Hanoi (VNA) - About 20 percent of the Vietnamese population needs financial support, said Dr Nguyen Ngoc Toan, deputy head of the Social Protection Department under the Ministry of Labour⛄, Invalids and Social Affairs, at a workshop in 💛Hanoi on March 17.

The workshop set a target in which 4 percent of the Vietnamese population (about 3.6 million people) will be able to access financial support between 2016 and 2020. At least 50 percent of these beneficiaries will be old people without caretakers, the disabled, the homeless, underprivileged children and victims of domestic violence and human trafficking. The workshop aimed to discuss the development and reform of the social assistance system from 2016-2030. According to Toan, among those in need of assistance, there are about 9.4 million elderly people, accounting for more than 10 percent of the population. Seven million disabled people, more than 2.5 million children in extremely disadvantaged circumstances, more than 100,000 poor single parents and more than 200,000 HIV/AIDS-affected people are also in the needy group, Toan said. He blamed the food shortages between harvest times and the Lunar New Year holiday on natural disasters, fire and harvest loss. He said that as many as 2.6 million people nationwide currently enjoyed financial support. In another report, while working with National Committee on Ageing recently, Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam urged ministries and agencies raise health and social insurance coverage for the elderly to the country’s average. Up to 4 million out of more than 10 million elderly people in the country have no access to health insurance, he said, adding that taking care of the elderly was increasingly important as there were about additional half a million elderly people every year.-VNA