23 million poor people live on less than R$7 a day in Brazil

The total number of Brazilians below the basic poverty line in the country reached a record at the end of 2021, with 23 million people — almost an Australia — living on less than BRL 210 a month (BRL 7 a day). This is equivalent to 10.8% of Brazilians.

Although low to meet basic needs, the amount is used as a criterion for eligibility for some benefit by Auxílio Brasil — which means that millions of Brazilians who would have the right to enter the program are still excluded.

In addition to the record number of people living on less than R$210 per month, in a series that started in 2015, the poorest were subjected to extreme volatility in their income. They have varied greatly in the last two years, with the adoption of Emergency Aid in the pandemic, the end of Bolsa Família and the lack of definition until the current creation of Auxílio Brasil.

In terms of changes, the proportion of poor people on an annual basis rose 42.1% between 2020 and 2021, corresponding to 7.2 million new poor people compared to 2020 and 3.6 million compared to the pre-pandemic period, according to FGV data. Social based on the IBGE’s Continuous National Household Sample Survey.

“In addition to the high social inequality and low economic growth of recent years, the poorest have suffered a lot from the ‘roller coaster’ in the value of their income, which is very bad for the planning and well-being of the population”, he says. economist Marcelo Neri, director of FGV Social.

In this “roller coaster”, the monthly per capita household income of the poorest 10% had been falling before Covid-19 and dropped to less than half at the beginning of social isolation (from R$ 114 in November 2019 to R$ 52 in March 2020). From this minimum, it was more than quadrupled until its historic peak, in August 2020 (R$ 215), in the most generous phase of Emergency Aid.

Then, it collapsed to just over a quarter with the suspension of the program in January 2021 (R$ 55). The resumption of the benefit, with reduced coverage and amounts, partially recovered the income of the poorest (R$ 113 in August 2021), with a further downward trend in the last months of the year, remaining 15.8% below the pre-pandemic level ( BRL 96 in November 2021).

According to Neri, surveys show that nearly two-thirds of the poorest 40% in the country normally rely on the help of relatives and friends to survive on a daily basis. “Since they’re all in the same now, this help network has become very limited.”

According to the Penssan Network (Brazilian Network for Research in Food and Nutrition Sovereignty and Security), 33 million people are currently hungry in Brazil; and 6 out of 10 Brazilians live with some degree of food insecurity.

Neri recalls that, since the early 1970s, Brazil has been one of the biggest inflation record holders in the world, even after the Real Plan in 1994 — which is extremely harmful to the poorest.

“The unpredictability in income only worsens this situation. Right now there is an attempt to lower gasoline prices, which should rise again in 2023”, he says.