Improvement in the design of Auxílio Brasil can fund benefit for children

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The improvement in the design of Auxílio Brasil by the next government could increase the benefit for children under six years of age or include more than 2 million homes in the future Bolsa Família, according to specialists.

Auxílio Brasil, a program that replaced Bolsa Família at the end of 2021 and which established a benefit floor without considering the composition of families, has led to an artificial increase in the number of homes registered with just one person.

So-called single-person families rose from 2.23 million in December of last year to 5.32 million in September of this year.

The calculations are by researcher Leticia Bartholo, former Deputy National Secretary of Citizenship Income, based on data from the Ministry of Citizenship.

The 5.321 million families with one person represent 25.7% of the universe of 20.353 million beneficiaries. Before, in December, they were around 15%, already at an overestimated level.

A cautious projection points out that the current number should be 3.1 million single-person households —2.2 million less than in September. If you consider the benefit of R$ 600 received for 12 months, there are about R$ 16 billion a year spent with the double payment for families.

With the same amount, the aid could be given to another 2.2 million families — or pay an additional benefit of R$ 150 for each child up to six years old who is in the program, as proposed by the team of the president-elect, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT).

“There was a movement, which happens more among men aged 25 and over. A man in extreme poverty is entitled to the benefit, but the situation of poverty and extreme poverty is evaluated based on the per capita family condition. This indicates that he has families receiving double, while others who could enter are without the benefit”, says Bartholo.

In a recent interview with Sheetformer minister Tereza Campello confirmed that most of the artificial divisions have been between men, which harms single mothers who depend on the benefit.

Bartholo explains that the number of single-person households has already grown before, primarily from 2017, and it is necessary to assess how much of this is an effect of the economic recession, young people are growing and registering in the program to guarantee the minimum income.

But there was no similar jump in the number of households with just one person among low-income Brazilians, according to the IBGE (Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics), which were 7.7% in 2021. the mistake is not made by the families that are trying to survive, but by the wrong formulation of public policy”, he says.

The greater demand for the income transfer program has an explanation. On Friday (2), the IBGE announced that poverty and extreme poverty reached record levels in the country in 2021.

62.5 million people were considered poor in the country —or 29.4% of the total population. Of these, 17.9 million lived in extreme poverty.

In August, the Brazil Aid went from R$400 to R$600, until December. The Jair Bolsonaro (PL) government, however, did not guarantee the continuity of the BRL 600 benefit from 2023, which was also considered at the time as an electoral measure.

The continuity of the R$600 benefit is one of the most important goals of the PT team, which is negotiating the so-called PEC (Proposed Amendment to the Constitution) for the Transition.

According to the Ministry of Citizenship, the portfolio initiated a specific action for the treatment of single-person families in September this year, before the elections. “According to Operational Instruction No. 1/2022, the process of targeting the Auxílio Brasil Program included two new audiences, composed of single-person families who, for the most part, have recently joined the Single Registry”, he informs.

Regarding the update of CadÚnico, the ministry’s note also points out that the portfolio prioritized, together with Dataprev, a process for treating the entire public of the Cadastro Único.

REDESIGN OF BOLSA FAMÍLIA IS URGENT, SAY EXPERTS

The experts’ assessment is that the future government of President Lula will have to redesign the program’s rules, which will once again be called Bolsa Família.

In their view, the new government needs to rebuild the program, not just changing its name, but redoing the rules and reinforcing what had worked before.

The change in Bolsa Família led to a loss of quality in the Single Registry (CadÚnico), due to the rushed registration of Emergency Aid during the pandemic, evaluates Marcelo Neri, from FGV Social.

Neri’s team estimates that the inefficiency of the Auxílio Brasil leads to a waste of up to 55% of resources. “Redesigning the program by giving more to those who have less makes it possible to do up to twice as much. It’s not about creating a brilliant program, but doing what we already did before. Whoever said that Auxílio Brasil would be a Bolsa Família 2.0 has delivered an involution.”

“The Bolsa Família program didn’t have ‘family’ in the name by chance, there was a distortion. The additional R$ 150 for children from 0 to 6 years old proposed by Lula greatly improves the targeting, but does not remove the incentive to fragment families. “

The program also brought ancillary benefits, such as the Junior Scientific Initiation Scholarship, School Sports Allowance, Rural Productive Inclusion, Urban Productive Inclusion and the Transition Compensatory Benefit.

Although they consider some of the initiatives interesting, specialists criticize flaws in the implementation and the distortion of the income transfer policy.

“Given that some of these grants serve a small percentage of the population, it would be much more appropriate to make a budget forecast, maintaining characteristics of Bolsa Família: considering the family composition”, says Bartholo.

It is necessary to value the registration update and monitoring via Cras (Reference Center for Social Assistance), says Tatiana Roque, vice president of the Brazilian Basic Income Network and professor at UFRJ (Federal University of Rio de Janeiro).

“The auxiliary programs also have to be reviewed. The scientific initiation program for young people can be an interesting program, but it is not income transfer. The current government added several things that did not make sense with the original program.”

She says that the next Lula government begins with the challenge of improving the infrastructure of the Cras, which have been practically dismantled in recent years. “The current government opted for a virtual registration, which could even make sense during the pandemic, but not now. Cras needs investment, as it is the tip of social policy in relation to the vulnerable population.”

In recent months, the press has reported an increase in service difficulties and new registrations of beneficiaries, it takes about 20 days for the agent to digitize the registration of a citizen who wants to enroll in the Single Registry, according to an estimate by the Brazilian Network of Basic Income.

Even though keeping the benefit at R$600 was one of the main promises of the PT campaign, it is also necessary to resume monitoring school attendance and child vaccination, say experts.

Report by Sheet it also showed that the technical group for the transition of Social Development and Fight against Hunger does not rule out the electoral interests that would be behind the flaws in the formulation of the Aid Brazil.

Last week, Senator Simone Tebet (MDB-MS) and former Minister Aloizio Mercadante told the press that the population was misled into registration errors and the hasty inclusion of beneficiaries and the wrong design can, in fact, configure abuse of economic power by the Bolsonaro government.

On Friday, the newspaper “O Globo” had access to an opinion from the TCU (Tribunal de Contas da União) that points out failures in the admission of 3.5 million families to the program in August, two months before the elections, under the pretext of zeroing the queue.

The auditors’ conclusion was that the program does not contribute to the reduction of poverty, favors single-person families and harms those with children. They should also recommend that the future government redesign the program and regularize the Cadastro Único.

According to Sheet As it was found, the subject has a report by Minister Augusto Sherman, and the process was included in the agenda of the plenary session scheduled for Wednesday (7). “So far, there is no decision by the Court and the documents are not public”, says the TCU’s Secom.

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