Lump-sum social insurance: amount, who qualifies after 1 July 2025 and whether to withdraw
Lump-sum social insurance withdrawals are often miscalculated because everyone remembers "two months' salary per year" and forgets that this rate applies only to contributions from 2014 onwards. The Social Insurance Law 2024 also splits workers into two groups at 1 July 2025, and one of them can withdraw only in a few special cases. This article sets out who can still withdraw, the 1.5- and 2-month formula, how leftover months are rounded, and worked examples you can follow by hand.
Who can still withdraw social insurance as a lump sum after 1 July 2025
The Social Insurance Law 2024 (Luật Bảo hiểm xã hội 2024) took effect on 1 July 2025 and uses that exact date as the dividing line. People who joined social insurance before that date can still withdraw a lump sum in the familiar way: after leaving work, once 12 months have passed without being subject to compulsory contributions and without paying voluntary insurance, provided they have fewer than 20 years of contributions. People who started contributing on or after 1 July 2025 no longer have this route; they can receive a lump sum only if they reach retirement age with fewer than 15 years of contributions, settle abroad, have a life-threatening illness, have a reduction in working capacity of 81% or more, or have an extremely severe disability.
A question HR hears often: "I've been working since 2023 but my old company never paid my insurance, and contributions have only just started, so which group am I in?" The group depends on when contributions first appear in the social insurance book, so that person falls into the second group.
| Group | When contributions began | Can withdraw a lump sum |
|---|---|---|
| Group 1 | When contributions beganBefore 1 July 2025 | Can withdraw a lump sumAfter 12 months out of work with no compulsory or voluntary contributions and fewer than 20 years of contributions; or in one of the special cases |
| Group 2 | When contributions beganFrom 1 July 2025 | Can withdraw a lump sumOnly in special cases: reaching retirement age with fewer than 15 years of contributions, settling abroad, a life-threatening illness, a reduction in working capacity of 81% or more, or an extremely severe disability |
The lump-sum formula: 1.5 months' and 2 months' salary per year
- Average contribution salaryOver the whole period
- Years before 2014Times 1.5 months' salary
- Years from 2014Times 2 months' salary
- Inflation adjustment factorNot applied by the calculator
- Lump sum receivedBoth periods added together
- Each year contributed before 2014
- 1.5 monthsOf the average monthly salary on which social insurance was paid
- Each year contributed from 2014
- 2 monthsApplies to contributions from 1 January 2014
- Less than 1 year of contributions
- 22%Of the sum of monthly contribution salaries, capped at 2 months of the average
- Leftover months
- 0.5 or 1 year1 to 6 months count as half a year, 7 to 11 months as a full year
"Average salary" here means the average monthly salary used as the basis for social insurance contributions over the entire period of participation, not your current salary and not your take-home pay. Someone who has worked for 10 years, with a contribution salary of 5 million VND for the first 5 years and 12 million VND for the next 5, has an average of 8.5 million VND, not 12 million. The actual payout is also multiplied by each year's inflation adjustment factor, so the result from the calculator at the top of the page is a floor; the amount you receive is usually higher, especially for contributions made long ago.
Rounding leftover months and moving them into the period from 2014
- Split the contribution period into two parts
Count the months contributed before 1 January 2014 and the months from 2014 onwards, as shown in the social insurance book. Anyone who started work after 2014 has only one period.
- Move the leftover months of the earlier period into the later one
If you have both periods, only the whole years are counted for the period before 2014, and the leftover months are added to the period from 2014. This works in your favour because those months are then counted at 2 months' salary instead of 1.5.
- Round the remaining months
After combining, 1 to 6 leftover months count as half a year, and 7 to 11 count as a full year.
Example of rounding with both periods
Mr Dũng contributed for 30 months before 2014 (2 years 6 months) and 100 months from 2014 (8 years 4 months).
For the period before 2014, take the 2 whole years. The 6 leftover months move to the later period: 100 + 6 = 106 months, which is 8 years 10 months, rounded up to 9 years.
