JOINT CIRCULAR No. 38-TT-LB detailing and guiding the implementation of Decree No. 14-CP dated February 2, 1962 of the Council of Ministers on subsidies for families of martyrs, military personnel, officials, workers, and civil servants who have died or gone missing and are facing difficulties in their lives.

JOINT CIRCULAR

Detailed regulations and guidance for implementing Decree No. 14-CP dated February 2, 1962 of the Council of Ministers on assistance to families of martyrs, military personnel, cadres, workers, and civil servants who have died or gone missing and are facing difficulties in their lives

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I. PURPOSE AND SIGNIFICANCE

To help families of martyrs maintain a normal standard of living and gradually improve their living standards, the government's policy is: for families that can still engage in productive labor, assistance will be provided in their business activities, strictly implementing Directive No. 445/TTg dated December 14, 1959 of the Prime Minister regarding assistance to families of martyrs during the agricultural cooperative movement; for some families due to old age, illness, lack or loss of labor capacity, leading to significant difficulties in their lives, apart from the support of the people, the State may provide additional assistance.

For families of military personnel who have died or gone missing, and families of cadres, workers, and civil servants who have died or gone missing, appropriate assistance should also be provided based on the spirit of the aforementioned policy.

Decree No. 14-CP dated February 2, 1962 of the Council of Ministers amended the difficult assistance regime stipulated in Circular No. 50-TT/LB dated October 14, 1959 of the Ministry of Interior and Ministry of Finance to suit the new situation, aiming to assist these families in resolving their living difficulties more actively.

However, relying solely on state assistance cannot resolve all the difficulties faced by these families. Therefore, while implementing this assistance system, it is necessary to further promote the people's support and encourage the self-reliance spirit of these families to address their difficulties.

II. PRINCIPLES AND GENERAL GUIDELINES

1. Closely combine state assistance with people's support and the efforts of the families themselves, creating conditions for families facing difficulties to gradually raise their living standards to match the general living standards of local residents.

2. Depending on the degree of difficulty, assistance may or may not be granted; after receiving assistance, the standard of living of assisted families should not be significantly higher than that of non-assisted families in the same locality.

3. Assistance must be carried out positively and cautiously, ensuring compliance with policies and standards, maintaining unity among the people, and between families of martyrs, military personnel, cadres, workers, and civil servants who have died or gone missing.

III. ELIGIBLE RECIPIENTS FOR ASSISTANCE

The recipients of assistance mentioned in Articles 1 and 2 of Decree No. 14-CP dated February 2, 1962 of the Council of Ministers are the families of martyrs, families of military personnel who have died or gone missing, and families of cadres, workers, and civil servants who have died or gone missing before the implementation date of the temporary social insurance regulations (December 31, 1961 or earlier), whose lives are significantly affected by old age, illness, lack of labor capacity, or unexpected accidents. The Inter-Ministerial Circular provides additional clarification as follows:

1. The criteria for martyrs are as defined in existing documents. Specifically, those who sacrificed their lives.

2. Military personnel who have died or gone missing and whose families are eligible for difficult assistance under Decree No. 14-CP are voluntary military personnel who died due to illness or accidents or went missing while serving. For military personnel performing conscription duties who died or went missing, the Ministry of Defense will specify the criteria later.

3. Cadres, workers, and civil servants who have died or gone missing before the implementation date of the temporary social insurance regulations, if they meet the following conditions, their families are eligible for difficult assistance under Decree No. 14-CP:

a) They are workers or civil servants employed within the establishment of state agencies, construction sites, farms, factories, or detached units of revolutionary mass organizations (including cadres active before the August Revolution) or young volunteers detached from family economic units.

b) Died due to work-related accidents, or died due to epidemics, or went missing while on duty during the resistance period, or died due to wrongful treatment during land reform and organizational rectification (confirmed by the former cadre management agency, if this agency has been dissolved, then confirmed by the administrative committee of the district, city, or province where the family resides).

c) Died due to illness or accidental misfortune, but must have served continuously for two years during the resistance period, or five years continuously during the resistance period and two years during peacetime.

