Emergency aid (Marcelo Camargo / Agência Brasil)
The government wants to increase the per capita income limit, per person of the family, to R $ 600 in the renewal of the emergency aid. This criterion reaches workers who do not qualify for Bolsa Família and exceeds the amount defined in the law that created the benefit of half minimum wage, which would be R $ 550 this year.
Despite the broader income limit, the new round of the program will have a more restricted audience. The expectation is that the new aid will be paid to 40 million, with 20 million people today covered by the Family Grant and another 20 million informal workers. Last year, 68 million people benefited from the transfers.
The payments planned for this year will be focused on using other methods, in addition to defining the income criterion. One way is to cross-check information with several official databases to prevent people who are not considered vulnerable from having access to the benefit.
In all, the Single Registration (which brings together beneficiaries of social programs) contains data on almost 128 million people, in various stages of information verification. The 40 million focused on renewing the aid went through several screens. This number is considered the best radiograph of the most needy population, according to technicians from the Ministry of Citizenship.
In the evaluation of the portfolio, the group of 40 million people defined based on this comb needs assistance because it fits the most vulnerable part of the population and does not have the means to earn income, mainly in the crisis generated by the pandemic.
The income criterion to be considered will not be monthly, but quarterly and half-yearly, given the variation in income of these families. Often, they have income in one month and not in the next, explained a technician.
According to a source, a large part of these informal workers to be benefited had already declared per capita income of up to R $ 600 when signing up for the Ministry of Citizenship Register, even before the emergency aid was announced in April 2020.
The remainder made the self-declaration in the Caixa Econômica Federal application and had the information cross-referenced with several official databases.
Benefit value scenarios
The amount of the aid and the number of installments are not yet defined. The government works with various scenarios, from R$ 200, R$ 250 e R$ 300, in three and four installments. If it is set at R $ 250 four times, the impact is estimated at R $ 30 billion this year.
The double quota payment for single mothers still depends on the margin that the government will get in the budget, during negotiations with the National Congress.
Deputy Marcelo Ramos (PP-AM), vice-president of the Chamber of Deputies, said that the economic team wants to take advantage of the pressure for renewing the aid to approve fiscal adjustment measures. However, he said he supported it, given the need to signal to investors that the government is worrying about public accounts at the time of high indebtedness.
– The government’s strategy is to use pressure for emergency aid to approve other compensatory measures – said the parliamentarian.
The government leader in the Chamber, deputy Ricardo Barros (PP-PR) said that the main problem is to build a large majority in the Congress that allows to quickly approve a proposal to amend the Constitution, which authorizes the Executive to extend emergency aid, outside the public spending ceiling and at the same time cut mandatory expenses, even if it is only after 2022.
– If there is no unanimity, we will take a year to approve the proposal, considering the regulatory deadlines – highlighted Barros.
