What benefits are female employees entitled to during maternity leave?

Besides the maternity allowance described in section 2, female employees are entitled to many benefits when they give birth, specifically:

• During the 6 months of maternity leave, employees can use their health insurance card free of charge without paying monthly contributions as they did while working.
• During the 6 months of maternity leave, the social insurance agency pays social insurance on the employee's behalf free of charge. This means that during 6 months of maternity leave, the employee both receives an allowance of 6 months' salary and pays no insurance contributions, yet the social insurance agency still records those 6 months in the insurance book as months with social insurance paid.
• During the 6 months of maternity leave, unemployment insurance is not paid on the employee's behalf, so employees should take this into account when calculating their unemployment benefit entitlement if they leave their job.

Note: All of the above benefits only apply to employees who take maternity leave while still working for their company. Employees who have already received a decision terminating their employment and take their social insurance book to the local insurance agency themselves to claim benefits will not have these benefits.

References:

Vietnam Social Security

Electronic social insurance transaction portal

Luat Viet Nam (Vietnam Law)