For cadres, workers, and civil servants who died from the implementation date of the social insurance regulations onwards (including those meeting the criteria for recognition as martyrs), their families will receive benefits according to the social insurance system, not the difficult assistance regime stipulated in Decree No. 14-CP dated February 2, 1962.

4. Families of martyrs, military personnel, cadres, workers, and civil servants who have died or gone missing include the closest relatives as follows:

- Spouse (not remarried)

- Children

- Parents

If there is no spouse, children, or parents, anyone who raised the deceased or missing person from childhood until adulthood, such as a biological child, or when alive, the deceased had the responsibility to nurture, such as a minor under 16 years old (or 18 years old if still studying) without other brothers or sisters, grandparents without other grandchildren, are considered the closest relatives. Other relatives are not included in the scope of families of martyrs, military personnel, cadres, workers, and civil servants who have died or gone missing to be eligible for difficult assistance under Decree No. 14-CP.

IV. CRITERIA FOR ELIGIBILITY FOR ASSISTANCE

Only families experiencing significant difficulties due to old age, illness, lack of labor capacity, or unexpected accidents will be eligible for assistance.

The criteria to distinguish families facing difficult circumstances are that their standard of living is clearly lower than the average standard of living of the local population (village, city, town). Specifically, families in one of the following situations will be eligible for assistance:

1. Families with elderly, disabled, sick members unable to work, or young members not yet able to work, whose livelihoods face persistent difficulties, with average incomes equal to or below 75% of the local average income (completely lacking food for three months or more within a year), for example:

- Parents of martyrs who are elderly and unable to work, living alone or with young grandchildren, or relying on adult children but without assurance, facing many shortages and hardships in life.

- Wives of martyrs who are often sick or disabled, unable to work, living alone or with elderly parents, or still capable of working but having to raise many young children alone, facing many shortages and hardships in life.

- Children or siblings under 16 years old (or up to 18 years old if still studying) or over 16 years old but disabled and unable to work, homeless and without support, or living with other relatives but with a large family, facing many hardships and shortages, etc.

2. Families affected by unexpected accidents

In cases of sudden illness or disease requiring medical treatment, leading to temporary difficulties for the family, such families will also be considered for assistance according to the prescribed standards.

 V. LEVEL AND DURATION OF ASSISTANCE

1. Monthly level of assistance.

For families meeting the criteria for assistance as mentioned above, when assessing assistance, it is based solely on the number of closest relatives of martyrs, military personnel, cadres, workers, and civil servants deceased or missing currently present in the family, to determine the monthly level of assistance as follows:

Martyr's family:

- With one closest relative, receives 10 units of assistance per month

- With two closest relatives, receives 20 units of assistance per month

- With three or more closest relatives, receives 30 units of assistance per month

Family of deceased or missing military personnel, cadres, workers, and civil servants:

- With one closest relative, receives 9 units of assistance per month

- With two closest relatives, receives 18 units of assistance per month

- With three or more closest relatives, receives 24 units of assistance per month

In cases where the closest relatives of a family reside in different households (father lives with son, mother lives with daughter, wife and children live separately, etc.), all facing difficulties, assistance will be assessed based on the circumstances of each household, but the total monthly assistance for the family shall not exceed 30 units (if it is a martyr's family) and 24 units (if it is a family of deceased or missing military personnel, cadres, workers, and civil servants).

