Those assisted in the Northeast report fear and expectation with a replacement for Bolsa Família

Roselane Silva, 29, from Bahia, preferred to face the line at dawn for fear of losing her benefit. Rosimeire Custódio, 55, from Ceará, is trying to get information on TV and neighbors about her future in cash transfer programs.

Laudiceia Santos, from Recife, who does not know how she is going to buy the next gas canister, is just uncertain whether she will continue to be covered with a subsidy.

Reports about the fear of being cut out of the social program, the concern that the value of the benefit will be reduced or that it will simply cease to exist spread to families in the Northeast who are beneficiaries of Bolsa Família.

With the extinction of the program after 18 years, the fear of being left out of the substitute Auxílio Brasil –whose source of income is still uncertain– has led hundreds of people to sleep in the queues at the Cadastro Único de Salvador to update their data.

The registration is the entrance to the renamed income transfer program of the Jair Bolsonaro government, but it is up to the city halls to register, which is why the service at the headquarters of Semper (Secretary of Social Promotion) jumped from 200 to up to 1,200 people in the capital Bahia.

Service at Semper, one of the seven physical posts in the city, starts at 8 am, but reports of those who get up early or arrive the night before multiply along the line –which extends for 350 meters– since the announcement of the end of Bolsa Família , last month.

Although the migration of Bolsa Família beneficiaries is automatic, the self-employed Roselane Silva, 29, preferred not to take any chances. This Wednesday (10), she faced the queue for the second day in a row.

Mother of one child, she has received R$130 from Bolsa Família since 2015, but did not want to wait for the date scheduled on the internet to keep her registration active. He left the Pirajá neighborhood, 11 kilometers away, at around 2:30 am, to update the data in CadÚnico and ensure assistance.

“I only know that it will pay R$ 400 for those included in Bolsa Família, but it still has to be seen if the government [federal] there will be this money,” he said, referring to the dependence on the approval of the PEC (Proposed Amendment to the Constitution) by Congress, which limits spending on court orders.

With the little Caique, just one month old, on her lap, unemployed Camila de Jesus, 26, took a bus at 4 am to travel 13 km from Pituaçu to the Comércio district, where Semper is located, in order to unlink the name from her mother’s Bolsa Família to be able to apply for Auxílio Brasil.

The family –Camila, three children and her mother– received R$89 per month from Bolsa Família. Unemployed, mother and daughter work odd jobs to try to pay the rent of R$ 350 and survive on donations.

“I really wanted to not need to be here, but to have a job that would give me dignity,” said the bearer of password 187, in the priority queue. “If I don’t have support or Bolsa Família, I don’t know how I’m going to support my three children.”

Without breakfast for two days, unemployed butcher Amilson de Jesus, 52, had his CadÚnico up to date, but went on to update it. With no money for transport, he arrived at the service station thanks to the benevolence of a bus driver.

“I’m starving at home. My hope is for this help to come out, because, since I was run over, in 2011, my leg has been compromised and I can’t work”, lamented the man, who lives favorably in his former sister-in-law’s house, sister of the deceased woman.

In Recife, the scenario is no different. In the case of Laudiceia Santos, a resident of the Roda de Fogo community, the apprehension makes her family uncertain about the income that will lie ahead.

She worked as a cleaner in family homes, but with the Covid-19 pandemic the service dwindled. Until then, she received R$89 monthly from Bolsa Família. With the pandemic emergency aid, the amount rose to R$600 and then to R$250, in the second phase of the program.

Laudiceia expects to receive R$89, equivalent to the Bolsa Família from before the pandemic, or a higher amount.

“I only know what we see on television, but I don’t even know when I’ll receive it”, says the cleaning woman. “Each hour is different, one hour it says it’s R$400, another hour it’s R$140 or R$220. We’re in uncertainty, with a sinking heart, because we’re practically surviving on this money.”

The other source of income she has are the R$500 she receives from her husband’s family –also informal and with no fixed activity– to take care of her mother-in-law.

The benefits help in spending on food, cooking gas and transport, and you also get a basic food basket, but you consider the amounts to be insufficient.

“Now my gas is at the end of it, I’m asking God to put your hand there and hold it, because there’s no money to buy another cylinder. don’t keep turning on the stove, because it’s faster to heat it up,” he says.

In Fortaleza, news of the extinction of Bolsa Família caused concern at the home of Rosimeire Custódio, 55, in the Barroso neighborhood.

Living on just R$91 from the program, she promised that on the 28th she would be able to withdraw the money from Auxílio Brasil.

“I’m praying every day so that they don’t cancel this money. I know it’s not much, but without it it’s going to get even worse. If I start receiving this R$400, it will help a lot”, he says.

With a rare bone disease, Rosimeire needs to take between 10 and 15 pills a day. The medication, which costs an average of R$600, is purchased by family members.

What little you know about Auxílio Brasil comes from talking to neighbors and what you watch on TV. “All I know is that Bolsonaro will have a fine-tooth comb, and whoever has more children will have priority,” he says.

Visits to the social assistance unit of Conjunto Esperança were frequent in the life of Carina Oliveira, 34. Every morning, from Monday to Friday, she takes Caio, 7, and Rodrigo, 5, for porridge there. The meal, given around 8 am, was Carina’s only meal the day before. The children ate the other meals at school.

On the morning of last Thursday (11), the trip to the site gained a new reason. After hearing from a friend that she would need to update the CadÚnico, she got up early in line for fear of losing the new benefit. “I have no right to miss anything else.”

A single mother, she was unemployed at the beginning of the pandemic and was enrolled in Bolsa Família only in January of this year. The R$218 of the program is the only income for the family, who live in a two-room house provided by Carina’s father.

Even with the city hall citing the non-obligation of updating or re-registration of data, Carina thinks that the money for the new aid will not quickly reach the population’s pocket.

“We take a back foot. When it involves money like that, the government always says an apology later. And if I lose the benefit, how is it? What am I going to live on?”