Search for registration of Auxílio Brasil triggers and creates queue of the queue

The waiting list to receive Auxílio Brasil has skyrocketed in recent months, and the number of families seeking to register to obtain the benefit — the so-called “queue queue” — has also been growing.

Zeroing the waiting list to enter Auxílio Brasil and increasing the amount of the benefit to R$ 600 are among the measures foreseen by the Jair Bolsonaro government (PL) in the PEC (proposed amendment to the Constitution) that expands the social program to three months from election.

From March to April, more recent data made available by the CNM (National Confederation of Municipalities), there was a 113% increase in the queue at CadÚnico (Cadastro Único), a basic requirement to access Auxílio Brasil. According to the entity, there are currently 2.788 million families awaiting income transfers.

The number is higher than expected by the government, which estimates that the line will reach 2 million in August, when the payment of the benefit in the minimum amount of R$ 600 should begin. In addition, technicians from the Ministry of Citizenship recognize that the line does not should remain at zero for a long time, as the resources to be released are calculated to serve the families that will already be waiting for the program — and new requests will continue to be presented until the end of the year.

There is no estimate of how many families would be in this queue of the queue to register, formed by Brazilians awaiting inclusion in CadÚnico. The Ministry of Citizenship reported that it does not track how many citizens have not yet been able to enter the register.

Paulo Ziulkoski, president of CNM, says that the queue in the queue is difficult to measure and affects larger municipalities, where there are more precarious living conditions. For him, instead of raising the value of Auxílio Brasil from R$ 400 to R$ 600, the ideal would be to increase the number of families served. “It would be possible to include 12.668 million families in the program with R$400”, he says.

The CNM survey shows that the state of São Paulo is the one with the largest number of families waiting for Auxílio Brasil. In April, 429,000 were in the queue in São Paulo, which represents a growth of 80% in relation to March’s demand. Next are Rio de Janeiro (282 thousand families) and Bahia (275 thousand).

In May, according to the São Paulo State Secretariat for Social Development, the total number of families in the CadÚnico queue waiting for Auxílio Brasil reached 497,292.

To receive Auxílio Brasil, the citizen must be registered with CadÚnico and meet the criteria of poverty (income between R$ 105.01 and R$ 210 per person in the family) or extreme poverty (income of up to R$ 105 per person in the family ). The registration is done by application or website, but the registration must be validated within 120 days (four months). At this stage, many are unable to schedule care and continue without assistance.

Loss of income, soaring inflation and high unemployment worry Bolsonaro, who is in second place in polls, behind Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT).

From 2020 to 2021, the poorest 5% saw their income plummet by 34%, from R$59 to R$39. It was the most intense among the population groups investigated in a survey by the IBGE (Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics).

The fall is aggravated by the increase in prices, especially of food, which weigh more in the basket of the most vulnerable. In 12 months until June, the food and beverage group accumulated a high of 13.93%, according to the IPCA (National Index of Consumer Prices), also released by the IBGE.

In this scenario, the country returned to the Hunger Map. Currently, 33 million people face the problem in the country, according to the 2nd National Survey on Food Insecurity in the Context of the Covid-19 Pandemic in Brazil, released in June.

Brazilians sleep in line to make or update registration

Capitals like Rio de Janeiro and Salvador face great demand from people interested in making or updating CadÚnico data, with queues formed since the night before and people leaving without getting passwords.

In Bangu, in the west of Rio, about 120 people were waiting in line to update the data at Raimundo da Paz square on Monday (11). There were five tents with 14 social assistance workers in attendance.

Alessandra Rosa, 43, arrived around 5 am and couldn’t get a password. Unemployed and mother of four, she said that there were already people in the place since 3 am.

This is the fourth attempt to update the register — before, he had looked for the unit in the Vila Moreti favela. “The attendants say that they can no longer receive anyone there. The population there is at risk, because they stand in line and there can be a shootout.”

Deise Carvalho, 28, from Minas Gerais, has been unemployed for a year and a half and was also unable to be seen on Monday.

“I came to update my data, because I have been receiving aid for more than two years. I stay at home with two children. I came to Rio to have more job opportunities, but things are difficult here. I sell sweets, but even to buy material to resell is expensive”, he said.

General service assistant João Melo da Silva, 51, even took a book to pass the time. The resident of Senador Camará was also unable to get the service password. “I used to work as a cleaning assistant, as a caretaker, but now at my age it’s very difficult, nobody wants to hire me.”

At the end of May, 67,000 families in the city of Rio were enrolled in CadÚnico, but had not been included in Auxílio Brasil. And by the end of June, that number had increased to 109,000.

In Salvador, among those seeking to update data was the unemployed cook Roberto Carlos, 58, who received emergency aid until last December but, since then, has not been able to join Auxílio Brasil, which replaced Bolsa Família.

He spent the night in line, where he arrived around 8 pm on Sunday (10). To get there, he had to borrow money for a taxi, an expense shared with neighbor Rafael Barbosa, 25.

“I’ve tried several times, but it always fails. I live on odd jobs, selling snacks. I have no income. I need that money,” he said.

The high demand for social assistance programs has overloaded the Cras units (Reference Center for Social Assistance) and city hall service stations. The RBRB (Brazilian Basic Income Network) has already received reports of waiting up to four months for scheduling.

In the city of São Paulo, the average waiting time for assistance in a Cras is 21 days. In units of the Descomplica program, it takes 35 days.

Benefit management coordinator at the São Paulo Municipal Assistance and Development Department, Luis Francisquin says that the deadline is justified by the increase in demand for assistance services.

According to him, approximately 70% of calls are related to CadÚnico. “Demand has been growing since last year, but it has been increasing in the last semester, because the population is getting poorer.”

The situation is similar in the Federal District. Caregiver Cristiane Oliveira de Carvalho, 43, reports that she went to Cras (Reference Center for Social Assistance) on July 6 and managed to schedule the appointment only for August 25 – an interval of 50 days.

The worker needs to go to a physical post to validate the information registered by the application launched by the federal government.

“They ask us to be patient and wait, but it’s very distressing.” Cristiane and her two children, one aged 5 and the other aged 17, survive on alimony paid by the father of the youngest child and on some odd jobs she does as a caretaker and cleaning lady.

By means of a note, the Sedes (Secretary of Social Development) of the Federal District informed that the attendances at Cras will be brought forward to the month of July. “Families will be contacted over the next few days to be informed of the new service date,” the statement reads.

20 million lost coverage with the end of emergency aid

According to an estimate by the RBRB, 20 million families were left without any social assistance with the end of the emergency aid. Although not all of them meet the requirements to receive Auxílio Brasil, a significant number of them may be in the queue, says the entity.

“Not all families receiving emergency aid would be Auxílio Brasil families, but we start from a number. We had at least 20 million more families being assisted by an income transfer policy”, says Paola Carvalho, director of institutional and international relationship of the RBRB.

The manicurist Marilza Aparecida dos Santos Souza, 49, resident of Jardim Helena, east of São Paulo, is one of the people without the benefit. Unemployed for a year, Marilza received emergency aid and, since the end of the benefit, has been without assistance. In the house, she, her husband, 53, and their daughter, 18, are unemployed.

“It’s a queue, a bureaucracy. They said I had to get a password to try to do the CadÚnico to receive it; I ended up giving up waiting. My husband does a painting job every now and then. I really wanted to receive the benefit”, she says.