The total number of Brazilians below the basic poverty line in the country reached a record at the end of 2021, with 23 million people – almost one Australian – living on less than R$210 per month (R$7 per day). This equates to 10.8% of Brazilians.
Although low enough to meet basic needs, the amount is used by Oxilio Brasil as a criterion of eligibility for some benefits – meaning that the millions of Brazilians who would have the right to enter the program would still be excluded. Is placed.
In a series that began in 2015, the poorest people were subjected to extreme volatility in their incomes, in addition to a record number of people living on less than R$210 per month. They differ greatly, with the adoption of emergency aid in pandemics in the past two years, the end of the Bolsa Familia and the lack of definition until the current creation of Auxilio Brasil.
According to data from FGV Social, based on a continuous national household sample survey from IBGE, 42.1% between 2020 and 2021, corresponding to 7.2 million new poor people in 2020 and 3.6 million compared to the pre-pandemic period.
“In addition to high social inequality and low economic growth in recent years, the poorest have suffered greatly from a ‘roller coaster’ in the value of their income, which is very bad for population planning and welfare,” he says, the economist. Marcelo Neri, Director of FGV Social.
In this “roller coaster”, the monthly per capita household income of the poorest 10% was falling before Covid-19 and was reduced by more than half at the start of social isolation (from R$114 in November 2019 to R$52 ) March 2020). From this minimum, in the most generous phase of emergency aid, it more than quadrupled to its historic peak in August 2020 (R$ 215).
Then, it fell to just over a quarter with the suspension of the program in January 2021 (R$ 55). With reduced coverage and amounts, the resumption of benefits partially recovered the incomes of the poorest (R$113 in August 2021), remaining from pre-pandemic levels, with a further downward trend in the final months of the year. Down 15.8% (BRL 96 in Nov 2021).
According to Neri, surveys show that nearly two-thirds of the poorest 40% in the country normally rely on the help of relatives and friends to survive on a daily basis. “Since they are all the same now, this support network has become very limited.”
According to the PENSON Network (the Brazilian Network for Research in Food and Nutrition Sovereignty and Security), there are currently 33 million people hungry in Brazil; And 6 out of 10 Brazilians live with some degree of food insecurity.
Neri recalls that since the early 1970s, Brazil has been one of the largest inflation record holders in the world, even after the de facto plan in 1994 – which is extremely damaging to the poorest.
“The unpredictability in earnings only worsens the situation. Right now there are attempts to bring down gasoline prices, which should rise again in 2023”, he says.
With Fernando Canjian (FolhaPress)
