Bolsa Família: Lula plans to relaunch program in March – 01/18/2023 – Market

The government of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) started to avoid the name of Auxílio Brasil in disclosures related to the income transfer program. The brand was launched by then President Jair Bolsonaro (PL) in November 2021, in an attempt to boost its image from a new social seal.

Members of the Lula government have already signaled their intention to resume the Bolsa Família brand, associated with the PT administrations and which Bolsonaro tried to leave behind. But the reformulation should only take place in March, already with the new design of the program and with the additional payment to the children.

While the change is not completed, the mention of the name of the program baptized by Bolsonaro is already avoided. Lula published on his social network this Tuesday (17) the payment schedule for the first installment, referring to January, which begins to be deposited this Wednesday (18). The material, however, makes no reference to the Auxílio Brasil —instead, it only cites “federal government income transfer program”.

Members of the Ministry of Development and Social Assistance, Family and Fight against Hunger say that the official change to the name Bolsa Família should only take place when Lula finalizes the proposal that will change the rules and operation of the benefit. Thus, the president would have the chance to do a kind of relaunch of the program.

In addition to the political symbolism, there are also operational issues that make it difficult to change the name at this time.

Technicians claim that the MP (provisional measure) that reestablished the minimum value of R$ 600, signed by Lula on January 1st, could even change the name, but this was not done to avoid delay in payments scheduled for the month.

The contract with Caixa, responsible for operationalizing payments, deals with transfers from Auxílio Brasil, and changing the name of the program would raise the need for adjustments in the wording of the document.

The January payroll payment will be the first under Lula’s new management. The forecast is that 21.9 million families will receive the benefit – about 300 thousand more than in the last month of the Bolsonaro government, according to official data.

In December, Auxílio Brasil paid, on average, R$ 607.14 to 21.6 million families. The amount disbursed in the month was approximately R$ 13 billion.

The numbers were increased during the Lula administration. The portfolio, led by Minister Wellington Dias (PT), estimates an average benefit of R$ 614.21. The cost of the program was R$ 13.38 billion in the month.

The government is studying a reformulation of the program, which will be renamed Bolsa Família, and wants to update the Cadastro Único, a database that gathers information on beneficiaries of social programs.

As shown to Sheetthe technical transition group of Social Development recommended the restructuring of the Auxílio Brasil to resume the criterion that considers the number of family members in the calculation of the value of the benefit.

The objective is to correct the distortion caused by the minimum payment of BRL 600 per family, which ends up encouraging the artificial division of registrations and, consequently, the undue inclusion of beneficiaries. The considerations are included in the group’s final report and are being incorporated by Dias into the ministry’s discussions.

Until the completion of the new design, however, payments will continue in the current manner.

“Tomorrow [quarta] we will start paying R$ 600 to beneficiary families. Commitment signed during the campaign and which we achieved thanks to PEC [proposta de emenda à Constituição] that we approved still in the transition, since the value had not been foreseen in the Budget by the previous government”, wrote Lula on Twitter.

In addition to the discussion on format, the new government wants to resume the so-called conditionalities, demands that the government makes to families so that they continue to receive government assistance. They involve school attendance of children and adolescents and up-to-date vaccination.

In a meeting this Tuesday, Wellington Dias and the Minister of Education, Camilo Santana (PT), decided to create a working group to re-discuss the conditionalities, which were more flexible in the most recent period.

The objective is to monitor enrollment, school attendance, dropout rates and repetition rates in education, seeking better student performance associated with the income transfer policy. A new design for the school lunch program should also be discussed between the two ministries, but still without preliminary formulation.

Dias has also called representatives of state and municipal social assistance agencies to discuss the possibility of starting an active search for families who would be entitled to the benefit, but still do not receive it and, therefore, remain in a vulnerable situation.

At the same time, the new minister wants to carry out a reassessment of the registry to exclude families that are receiving help improperly.

Recently, Dias stated that around 10 million families may be in an irregular situation, either because of outdated information, or because they split the records to earn twice as much. The expectation is to advance in the review of the register throughout the month of February.