RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – More than half of all Brazilians may be eligible to receive the three-month payments of R$600 (US$120) emergency aid, designed to help the most vulnerable population during the coronavirus pandemic, according to a study released by the Senate’s Independent Fiscal Institution (IFI).
The measure will generate one of the main primary expenditures associated with tackling the pandemic in 2020, but its total figure is still unclear, according to IFI, as it depends on the development of the unemployment rate and the population’s income over May and June.
Those eligible to benefit from the aid are casual workers, self-employed low-income workers, and Bolsa Família (Family Grant) beneficiaries. Part of this population was originally registered in the Cadastro Único (Single Registry), a database for social program participation, and has already been easily mapped out by the government.
The remainder have been registering through the Caixa Econômica Federal’s (Federal Savings Bank) digital channels. The latter group is more difficult to identify and may grow if the economy deteriorates further in the coming months.
On April 30th, the total number of eligible people in these three groups reached 50.5 million (the majority have already been paid the benefit’s first installment), but may reach 112 million in the coming months, according to the IFI’s projection;this would represent over half of the 211.5 million Brazilian citizens.
The report notes that the eligibility of approximately 18.6 million registrations made through the Caixa App or website was still being examined by Tuesday. In addition, there are still “People in a more vulnerable situation than the average, and who were unable to access the Internet, for instance,” still eligible for registration, says the IFI’s note.
The Institute works with a base scenario that considers a smaller number of beneficiaries, 79.9 million, with a total spending of R$154.4 billion in three months. The estimate does not consider the potential for extending the grant period.