Result: 2 years × 1.5 months + 9 years × 2 months = 3 + 18 = 21 months of average salary.
With only one period, round directly: 44 months is 3 years 8 months, counted as 4 years; 30 months is 2 years 6 months, counted as 2.5 years. The calculator at the top of the page shows a "rounded contribution period" line just below the input fields so you can check this step.
Four worked examples of the lump-sum payment
| Scenario | Rounded period | Calculation | Amount |
|---|---|---|---|
| 60 months from 2014, average salary 8,000,000 | Rounded period5 years from 2014 | Calculation5 × 2 × 8,000,000 | Amount80,000,000 |
| 44 months from 2014, average salary 10,000,000 | Rounded period4 years (3 years 8 months rounded up) | Calculation4 × 2 × 10,000,000 | Amount80,000,000 |
| 30 months before 2014 and 100 months from 2014, average salary 9,000,000 | Rounded period2 years before 2014 and 9 years from 2014 | Calculation2 × 1.5 × 9,000,000 + 9 × 2 × 9,000,000 | Amount27,000,000 + 162,000,000 = 189,000,000 |
| 10 months from 2014, average salary 7,000,000 | Rounded periodUnder 1 year | Calculation22% × 10 months = 2.2 months, capped at 2 months | Amount14,000,000 |
The first two examples both come to 80 million VND, even though one person contributed for 60 months on a salary of 8 million and the other for 44 months on 10 million: rounding up clearly pays off when the leftover is 7 months or more. The last example shows the 2-month cap for anyone with less than a full year; with 8 months the cap is not reached, and the payment is 7,000,000 × 8 × 22% = 12,320,000 VND.
Documents for a lump-sum withdrawal and where to file them
You file at the Social Insurance Agency office where you live, or online through the public service portal and the social insurance app using your electronic identification account. The precondition is that your former company has finalised your social insurance book (sổ bảo hiểm xã hội) up to the last month; under Article 48 of the Labour Code 2019 (Bộ luật Lao động 2019), the company must complete the confirmation of your contribution period and return your documents within 14 working days of the date the contract ended.
- The original social insurance book, finalised for every company you have worked for.
- An application for the lump-sum social insurance payment on the current official form.
- Your identity card for verification and the bank account number for the payment.
- Supporting documents for special cases: medical records, the medical assessment report on reduced working capacity, or documents proving settlement abroad.
Common mistakes, and whether you should withdraw
- Entering your current salary or take-home pay in the average salary field, when it should be the average contribution salary over the whole period.
- Applying the 2 months' salary rate to years contributed before 2014 as well.
- Adding up leftover months incorrectly, or forgetting to move the pre-2014 leftover months into the later period.
- Filing before 12 months have passed since leaving work, for people in the group that joined before 1 July 2025.
- Assuming you keep your contribution period after withdrawing: a lump-sum withdrawal wipes out those years, and if you go back to work later the count starts again from zero.
If you have just left a job, the two payments to work out before thinking about withdrawing are unemployment benefit and severance allowance; neither of them costs you your social insurance contribution period.
Frequently asked questions
If all 5 years were contributed from 2014, you receive 10 months of average salary: with an average of 8 million VND, that is 80 million VND before the inflation adjustment factor. The amount calculated by the Social Insurance Agency is usually slightly higher.
Not on the basis of 12 months out of work. People who started contributing on or after 1 July 2025 can receive a lump sum only if they reach retirement age with fewer than 15 years of contributions, settle abroad, have a life-threatening illness, have a reduction in working capacity of 81% or more, or have an extremely severe disability.
It is 22% of the sum of the monthly salaries on which you contributed, capped at 2 months of average salary. With 8 months on a salary of 7 million VND you receive 12,320,000 VND; with 10 months you hit the cap and receive 14,000,000 VND.
It is a factor, published every year, that revalues the contribution salary of each past year so that salaries from many years ago do not lose their value. The calculator at the top of the page does not apply it, so its result is a floor and the amount you actually receive is usually higher.