’24-hour queue on the sidewalk and no bathroom’: the despair of mothers who fear losing Auxílio Brasil

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A mat, blankets, pieces of cardboard and a pillow.

This was the kit taken by most of the 50 people who spent up to 24 hours in line waiting for service to update CadÚnico no Cras (Reference Center for Social Assistance), in Brasilândia, in the extreme north of São Paulo.

This was because the mobile unit that was servicing the CEU (Centro Educacional Unificado) was the only one in the region to distribute 50 tickets for face-to-face attendance. The others work only by appointment online or by phone.

For some families, Friday (14) would be the last possible day to update CadÚnico. Otherwise, they could lose the right to receive social benefits, such as Auxílio Brasil.

However, the federal government extended this deadline for another month.

BBC News Brasil spoke with four mothers who take care of their children alone in Brasilândia and depend mostly on social benefits to buy food and pay basic household bills.

four months trying

Nanny Ingrid Souza said she has been trying for four months to make an appointment to update her registration at Cras.

She says that her card was blocked in August and, since then, she has only been able to receive social benefits at a Caixa branch.

On Friday, she went to Cras 3, in Brasilândia, in another attempt to update her registration. But without success.

“They say they can’t do anything. They say I have to update through the website, but I’ve already tried. I also called 156 (city hall service) and the app. I have two children and I couldn’t sleep in line to guarantee the update”, he said. .

Ingrid told BBC News Brazil that the aid money is essential for the family to pay basic bills and eat. She lives alone and supports her two children, aged 7 and 3.

“The first thing I do when I get the money is buy the children’s milk and the diaper used by my 3-year-old son to sleep on because he wets the bed. Otherwise, I supplement the income with odd jobs as a nanny, that earn R$ 200 a month”, she said while holding a child she takes care of.

Ingrid also said that one of the main aids she counts on to spend less is with the meals that her children eat at school.

Smads (Municipal Secretariat for Assistance and Social Development) of São Paulo reported that “service at CadÚnico in the city of São Paulo is done primarily by prior appointment since 2018, in order to avoid the formation of queues”.

Per month, according to the ministry, “about 62,000 appointments are made in the capital. According to the Smads Benefits Management Coordination, about 25% of appointments are absent. These vacancies generated by absence are again available to the population “.

main income

Joana d’Arc Ferreira da Cruz takes care of her three children alone. And she says that she has also been trying for months to schedule an appointment at Cras to continue receiving Auxílio Brasil, the family’s main income.

“I’ve tried it on the website, neighborhood association, at 156. I can’t lose the benefit. My rent alone costs R$ 300, which is half of the aid. Other than that, I have to pay wifi for my children to study”, he said.

Joana said that her children make reels sporadically, but that she does not have this money for the house.

She supplements the family’s income with the work she does collecting recyclable material.

“This job guarantees me an income of up to R$ 150 a week. As we are four people in the house, I do what I can.”

24 hours in line

At 10 am on Thursday (10/13), when Fernanda Aparecida Benedito arrived at the place where the Cras traveling van was parked in Brasilândia, she was informed that, if she did not get in line to be seen the next day, she would possibly have the Brazil aid cancelled.

“At that time, there were already 22 people in front of me. I had to spend the night here, with a lot of people sleeping on the sidewalk. People with children and elderly people without a bathroom or tent. I saw ladies peeing behind cars on the streets. covered up. Those who didn’t bring it, got cold”, he reported.

She says that some people even fought at night with those who were already in line, because they understood that they didn’t want people there anymore.

“We told people who arrived that they would only distribute 50 vouchers, but they thought that we didn’t want them to be answered. There was even a hair-pulling fight because of that”, said Fernanda.

She told the report that in the last three months she called 156 to try to schedule an appointment, but she always heard that there were no vacancies. To get in line, she left the children at their mother’s house because she didn’t have anyone to take them to school.

“So, children lose their studies and we lose money because we work with events. And how are we going to work today if we slept all night on the street?”, he asked.

She said she uses Auxílio Brasil to pay the R$600 rent of the house where she lives with her children, aged 14 and 9. Their father, according to her, gives informal financial help to the children.

“If they don’t give the benefit, I can’t pay the rent. The work I do is to feed us, pay for a van to take my son, buy clothes,” he said.

With complaints of arthrosis and pain in the sciatic nerve, Sandra Lia do Nascimento said that “it was very painful” to spend the night in the open to update the register.

“But we need it”, he consoles himself moments before having her name called by the attendant.

When asked by BBC News Brasil, she said that she now hopes that her problem will be resolved.

“I hope to God that I make it. After all, after the storm comes the calm”, he said, smiling.

This text was originally published here.

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