Guidelines clarify repayment of downsizing allowances for rehired civil servants under Decree 154/2025/NĐ-CP

The Ministry of Home Affairs has issued guidance on difficulties and obstacles in implementing Decree 154/2025/ND-CP on downsizing the public workforce. The clarification focuses on the repayment of allowances for individuals who were downsized and later return to work.

Repayment rule for those who return to work

The Ministry notes that Clause 6, Article 3 of Decree 154/2025/ND-CP governs the subjects who re-enter work after settling benefits and policies. Under this provision, downsized individuals who are elected or re-employed into agencies, organizations, or units funded by the state budget, or assigned as non-professional duty bearers at the commune/village level within 60 months from the date of downsizing, must repay the total amount of allowances previously received to the agency that paid them.

For non-professional duty bearers at the commune level who stopped receiving the downsizing regime under Decree 154/2025/ND-CP and were later elected or re-employed into state-budget funded agencies within 60 months, the Ministry’s guidance indicates that they must repay the allowances. However, if they sign an employment contract, they are not required to repay the allowances.

Who is covered by the downsizing policy under Decree 154/2025/ND-CP

Decree 154/2025/ND-CP defines a range of subjects eligible for the downsizing policy, including:

• Civil servants and public employees; civil servants at the commune level and people working under contract treated under the same regime as civil servants, if they fall into cases such as surplus civil servants due to organizational restructuring.
• Civil servants and public employees in leadership/management who resign from leadership positions or are appointed/elected to leadership/management roles with a salary or leadership allowance lower due to organizational restructuring, or individuals who voluntarily downsize with the consent of the directly managing agency.
• Civil servants and public employees in leadership/management who resign due to restructuring to improve leadership quality, or by decision of the competent authority, or individuals who voluntarily downsize.
• Excess personnel due to review/restructuring of staff by the competent authority, or excess due to autonomous restructuring of public service units.
• Excess due to reorganizing civil servants by position but unable to arrange other suitable work, or where suitable work can be arranged but the individual voluntarily downsizes.
• Individuals who do not meet educational/training standards for the current position but no other suitable positions exist, retraining is not possible, or a different placement is arranged but the individual voluntarily downsizes.
• Individuals rated as not meeting duties in the immediately preceding year or the year of downsizing assessment, or rated as meeting duties but who voluntarily downsize.
• Individuals in the preceding year or the year of downsizing assessment with total sick leave days at or above 200 (with confirmation of sickness benefits paid by Social Insurance), or with total sick leave days at or above the maximum allowed (with confirmation of sickness benefits).
• People under indefinite-term employment contracts performing professional tasks in public institutions that are in excess due to workforce restructuring or due to reorganization.
• People under indefinite-term employment contracts performing supporting or service duties in administrative bodies and public service units in excess due to organizational rearrangement.
• Non-professional duty bearers at the commune level who retire immediately when the two-tier local government model is implemented.
• Non-professional duty bearers at the hamlet/ward level who are excess due to rearrangement of hamlets/wards and retire immediately after a decision by a competent authority.

Related guidance and reform context

The guidance on downsizing for non-professional commune-level officials is referenced with a timestamp of 07:38, 15/09/2025. Additional related materials include a “roadmap” for resolving downsizing regimes for officials and civil servants in Hà Nội (17:28, 08/12/2025), and information that those who retire before age and are downsized after 1/1/2025 are transferred to the regime under Decree 178.

The broader reform context in Vietnam’s public administration is also reflected in references to other policy and information-technology developments, alongside coverage of major political events and economic topics.