Pregnant women from families in poverty and extreme poverty can receive Auxílio Brasil, with the so-called BCG (Benefício de Composición Pregnante), which will pay R$ 65 for each pregnant woman in the family for nine months.
The procedures for payment of the benefit were published by the Ministry of Citizenship in this Monday’s edition (7) of the DOU (Diário Oficial da União).
To be entitled, the family must be enrolled in CadÚnico or already be a beneficiary of Auxílio Brasil — a program that replaced Bolsa Família.
Thus, the family cannot have a monthly per capita income (per person) above the poverty line (between R$100 for extreme poverty and R$200 for poverty), and a family with more than one identified pregnant woman can be entitled to more than one benefit.
“A family that has more than one identified pregnant woman can receive more than one BCG. Each pregnant woman can only receive one BCG at a time”, says the normative instruction of the government.
To have access to the benefit, the pregnant woman can request it through the channels of the Ministry of Citizenship, such as telephone 121. It is also possible to monitor the situation of the benefit through the other channels available on the ministry’s website.
According to Citizenship, Auxílio Brasil increased the number of pregnant women benefiting from income transfers. The Bolsa Família even contemplated pregnant women from families in extreme poverty; with the change in the program, poor families also have the right.
The identification of the pregnant woman depends on the insertion of information in the public health system. The Ministry of Health will transfer the relationship of pregnant women located in the SUS (Unified Health System) services to the Ministry of Citizenship.
The government’s rule says that the amount is granted without taking into account the stage of pregnancy or whether prenatal care has started, but the identification of the pregnant woman depends on this information.
In addition, after the benefit is granted for the first time, the pregnant woman will only be able to receive a new BCG after 12 months of granting the previous benefit, even if there are different pregnancies in this period.
Payment will not be retroactive, that is, the family will not receive the previous installments on an accumulated basis, but will receive one installment per month, from the moment of granting, until nine installments are completed.
In the event of an abortion, the benefit will not be canceled so that it can be used for the woman’s recovery.
The economist at Insper and columnist at sheet Sergio Firpo points out that there is evidence that this type of benefit generates positive effects on children’s health. “It is necessary to assess, however, whether the value of the benefit is adequate to generate the positive effects described in the literature on the health of the mother and baby.”
A 2017 study published by the Inter-American Development Bank, for example, looked at the effects of cash transfers for pregnant women in Bolivia. The payment was conditional on prenatal care and was equivalent to 1% of the families’ monthly consumption.
The data showed a reduction in the number of stillbirths, by increasing the use of health services and monitoring by pregnant women.
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