Blocking of Bolsa Família for those who live alone generates queues – 04/20/2023 – Market

The Bolsa Família blockade of 1.2 million beneficiaries of the program this April resulted in long queues and turmoil at city hall service centers, creating a kind of race for re-registration in the main cities of the country.

The suspension is the result of an offensive by the federal government against possible fraud among beneficiaries registered as single-person families —composed of a single person— in the federal benefit payment system, but who actually live together with other people.

The objective of the Ministry of Social Development is to combat fraud, verifying possible inconsistencies in the family composition of beneficiaries. The registrations carried out by the Jair Bolsonaro (PL) government in the second half of 2022 are in sight.

According to the ministry, in March, the entry of single-person registrations was 66% lower than the average verified in 2022, when almost 500 thousand single-person registrations entered in a single month.

To recover the income, the citizen has a period of up to 60 days to prove that he really lives alone and is entitled to the benefit. Otherwise, starting in July, Bolsa Família will be cancelled.

In Salvador, a queue of around 50 beneficiaries from single-person families lined the sidewalks around the headquarters of the Municipal Secretariat for Social Promotion and Combating Poverty, in the Comércio district, on the morning of this Wednesday (19).

Among the beneficiaries who had Bolsa Família blocked was administrative assistant Selma Maria da Silva, 57 years old. She claims that she signed up for the program in August last year and that there has been no change in her family structure since then.

“I will repeat the same information I gave last year. I am in need, unemployed since 2020, and the benefit helps to maintain me”, he says.

Also in line was street vendor José Nascimento dos Santos, who works selling water and popsicles in the streets of downtown Salvador. He has been receiving R$600 from the program for about a year and says he lives alone.

The situation is similar in other capitals. In Fortaleza, the city hall reported that there will be reinforcements in the service teams to meet the sudden increase in demand.

In all, 160,500 beneficiaries had the benefit blocked for investigation in the capital of Ceará. The City Hall maintains 44 Single Registry update points with 157 employees to serve the public daily.

Rio de Janeiro also had reports of queues longer than usual in part of the Cras (Reference Center for Social Assistance) this week. According to the Municipal Secretariat of Social Assistance, the search for care more than doubled in the most popular units.

On Wednesday, the greatest demand was concentrated in the Santa Cruz, Bangu, Bonsucesso and Penha neighborhoods. The secretariat claims that it has been implementing actions since the beginning of the month to “optimize the service”, including reinforcement in the number of employees and extended hours.

In Recife, the city hall informed that, so far, it has not recorded a significant increase in the demand for care related to the Bolsa Família registration and that there was no record of queues in the specialized units.

At the Central do CadÚnico, the demand is spontaneous and it is not necessary to make an appointment. However, at Cras, the service must be scheduled in advance, through the Conecta Recife platform.

Director of institutional and international relations for the Brazilian Basic Income Network, Paola Loureiro Carvalho says that the structure and workforce of the Cras is not ready to handle the expected volume of service, even if the blockade was expected.

She also points out that it is not exactly a re-registration, but that the beneficiary is summoned to attend Cras to sign a term of responsibility to confirm that he lives alone.

“The control bodies are demanding an explanation as to why there has been a growth of this type of family [unipessoal]instead of the composition of the traditional families that made up the Bolsa Família”, says the director.

In groups on a social network, beneficiaries report that, on the eve of the withdrawal, they find the message in the application informing about the block.

One beneficiary who asked not to be identified said she was summoned and had to go to Cras twice to update her registration. As she saw that the data had not changed in the application, she decided to return to the unit and ask for a receipt so that she could go to court if her benefit was cancelled.

Anderson Delgado, 34, attended Cras twice to regularize his situation. In March, he says he followed the procedure, signed the term of responsibility and managed to withdraw the benefit for that month.

However, this week he says he received the notice through the Bolsa Família application informing that he should attend to regularize his situation.

“The second time I went to Cras, they said that it was not feasible to re-register, because it had been less than a month and that I just had to wait until June to see what would be done. I have money from April to receive and I don’t know what should I do”, says the beneficiary.

The City Hall of São Paulo informed, in a note, that it has been revalidating families with a single person registration since November 2022, in accordance with the recommendations of the federal government. The appointments at the São Paulo units are made by appointment, but there is the possibility of fitting in the agenda if there is a vacancy due to non-attendance.

The Ministry of Development and Social Assistance, Family and Fight against Hunger was approached by the reporter for a demonstration this Thursday (20).

The folder informed that the request was with the responsible technical areas, but did not return with a position until the publication of this report.

The main social program of the PT governments, Bolsa Família was reformulated and the new value, of at least R$ 600 per person, began to be paid in March. The program replaced Auxílio Brasil, created in the Bolsonaro government, also replacing the former Bolsa Família, with changes such as paying extra for minor children who are in school.

SEE WHAT TO DO TO GET BACK THE BOLSA FAMÍLIA

• Citizens who actually live alone should look for a service point of the Cadastro Único in the municipality where they live
• It is necessary to bring personal documents and proof of residence to update the registration. On site, you will need to sign a term stating that you live alone.
• After regularization, the municipality will unblock the registration and then the benefit will be paid, with the release of all blocked installments

FOR THOSE WHO REGISTERED AS A SINGLE-PERSON FAMILY BUT LIVES WITH OTHER PEOPLE:

• Citizens who live with their family, but registered as sole proprietorships, can request the cancellation of their registration through the Cadastro Único app.
• In the application, it is necessary to inform the login and password and enter “Full consultation”, where there will be the option to cancel the registration
• Afterwards, it is necessary to schedule an appointment to make a new registration correctly, including your data in the family you live with
• If you are in the program’s payment rules, you will receive the amount

OFFENSIVE AGAINST FRAUD AT BOLSA FAMÍLIA STARTED IN MARCH

In March, the Ministry of Development and Social Assistance began the process that would culminate in cutting benefits in April. For this, the agency began to cross-reference data from the program with those from the TSEE (Social Electricity Tariff) and the BPC (Continued Provision Benefit).

A deadline was opened for those who had the blocked benefit to start updating their registration to receive the amount. As of April, the payment would no longer be made. If you do not regularize the situation, the benefit is canceled from July.

According to the ministry, CadÚnico currently has 8.2 million single-person registrations, 5.1 million of which are Bolsa Família beneficiaries. The one-person investigation is one of the three stages of the cadastral qualification process, which aims to ensure that social program resources reach those who really need it.