PEC that raises Auxílio Brasil to R$ 600 reinforces inefficient design, say experts

In addition to the electoral nature of the measure, the increase in the minimum value of Auxílio Brasil to R$ 600 is the target of criticism from specialists in social policies, for whom the government doubles down on a design considered inefficient and unequal.

The setting of the minimum value per family occurs regardless of the number of members or the degree of poverty, which contributes to creating distortions. Families with more children, for example, end up receiving a lower amount per person than is paid to beneficiaries without children.

In addition, the waiting list for the program will be reset, but only for families who are qualified on the date of implementation of the measures. From then on, nothing will prevent the formation of new queues.

The temporary increase in transfers from the Auxílio Brasil program is one of the measures included in the PEC (proposed amendment to the Constitution) approved by the Senate on Thursday (30).

The text gives carte blanche to President Jair Bolsonaro (PL) to break the spending ceiling, ignore the restrictions of the Electoral Law and use R$ 41.25 billion to boost social programs three months before the elections. The president seeks re-election, but is in second place in polls.

The minimum amount of R$ 600 refers to the first design of the emergency aid, created in 2020 to help vulnerable families in the midst of the crisis caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. The payment of aid provided one of the best moments of Bolsonaro’s popularity.

As a public policy, however, setting a floor per family contributes to widening inequalities and eroding the solidity of the Cadastro Único, a database created in 2001 and which has become a reference for identifying who and where Brazilians are in poverty and extreme situations. poverty.

The offer of a minimum amount per family encouraged the division of registrations in the expectation of receiving the benefit in double. A “survival strategy” in the face of inflation and the increase in poverty and hunger, says the vice president of the Brazilian Basic Income Network, Tatiana Roque.

“The literature shows that people in poverty have survival strategies based on social experience. The new Auxílio Brasil families are splitting up to be entitled to the benefit twice”, he says.

Between November 2021 and April 2022, the number of single-member families receiving Auxílio Brasil jumped from 2.2 million to 3.7 million, a growth of 66.3% in just a few months. The registration of families with six members or more has been falling over time.

Economist Marcelo Neri, director of the Center for Social Policies at FGV (Fundação Getulio Vargas), says that the government is “doubling down” on a policy that is not well designed, precisely because it treats citizens with different degrees of poverty equally. . “The value of R$ 600 is good for publicity, but not for design.”

Specialists who worked in the management of CadÚnico in past governments warned, in an article published in Sheet, for the corruption of the database. Sociologist Leticia Bartholo, who was once the deputy national secretary for Citizenship Income, says that reversing the damage will be a huge challenge for the next government.

“The work that will be done is a work that was done in 2004”, he says, referring to the process of unifying the registers and updating information on the beneficiary families of government programs. “It’s a throwback of more than 15 years.”

According to Bartholo, the tendency to break up families is reinforced with the additional R$ 200 until the end of the year, since the message of a minimum per family, regardless of the number of members, remains.

She says that the next administration should prioritize the resumption of payment of a minimum amount per person, as was done in Bolsa Família, a social brand of PT administrations. “You can calibrate higher values ​​for early childhood, but from a design that generates more equity”, she says.

The review will be even more necessary in view of the expectation that the increase in social spending will continue. In addition to the R$89 billion budget for Auxílio Brasil, the program will have, with the PEC, an extra R$26 billion for five months of expanded benefits.

Although the additional is temporary, government officials admit that it will be difficult for any president from 2023 onwards to reduce the total amount of the program. In annual terms, the extra portion means an expense of over R$ 62 billion.

“The trend is that the budget [do programa] don’t be cut. It would have a program of BRL 150 billion, or 1.5% of GDP [Produto Interno Bruto]. It is very appropriate to have more comprehensive social protection, but the review of the design remains necessary”, says Bartholo.

Another problem with the proposal, according to experts, is that it will only eliminate one of the waiting lines for Auxílio Brasil: the one that exists on the date of promulgation of the constitutional amendment. Families who register or are qualified from the next day will no longer have any guarantee of inclusion in the program.

“The queue is the recognition of a right that people have and that is not implemented”, says Neri.

Bartholo also criticizes this point. “The concern is not genuinely social. If it were, the government would transform the program into a permanent right [o que extinguiria as filas].”

Although official figures from the Ministry of Citizenship indicate that there were 764,500 families queuing for Auxílio Brasil in May, the Brazilian Basic Income Network estimates that this number could reach more than 2.5 million because of the “queue for queue”, that is, Brazilians who are entitled to the benefit, but are still waiting for assistance at Cras (Reference Center for Social Assistance) to update their registration.

“There is a dismantling of Cras. In the past, there was an active search, that is, looking for people who fit the conditions of aid and who often are not even able to go to the center”, says Tatiana Roque.

Neri draws attention to the fact that, even with a record of resources for social programs, families continue to live on what he calls a “roller coaster of poverty”. “We are not using the concept of poverty as a compass. We are spending twice as much, but with less efficiency”, he says.

The poverty rate (which considers people living on up to R$210 per month) dropped to a minimum of 3.9% of the population in September 2020, but tripled to 13.2% in March 2021, during the interruption of payment of emergency aid. In September 2021, it was still at 10.4%, according to a study by Neri with researcher Marcos Hecksher.

The poorest 10% of the population live with uncertainty about their income the most. The monthly average per person reached R$52 in April 2020, rose to R$215 in August of the same year, dropped to R$55 in early 2021 and, at the end of last year, was hovering around R$100 In other sections of the population, instability is much lower.

Bolsonaro’s electoral package tends to reinforce this uncertainty, since the additional R$200 in Auxílio Brasil will be temporary, and families still do not know how much they will receive from January 1, 2023.