ Relatives of employees who are entitled to monthly death benefits include:

• I am under 18 years old;
• The child is 18 years of age or older but has a reduced working capacity of 81% or more; 
• Child born after father’s death while wife is pregnant;
• Wife (or husband), parents on both sides, other family members that the social insurance participant has the obligation to support according to the provisions of the Law on Marriage and Family if the woman is 55 years old or older and the man is 60 years old or older;
• Wife (or husband), parents on both sides, other family members that the social insurance participant is obliged to support if the female is under 55 years old, the male is under 60 years old and has a working capacity reduction of 81% or more;
• Relatives must have no income or have a monthly income lower than the basic salary (excluding allowances according to the law for preferential treatment of meritorious people).

Note:

1) When the date and month of birth cannot be determined, January 1 of the year of birth is used to calculate age as the basis for resolving the death benefit.

2) Determining the income level of the employee’s relatives as the basis for settling monthly death benefits in the month the employee dies.

3) Relatives who have been granted monthly survivor benefits in accordance with regulations and then have an income higher than the basic salary will still receive monthly survivor benefits.

3. Conditions for receiving one-time death benefits

Article 69, Article 81 of the Law on Social Insurance and Clause 5, Article 12, Article 13, Clause 2, Article 14 of Decree No. 115/2015/ND-CP, the one-time death benefit regime is applied when:

• The employee died without being eligible for monthly death benefits;
• The deceased employee is eligible for monthly death benefits but has no relatives to receive benefits;
• Relatives of employees who are eligible for monthly death benefits and wish to receive a one-time death benefit, except for children under 6 years old, children/spouse/husband of employees with a reduced working capacity of 81% or more.

See also: 

>> Benefits of participating in compulsory social insurance.

>> Benefits of participating in voluntary social insurance.

III. Procedures for receiving death benefits and enjoying social insurance death benefits

When a relative unfortunately passes away, to receive death insurance, you need to do the following:

1. Make a “funeral service contract” with the funeral home along with related handover records.

2. Carry out death registration based on the “funeral service contract” with the judicial – civil status officer of the People’s Committee at the commune (district) level. The time to process the application is on the same day of request. In case the application is received after 3:00 p.m. and cannot be processed immediately, the result will be returned on the next working day.

>> You may be interested in: Civil status fees.

3. Carry out procedures for receiving death benefits of social insurance participants (death benefits and funeral benefits) with the social insurance agency of the district (city) where they live: 

• You can choose to submit your application for death benefits through the National Information Portal or by post; 
• The processing time for the application is 8 working days from the date of receipt of the application.

4. If the application is eligible but some documents are missing or the declared information is incorrect or incomplete, the Social Insurance Agency will return the application along with a notice of the reason and the content that needs to be supplemented. If the application is not eligible, the Social Insurance Agency will not accept it and will respond in writing, stating the reason for not accepting it.

Note:

Employees who have participated in social insurance for less than 12 months will not be eligible for funeral benefits, except in the following cases:

• Death due to work accident, occupational disease or death during treatment due to work accident, occupational disease;
• Currently receiving pension, monthly occupational accident and disease benefits and has retired.

IV. Deadline for submitting application for social insurance death benefit

According to Article 112 of the Law on Social Insurance 2014:

• Within 90 days from the date of death of an employee who reserves the period of social insurance payment, a voluntary social insurance participant, or a person receiving monthly pension or occupational accident or disease allowance, their relatives shall submit the documents specified in Article 111 of this Law to the social insurance agency;
• Within 30 days from the date of receiving complete documents from the employee’s relatives or the employer, submit the documents to the Social Insurance agency as prescribed in Clause 1, Article 111 of the Law on Social Insurance;
• Within 8 days from the date of receiving the complete application, the Social Insurance agency will process and pay the employee’s relatives. In case of not processing or incomplete application, the Social Insurance agency must respond in writing and state the reason.

Thus, the deadline for submitting a request for death benefits for individuals or companies is 90 days from the date of death of the employee or relative.

V. Questions about social insurance death benefits

1. If the application for death benefits is submitted later than the prescribed time, how will it be handled?

• In case of submitting the application for death benefit more than 90 days later than the regulation, a written explanation must be sent to the social insurance agency for consideration and settlement;
• Relatives of employees can directly fill in section (9) of form number 09-HSB to explain to the Social Insurance agency.

2. How to determine whether to receive monthly or lump sum benefits when applying for death benefits?

You can base on the following regulations to determine whether your relatives will receive social insurance benefits for death benefits monthly or once:

➤ Regulations on monthly pension benefits:

• In case of children: Relatives of social insurance participants under 18 years old or with at least 81% reduced working capacity;
• In case of spouse: Relatives of the social insurance participant are the wife aged 55 or older and the husband aged 60 or older or the wife under 55 years old, the husband under 60 years old with a working capacity reduction of at least 81%;
• In case of a parent (biological parent or parent of husband or wife): Relatives of the social insurance participant who are obliged to support the deceased for men aged 60 or older and women aged 55 or older or men under 60 years old and women under 55 years old with a working capacity reduction of at least 81%;
• These relatives have no income or have a monthly income lower than the basic salary (excluding allowances according to the law for preferential treatment of meritorious people).

>> See details: Conditions for receiving monthly pension.

➤ Regulations for receiving one-time death benefits:

• The deceased is not a relative eligible for monthly death benefits;
• The deceased has no relatives to receive monthly benefits;
• Except in the case of relatives under 6 years old or husbands with reduced working capacity who are eligible for monthly benefits but wish to receive a one-time death benefit.

>> See details: Conditions for receiving one-time pension. 

3. Until when will relatives receive monthly survivor benefits?

Currently, there are no specific regulations on the duration of monthly benefits. However, in determining the age of a child when settling the death benefit regime, it is stipulated that the child is under 18 years old or calculated until the end of the month immediately preceding the month of birth of the year of turning 18 years old.

Thus, the employee’s children will only receive monthly death benefits until the month closest to the month of birth in the year they turn 18. Or relatives that the employee is supporting who have a working capacity reduction of 81% or more will receive monthly death benefits until that person passes away.

4. If an employee has only participated in social insurance for 2 years and 4 months, will he/she receive any benefits when he/she passes away?

If the social insurance participation period is 2 years and 4 months, the employee is not eligible to receive monthly or one-time death benefits but is eligible to receive funeral benefits (funeral expenses). 

>> See details: Conditions for receiving death benefits.