2. Duration of assistance.

Determining the duration of assistance for each family annually must be based on the extent and nature of the difficulties, whether long-term or temporary, the extent of community support available, and the degree to which the family's income and standard of living fall below the local average, to provide appropriate assistance, generally as follows:

a) For families in persistent difficult situations (as described in the first case above), assistance may be provided for 3 months or 6 months (for ordinary cases) and 9 months or 12 months (for special cases).

b) For families in unusual difficult situations (as described in the second case above), assistance will be provided for 3 months (for ordinary cases) and up to 6 months (for special cases) depending on the extent of the family's difficulties.

c) For families in both persistent and unusual difficult situations, the following approach will be taken:

- If already receiving assistance as stated in point a, additional assistance may be provided if deemed necessary, but the total assistance for two periods in a year shall not exceed 12 months.

- If not yet receiving assistance as stated in point a, the two difficult situations will be combined to determine the appropriate duration of assistance.

d) Particularly, for families of martyrs, Heroes of the Military, families with two or more children who are martyrs or deceased or missing military personnel, and families of revolutionary cadres and patriotic intellectuals who have made significant contributions to the Revolution, while applying the criteria for assistance, due consideration should be given to their difficult circumstances, the level and duration of assistance, reflecting the spirit that they should receive more generous assistance than ordinary families to demonstrate the policy of the Party and Government towards these families. (For example: if others lack food for more than two months and are not eligible for assistance, these special families may be considered for assistance.)

e) If assistance is provided for 3 months, it will be issued once; if for 6 months, 9 months, or 12 months, it will be issued in two, three, or four installments at appropriate times such as during the lean season or before Tet, as determined by the authority responsible for providing assistance.

VI. PROCEDURES AND IMPLEMENTATION MEASURES

1. Decree No. 14-CP dated February 2, 1962 of the Council of Ministers replaces Circular No. 50-TT/LB dated October 14, 1959 of the Ministry of Interior and Ministry of Finance. Previous guiding documents inconsistent with the spirit of this decree and circular are hereby abolished.

2. The allowances for families of martyrs, families of deceased or missing military personnel, cadres, workers, and civil servants, whose livelihoods face difficulties, as stipulated in Decree No. 14-CP, shall be funded from the local budget. For the year 1962, the administrative committees of regions, cities, and provinces shall prepare budgets according to the guidance of the Ministry of Interior in Circular No. 5217/CTLS dated November 7, 1961. Any locality that has not prepared sufficient funds shall continue to do so to ensure adequate funding for families in difficulty according to the prescribed standards.

3. To implement Decree No. 14-CP effectively, localities need to proceed with the following plan:

- Widely disseminate Decree No. 14-CP and the main points of this letter along with Directive No. 445-TTg dated December 14, 1959 of the Prime Minister regarding the policy of supporting families of martyrs in the agricultural cooperative movement down to cadres, people, and families of martyrs, deceased or missing military personnel, cadres, and civil servants (mainly at the commune and agricultural cooperative levels) to ensure everyone understands the purpose, significance, and content of the support for families in difficulty and implements it actively and fully.

- Direct the communes and agricultural cooperatives to immediately promote the investigation to grasp the living conditions of families, compile a statistical list classifying families facing difficulties, and discuss practical ways to assist according to the capacity and conditions of each cooperative, while proposing subsidies for families deemed necessary.

- Subsequently, the commune administrative committee shall prepare a general list and send it to the district (or province) with specific proposals for review and subsidy recommendations by the district (or province), which will then propose to the provincial level to issue a subsidy decision. When receiving lists and proposals from the commune and district (or province), the administrative committees at the ward, city, and provincial levels must promptly resolve and transfer subsidy decisions back to the district or provincial administrative committees for distribution and payment.

4. During the process of compiling lists, statistics, classification, and proposing subsidies for families facing difficulties, administrative committees at all levels need to closely direct from the beginning, (specifically guiding to learn from experience) to prevent the tendency of relying solely on subsidies while neglecting the assistance from the people and cooperatives, leading to widespread and inappropriate subsidies that do not meet policy standards, as well as the tendency to avoid difficulties and fail to thoroughly understand the difficult living conditions of each family, resulting in overly strict subsidy requests or overlooking families meeting subsidy criteria.