Concerned about the impact of inflation on the electoral campaign, President Jair Bolsonaro (PL) endorsed the use of up to R$46.4 billion in public resources to subsidize fuel, while the government keeps 699,300 families in extreme poverty. in the waiting list of the Auxílio Brasil program.
These families survive today with a monthly income of up to R$105 per person, at a time when inflation is high and the job market has not yet recovered vigorously.
Another 65,200 families in poverty, with a monthly income of R$ 105.01 to R$ 210 per person, are also eligible for the program, but did not receive the benefit granted by the government. These are households with pregnant women, nursing mothers or at least one child or young person up to 21 years of age.
In all, the queue recognized by the Ministry of Citizenship was 764,500 families in May 2022, according to data from the ministry obtained by the Ministry of Health. Sheet through the Access to Information Act.
Experts estimate that the backlog of orders is expected to grow in the coming months, as job losses and rising prices for products, especially food, have increased the number of families that need help to meet basic needs.
Last month, the program — created in place of Bolsa Família to be Bolsonaro’s social showcase — paid an average benefit of R$409.51.
Considering this value and the number of qualified families, but waiting for the benefit, the cost of eliminating the current queue would be BRL 1.88 billion by the end of 2022, or BRL 3.76 billion in a full year.
The amount demanded in a full year would represent only 8.1% of the cost of the fuel-focused package, announced on June 6 by the president himself and his ministers at a press conference at the Planalto Palace.
For sociologist Leticia Bartholo, who was deputy national secretary for Citizenship Income from 2012 to 2016, prioritizing measures to reduce fuel prices “clearly demonstrates that fighting poverty is not a priority of this government”.
She defends the resumption of the discussion about transforming the benefit of the program into a family right that meets the requirements, which would lead to the extinction of waiting lines. In this case, the transfer of income would become mandatory — as is the case when an INSS insured meets the requirements for retirement.
“This would be an immense benefit for families in poverty and misery who have been waiting months for the benefit”, says Bartholo.
The president of the Brazilian Basic Income Network, Leandro Ferreira, also criticizes the government’s choice. “Spending on the income transfer program is focused on the poorest. Spending on gasoline is regressive insofar as it benefits those who use more gasoline. They are car owners, people who travel by private vehicle”, he says.
Government data show that the Auxílio Brasil queue was empty only in January and February. In March, 100,000 families had their registration approved, but did not receive the benefit. That number rose to 400,000 in April and jumped to 764,000 families in May.
The trend is that the waiting list will continue to increase in the coming months. In Bartholo’s assessment, the size of the program is inadequate given the current economic and social situation in the country. “If we can’t get back on the path of economic recovery, with people relocating to the job market, and reducing inflation, we will be creating a bigger problem, because people will continue to need the program more and more”, he says.]
Diarist sleeps at the service station to get a password
On the other hand, there is a second damming point: the CRAS (Social Assistance Reference Center) network, which operationalizes the records in the Single Registry of social programs.
Many families are not getting care at the CRAS to make the first request or update the registration, one of the requirements to have the benefit granted. The situation has been called “queue of queue”.
Diarist Ana Paula Souza Borges, 55, slept for several days at a CRAS post in Niterói (RJ) to try a password that would allow her to schedule the service and update the Single Registry.
Spending on the cash transfer program is focused on the poorest. Gasoline spending is regressive insofar as it benefits those who use more gasoline. They are car owners, people who travel with a private vehicle
Despite the insistence, she was only able to be seen in April, after moving to the city of São Pedro da Aldeia (RJ). Even with the updated registration, until today she has not been able to receive the benefit.
“Today I’m out of work. I don’t have a formal contract. I don’t have my own house. I live on favors and sell some snacks on the street to survive”, he says.
Mother of two 14-year-old twin daughters, Ana Paula received the Bolsa Família between 2009 and 2016. During the pandemic, she resorted to emergency aid and, now, without work as a day laborer, tries to enter the income transfer program launched by Bolsonaro .
The government claims that the granting of benefits to families who are in the queue depends on “budget availability”. The Budget currently reserves R$ 89 billion for Auxílio Brasil, but these resources are already committed to paying more than 18 million families covered by the program.
The inclusion of more families would depend on the expansion of this value, including in the Budget for the following years, or on the eventual exclusion of other families that no longer fulfill the program’s rules.
Subsidies for fuels, on the other hand, will be given via tax cuts or through transfers to states and municipalities, made outside the spending ceiling — a fiscal rule that limits the advance of expenses to inflation. The second part of the package, however, still depends on the approval of a PEC (proposed amendment to the Constitution).
Behind the scenes, members of the economic team preferred to adopt focused measures, such as the expansion of income transfers, but the government’s legal area warned of the risk of colliding with electoral legislation, which restricts this type of action in an election year.
Specialists say that it is necessary to increase the resources destined to the financing of CRAS and, thus, give a more agile response to the increase in demand for cadastral updates and new records.
“The data shows that there is a huge base of people to update. There are 13 million outdated families in a base of 35 million [do CadÚnico]. They need to get in the registration queue as much as the person who is going to ask for the first time”, says Ferreira.
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