Decree 11/2011/ND-CP amending and supplementing Decree 159/2006/ND-CP of December 28, 2006 on retirement benefits for soldiers directly involved in the anti-US resistance before April 30, 1975 with 20 or more years of army service who were demobilized or discharged

Decree 11/2011/ND-CP, issued by the Government on 30 January 2011, amends and supplements Decree 159/2006/ND-CP concerning the monthly pension regime for military personnel who directly took part in the resistance war before 30 April 1975, served 20 or more years in the army, and were subsequently demobilised or discharged. The Decree primarily redefines eligibility and extends the regime to public security (police) personnel. Under the revised Article 2, the monthly pension applies to military personnel who enlisted on or before 30 April 1975, served at least 20 years, and are not currently drawing a pension, working-capacity-loss benefit, or monthly invalid-soldier benefit, provided they fall into one of several situations: demobilised or discharged before 1 April 2000; war invalids with at least 81 percent reduced working capacity in or returned from rehabilitation centres before 1 April 2000; personnel who transferred to civilian or defence-civilian roles and then left service before 1 January 1995, or held a pre-1 April 2000 transfer decision that was not carried out; and those who went abroad for international labour cooperation and were demobilised before 1 April 2000. The Decree lists exclusions: deserters, defectors, collaborators, those serving life or current prison terms or convicted of unexpunged national-security offences, illegal emigrants, and persons declared missing by a court. A one-time benefit of 3,600,000 dong is provided to the principal next of kin of eligible personnel who died before specified dates (before 1 January 2007 for one category, before 1 April 2011 for others). A new Article 7a extends the same pension regime under Article 3 and the benefit under Article 4 to public security personnel who directly participated in the resistance war before 30 April 1975 with at least 20 years of service in the people's public security forces, including prior army time later transferred to the police, subject to parallel eligibility conditions and the same 3,600,000 dong one-time survivor benefit and exclusions. On timing of entitlement, the amended Article 8 sets the start of monthly pensions at 1 January 2007 for certain military categories and at 1 May 2010 for others and for the newly covered public security personnel. The Decree takes effect 1 April 2011. Implementation is assigned to the Ministries of National Defence, Public Security, Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs, and Finance, which are to issue joint circulars for the respective covered groups. The Decree mainly governs eligibility and effective dates rather than pension formulas, so its relevance to pension calculations lies in defining who qualifies and the fixed survivor benefit amount.