Reduction of Aid Brazil in 2023 could worsen child poverty, says Unicef

If Aid Brazil is even reduced from next year, the risk of a setback in the fight against child poverty increases, evaluates Unicef ​​(United Nations Children’s Fund).

In a study published this Thursday (24), the agency traced the impacts of the pandemic on children in a situation of monetary poverty (those who live on less than US$ 5.50 a day, or about R$ 26.78). , and extreme monetary poverty (less than US$ 1.90 or R$ 9.25 per day).

By replacing Bolsa Família, after 18 years of existence, with Auxílio Brasil since last November, the government increased the number of benefits and stipulated a minimum amount per family of R$ 400. As there are a series of complementary programs, some families can receive above that.

According to the Ministry of Citizenship, Auxílio Brasil paid an average benefit of R$409 in February to 18 million families, at a total cost of R$7.2 billion.

The value, however, is only guaranteed until the end of this year — a situation that worries experts on the subject. Some of them consider it foolhardy for the most robust aid to be used as electoral currency, in a year in which President Jair Bolsonaro (PL) is likely to seek re-election.

From the point of view of families, a reduction in the benefit in 2023 would also put millions of vulnerable Brazilians on a kind of income seesaw, going through sudden increases and reductions in benefit in a short period of time, as occurred during the emergency aid -program which had several different values ​​during its duration, interspersed with periods without payment.

To avoid the worst scenario, of aggravation of child poverty in the next year, the United Nations arm recommends the guarantee of funding sources to make Auxílio Brasil viable in the long term.

“Although it is positive and necessary to increase the average values ​​foreseen for the first year of Auxílio Brasil, it will be necessary not only to maintain similar levels in the following years, but also to regulate criteria for correcting the values ​​of the benefits in order to avoid losses resulting from inflation”, says Unicef.

The fund also recommends that the government ensure the sustainability of programs that work as mechanisms for expanding coverage in emergency situations or public calamities, such as the Covid-19 pandemic.

Another point highlighted is the need to expand the Suas (Sistema Único da Assistência Social), to strengthen social assistance surveillance and the mechanisms of active search and registration of the population not served by Auxílio Brasil, but subject to falling into poverty in cases of shocks. unexpected economics.

“It is estimated that about 20% of households were uncovered by any type of income transfer after the end of emergency aid, in October 2021”, says the institution.

Countries with the most accumulated spending to fight the pandemic, as a % of GDP (Gross Domestic Product)

1st Chile
2nd Brazil

3rd turkey
4th Poland
5th South Africa
6th China
7th Georgia
8th Argentina
9th Russia
10th Kazakhstan

Source: IMF, with Unicef

Unicef ​​concludes that Brazil is at a crossroads in the fight against child monetary poverty, having accumulated considerable spending, which allowed the temporary dampening of the impact of the pandemic on families, but not sustainable.

The scenario is worrying: families with children and adolescents are more vulnerable to insufficient income and child poverty is considerably higher than that of adults.

By the beginning of 2020, 20% of adults were living below the poverty line while 40% of children and adolescents were in the same situation.

The agency assesses that the emergency aid was responsible, in the quarters in which it was in force, for preventing about 1.8 million children from being in poverty and extreme poverty at that time.

“With the emergency aid, child monetary poverty temporarily decreased – rising again when the benefit was reduced or suspended. During the third quarter of 2020, when the R$ 600 assistance was being distributed, child monetary poverty fell from about 40% to 35%”, says the document.

Unicef ​​adds that, without the program, child monetary poverty would have been ten percentage points higher in the fourth quarter of 2020, that is, about 4.4 million children avoided insufficient income due to the benefit at that time.

• BRL 195.40

  was the monthly income from work per person in households eligible for Emergency Aid and Bolsa Família

• 20%

  is the share of households that were uncovered by any type of income transfer after the end of Emergency Aid, in October 2021

Poverty and extreme poverty among black children is twice that observed among white children

Children’s vulnerability also has a strong racial factor. Over the past two years, extreme monetary poverty for children of color has remained stable at around 17% through the first quarter of 2020.

It dropped to 6% in the third quarter of 2020, but reached 20% in the first quarter of 2021, with the reduction of emergency aid, and finally stabilized at 15% with the reintroduction of the benefit in the following periods.

Poverty and extreme poverty among black children is about double that observed among white children. About half of children who are not white (black and brown) were below this poverty line, having reached 55% in the first quarter of 2021, but returning to around 50%, a level similar to before the pandemic, in the following quarters, with the return of emergency aid.

From a regional point of view, this situation of vulnerability is also twice as high for children in the North and Northeast as in other regions of the country, says the fund.