Bolsa Família has a queue of 438,000 people in Lula’s main program

The main social program of the new government of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT), Bolsa Família, has returned to record queues even after it was relaunched and the deficit of benefits granted was zeroed. The official report from the Ministry of Development and Social Assistance, Family and Fight against Hunger (MDS) points out that 438,000 families are waiting to be included in the program, a number that has grown again after being eradicated in March (see full text).

The result goes against the government’s own expectation of keeping the queue zero until the end of the year, even with the R$ 70 billion sent to the program by the PEC Fura-teto at the end of last year, in addition to the R$ 105 billion already initially foreseen by the government .

In mid-March, when it launched the new Bolsa Família and announced the new rules for accessing the program, the government excluded 1.4 million families from the benefit, and defined that 10 million should undergo an update. The revision of the program would help the government to save up to R$ 7 billion a year, according to Minister Simone Tebet, of Planning, in mid-April.

In addition to frustrating the government’s expectations, the queue of 438,000 people almost equals the liabilities of the Auxílio Brasil found by Lula at the beginning of the year, of 498,000 families who were waiting for the benefit and were automatically included in the Bolsa Família after the approval of the PEC resources.

The ministry reported that the average period for entry of new Bolsa Família beneficiaries is around 70 days, but did not explain the reason for the queue. A family is considered on hold after having entered the process and awaits analysis and release.

Still according to the ministry, Bolsa Família serves 21.2 million families, with an expected expenditure of R$ 168 billion this year alone.