The Auxílio Brasil payroll loan would help Gisele Aparecida de Oliveira, 34, to “make the fair” for her three children aged between 1 and 11. “It’s all so expensive that you can’t even buy meat,” she says. But the housewife who has been receiving the federal benefit for a year has decided to dispense with the credit, which began to be offered this Tuesday (11) by Caixa Econômica Federal.
She fears that she will not be able to pay the debt after the presidential elections, as she believes that the current value of R$ 600 may be reduced next year.
“If I take this loan, I don’t know if I’ll have the money to pay it off. I also don’t know if this aid will continue and I’m wary of it”, says Gisele, the first in line for preferential care (she was with her baby in the lap) at Caixa in Sapopemba.
As is common at the branch of the federal bank in the far east of the capital of São Paulo on days when the benefit is paid, about 80 people waited on the street for the service to begin an hour before the doors opened.
Interested parties may contract the credit with 24 monthly installments of up to R$160. The interest rate will be 3.45% per month — just below the 3.5% per month ceiling set by the Ministry of Citizenship. The measure comes in the wake of the benefits expansion package of the government of Jair Bolsonaro (PL) in the period in which the president is campaigning for reelection.
A good part of the public that was in line this Tuesday had seen the news that Caixa would start offering payment with a direct discount on the aid installments.
Like Gisele, many told the Sheetin three branches visited in the same region of the city, that the extra money would come at a good time, but they were also fearful about the risk of shrinking or, worse, cutting the benefit from next year.
“I’m afraid it will cut,” says Ana Vieira dos Santos da Cruz, 44, after saying she will refuse the loan. The R$600 in aid represents close to half of the daily income of the day laborer, who pays R$400 in rent for the house where she lives with her ten-year-old son. “How am I going to pay [o empréstimo]?”, he asks.
Unemployed since 2014, when she was fired from her job as a maid at a motel near her home, Ana charges R$100 a day for cleaning, but has not been offered a job more than once a week. “I leave resumes, but they never call me,” she says. She still receives R$ 300 in pension from her ex-husband.
Beneficiaries expect to pay installments, with faith in God
Not all the beneficiaries in the Caixa queue feared that they would not be able to pay the Auxílio Brasil loan. Some, in fact, saw in credit the hope to start life over in a better way.
“I wanted to get this loan to invest in a mini bakery,” says Valquíria Viana do Santos, 37, who lives with her husband and six children aged between eight and 23. Everyone of working age is unemployed, including her and her husband. The Auxílio Brasil that she receives is the family’s only income.
“I want to make an investment in my life and that of my children, I want to improve my life”, says Valquíria, who says she is not afraid of being in debt with the bank. “It’s all in God’s hand.”
Marco Antonio Hernandes, 32, wants the loan to help with the initial deposit of the rent of a house, where he intends to live with his wife Jenifer Lizaraso, 22, seven months pregnant, and their three-year-old daughter. Both receive the benefit of R$ 600.
From Venezuela, Hernandes is an electrician and has been in Brazil for four years. Since the beginning of the pandemic, he has been living on odd jobs and temporarily living in a shelter. “I worked with a formal contract, but I was released in 2020.”
“I’m going to take this R$ 2,500 to rent a house, buy food”, he says. “As we are foreigners, we don’t have gas cylinders or refrigerators. So, we’ll buy used things and pay, to survive.”
Hernandes wants to stay in Brazil, where he says solidarity and social benefits make life less difficult than in his country.
“I signed up for the Single Registry and was blessed. It’s much better here, at least there’s a lunch box, lots of donations, there’s never a shortage”, he says.
Asked about the concern that other beneficiaries have shown about the continuity of payment of Auxílio Brasil, he replied that he “believes in God” and that “Brazil is great and there is always a way to go forward.”
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