An ordinance from the Ministry of Labor, published last Thursday (11), started to allow people with disabilities who start to exercise paid activity as military, self-employed and small rural producers to have the right to inclusion aid.
For Joseane Zanardi, state coordinator of the IBDP (Brazilian Institute of Social Security Law) in São Paulo, the benefit is an incentive for low-income people with disabilities to return to the job market.
The aid is granted to people with moderate or severe disabilities who are beneficiaries of the BPC (BenefÃcio de Prestação Continuada, also known as Loas) or who have received this assistance benefit in the last five years and who get a job with remuneration of up to two minimum wages, the which corresponds to R$ 2,424 this year.
The Inclusion Allowance for Persons with Disabilities is paid after the BPC is cut, an assistance benefit of a minimum wage (R$ 1,212), granted to elderly people aged 65 and over and people with disabilities who are unable to work. The amount of the aid is half of the BPC, equivalent to R$ 606.
With the new ordinance, low-income people with disabilities who start to exercise military activity and have been BPC beneficiaries in the last five years can have the aid. The group includes firefighters, military police and the Armed Forces.
Disabled people who start to work independently and collect contributions to the INSS as individual contributors were also included.
Another group that becomes eligible are the special INSS insureds, small rural producers who are not required to collect contributions. For Roberto de Carvalho Santos, lawyer and president of Ieprev (Institute of Social Security Studies), this last group was the most benefited.
Special insureds need to prove 15 years of work to retire. Citizens who receive the BPC cannot work and this is an impediment to retirement, explains Santos. Now, people with disabilities who are able to work as small rural producers can receive inclusion aid, without this interfering with the retirement process.
A person whose per capita family income is less than a quarter of the minimum wage can apply for assistance — the equivalent of R$ 303 — the same rule followed by those who receive the BPC.
The ordinance also provides that the beneficiary’s medical expenses are considered in the calculation of per capita income (per family member). According to Santos, this already occurred in practice, but was not detailed in the original ordinance.
Who can receive?
People with moderate or severe disabilities who, cumulatively:
How to apply for inclusion assistance?
The request is made directly on the Meu INSS website or application. On the home page, the BPC beneficiary must click on “New Order” and then search for “AuxÃlio-Inclusão”. The request can also be made by the number 135 or with a specialized lawyer.
When requesting the inclusion aid, the beneficiary authorizes the suspension of the BPC. If he loses his job, he ceases to receive the aid, but he is entitled to earn the BPC again.
Lawyer Ben-Hur Klaus Cuesta Duarte, from Ingrácio Advocacia, says that the beneficiary may stop receiving the aid when one of the requirements is ceased (if he starts to receive remuneration greater than two minimum wages, for example) or if the beneficiary passes to receive:
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