Bolsonaro's 'cursed legacy': the 2023 social assistance budget is only enough for 10 days.

Brazil Current Network -  The Bolsonaro government leaves a “cursed legacy” of “true dismantling” in assistance, social development and the fight against hunger. This is the diagnosis of the technical group dedicated to the topic in the Transition Cabinet. Experts identified distortions, dismantling and possible abuse of the public machinery by the Bolsonaro campaign. “The indications are very serious and the consequences are too,” summarizes the political coordinator of the technical groups, Aloizio Mercadante, in an interview given this afternoon (1st). The report with the final conclusions should be presented on December 11th.

Senator Simone Tebet (MDB-MS), who came in third in this year's elections, is part of the working group. She reported that the Ministry of Citizenship today "only has citizenship in name." The senator explained that the entire budget of the ministry is committed to the Brazil Aid and Gas Aid programs, inflated by Bolsonaro on the eve of the elections without prior budgetary provision. According to the analysis of the transition government, with the budget proposed by the current government for 2023, Social Assistance has funds to function for only 10 days. 

“Regarding the budget, there was a cut of around 96% in the Citizenship budget. It could be called the Ministry of Aid to Brazil,” reports Simone. Firstly, the future Lula government needs fiscal space to keep the State functioning. That's why the approval of the Transition Amendment is so important. “We need R$ 70 billion to maintain Bolsa Família. Plus R$ 2 billion for the Gas Assistance program. Beyond that, for the Unified Social Assistance System (SUAS) to function minimally, maintaining service units, we need R$ 2,6 billion at current values. This is in addition to other programs that were discontinued,” explained Simone.

narrow-minded view

In addition to the budgetary issue, the senator reported the "complete lack of political will from the current government." They have paralyzed the entire set of social programs that guarantee fundamental rights.

“All policies related to employment, income, empowerment, skills training, productive inclusion, all that stuff about cisterns, food, public calamities. All these policies have been relegated to the background. It's a myopic, distorted, and narrow-minded view of what the Ministry of Citizenship means,” he states.

Buying votes

The congresswoman reported that the government has no control over the Auxílio Brasil program. According to the transition government, the benefit was used to buy votes in a failed attempt to re-elect Bolsonaro. Mercadante recalls that the election period was marked by abuses.

“We are facing harassment from some churches, businesspeople, and the State against voters. On the eve of elections, they include more than 2 million people to receive benefits. After the elections, they propose that these benefits be withdrawn by the next government. It is an electoral crime to provide undue benefits to voters,” he reported.

The issue of distortions in the Auxílio Brasil program was detailed by the former Minister of Social Development and Fight against Hunger, Tereza Campello. According to data collected by the technical group, there is a clear lack of control in the granting of Auxílio Brasil. The former minister points to bad faith on the part of the government. “The number of adults living alone jumped from 1,8 million to 5,5 million between January 2019 and October 2022. If we look at what happened, the increase in families with more than two people was 21%. The increase in people living alone was 200%.”

Cursed inheritance

The distortion is not the citizens' fault, argues Tereza Campello. But rather the fault of the Bolsonaro program's model. "A poorly designed system that induced families to register individually. The pre-registration via app automatically pulls up the CPF (Brazilian taxpayer ID). We have misinformation from the system itself and a lack of federal coordination."

Furthermore, the current government plans to correct these distortions; but during Lula's government. "The schedule for investigating sole proprietorships is to call 8,9 people in December. So, more than 2 million in the first two months of Lula's government. Therefore, they are placing the responsibility for correcting what they themselves produced on the incoming government, on the overburdened municipalities," explains the former minister.

The former minister explains that, in addition to the budget deficit, Bolsonaro's actions leave the population without assistance and states and municipalities in a state of disarray.

"The consequences of this government's incompetence are duplicate benefits payments, exclusion errors, and distortion of data in the Unified Registry. An entire set of programs, including those of states and municipalities, has been dismantled."

Finally, there is a need not only for the approval of the Transition Amendment to guarantee social programs, but also for a complete restructuring of the State. “Because we are taking this issue seriously, we called a meeting with municipal and state managers to try to organize and reach an agreement. We have begun a renegotiation of the schedule. We suggested starting an awareness campaign so that the population is not caught off guard by abrupt measures. We want to help expand the capacity of municipalities throughout the year. We will hold more meetings to organize the actions. We are also counting on the press to clarify and reduce the lack of control and misunderstanding.”

People from outside

Former Minister of Social Development Márcia Lopes also highlighted other problems left by the Bolsonaro administration in the sector. Firstly, the exclusion of the people from decision-making. “After the 2016 coup, the government did not mobilize any instance of participation, of social control, of councils, conferences. We had the extinction of these councils. No decision goes through the councils. Lula always valued listening to the people so much. This stopped happening, which compromised our learning and construction,” she said.

Thus, Márcia described the current situation of social assistance as "scorched earth." "We found a situation of absolute calamity and despair. We spoke with state and municipal secretaries and saw total disregard and irresponsibility. They disregarded everything, despite the rules. There is no doubt. We found a rupture of the federal pact. So, we, the more than 600 social assistance workers, were stunned. We found total authoritarianism, the anguish of the federal employees themselves. Limited in their ability to continue their work. They paralyzed programs such as those for the eradication of child labor, slave labor, management with municipalities, and the Unified Registry."

Finally, Márcia lamented the 125 million people facing food insecurity in Brazil and said that the future government is dedicated to changing this situation.

“We expect that, starting in January, we will return to a democratic state governed by the rule of law, fulfilling its responsibilities. That is why we are working to transform the country from 2023 onwards.”

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