RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The rapporteur of the Provisional Measure (MP) that creates Auxílio Brasil, deputy Marcelo Aro, foresees that 20 million families may benefit after the changes in the program design passed on Thursday, November 25, by the Chamber of Deputies.
The Bolsa Família program, which was replaced by Auxílio Brasil, served 14.7 million families and the government pledged to raise it to 17 million.
The bill passed by the Chamber of Deputies prevents waiting lines and raises the criteria to access the program compared to the government’s previous draft, which served as the basis for defining the budget for the new social program designed by the Bolsonaro government.
The values of the extreme poverty line increased for households with R$100 (US$18) to R$105 income per person and the poverty line from R$200 to R$210. In the extinct Bolsa Família, these values were R$89 (extreme poverty) and R$178 (poverty).
“Today some 14 million Brazilians receive the Bolsa Família. By ending the line and changing the poverty and extreme poverty brackets, we would exceed 20 million families,” the rapporteur said soon after the MP was unanimously passed with no dissenting votes.
He didn’t specify if the budget will need to be increased. The government is relying on the approval of the Court-ordered debt proposed constitutional amendment (PEC) to make room in the budget for Auxilio Brasil. According to Aro, the budget forecast for Brazil Aid is R$85 billion, R$50 billion more than the R$34.7 billion contained in the 2022 Budget bill.
According to Aro, the line today has 2 million people eligible and waiting to receive the social assistance benefit. “Everyone who was waiting for Bolsa Família will now receive Auxílio Brasil. These millions of people will receive it immediately,” he said, stressing that the poverty threshold criteria to enter the program has been raised to R$32, which will expand the access of households to Auxílio Brasil.
Advisors to the Minister of Citizenship João Roma said that the government does not have an estimate of how many more families will be able to join the program with the changes in the MP passed yesterday.