By TADEU ALENCAR ARRAIS & TATHIANA RODRIGUES SALGADO*

Universalizing means making physical and personnel infrastructure available to the 8,5 million square kilometers of an ecologically diverse and diversely integrated territory

“Let us try to explain. It is really necessary for society to look at these things, since it is society that produces them.”
(Victor Hugo, The miserable, p.127).

BPC is not just any acronym. The Continuous Benefit Payment, also known by beneficiaries as LOAS, an abbreviation of the Organic Law of Social Assistance (Brazil, 1993), benefited 2024 people in June 6.036.540, which generated a monthly expense, recorded in July 2024, of 7,49 billion reais. The amount is 1 minimum wage for poor elderly people aged 65 and over and people with disabilities who are also in poverty.

Eligibility is defined based on income. per capita of the family group, equal to or less than ¼ of the Minimum Wage, which, in September 2024, corresponded to R$ 353,00. This income cutoff is lower than that which, in Cad-Único, defines the low-income situation, equivalent to ½ Minimum Wage per person. We are dealing, considering only the income filter, with an extremely vulnerable group of people.

In the case of the elderly, it is enough to remember that care will almost always fall to one person, very often a woman, from the family group. It is the benefit of one that allows that person to be cared for by another. In the case of benefits for people with disabilities, the situation is even more complex. Serious neurological diseases, such as sclerosis or cerebral palsy, require continuous care. Degenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer's, mental disorders, such as schizophrenia, or even diseases that compromise mobility, among many others, make it impossible or limit the possibilities of self-care and the exercise of work activities.

Imagine, for example, the conditions of reproduction of the life of a poor young woman who cares, in the solitude reserved for mothers, for a child diagnosed, since birth, with microcephaly.

Imagine, for example, the living conditions of a young motorcycle delivery driver who, due to an accident during his informal work activity, had one of his lower limbs amputated.

Imagine, for example, the conditions of reproduction in the life of an adult man, without income, diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease, whose consequences gradually reduce the possibilities of self-care.

Imagine, for example, the conditions of reproduction in the life of a low-income single mother whose son was diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder.

But how are the beneficiaries of the Continuous Benefit Payment distributed across the country? This is important to consider, especially when dealing with public policies, since accessibility and mobility conditions, as well as the provision of physical infrastructure and personnel related to Social Assistance, are very different in the 5.568 municipalities.

The challenges of universalizing public services and social security actions are enormous. Universalizing means making physical and personnel infrastructure available, from the point of view of public services, for the 8,5 million square kilometers of an ecologically diverse and diversely integrated territory, when we consider regional exchanges and the circulation of goods and services. Universalizing means joining forces to combat vulnerability and the risks that arise from it on a daily basis.

Figure 1 spatializes, on a municipal scale, the participation of the total number of BPC beneficiaries in relation to the total population of the municipalities. The map can be read as a representation of Brazilian vulnerability. Among the 10 municipalities with the highest percentage participation, 8 are located in Bahia. In 643 of the 5.668 Brazilian municipalities, we recorded the participation of BPC above 4% of the municipal population.

The regional profile highlights not only issues related to Brazilian regional development, but also the accessibility logistics that allow beneficiaries to apply for and, at the same time, withdraw benefits at banks or lottery agencies. The beneficiary profile, based on whether they are classified as poor elderly or disabled, is impressive. In 4.907 municipalities, we recorded more than 50% of the total benefits issued for people with disabilities, which poses a special challenge for public health issues.

There is other information that expresses the importance of Continuous Payment Benefits from a vulnerability perspective. These are benefits for groups considered more vulnerable, such as Quilombolas, Indigenous Peoples, and Homeless People. At this point, there are no potentially empty spaces for social policy action. For this group, represented in Figure 2, 2022 benefits were allocated in 38.898. In addition to recurring vulnerability, these groups have difficulties in accessing communication and information due to the territorial characteristics of their sites. In Bahia, there is a predominance of Quilombolas receiving benefits in the form of people with disabilities, and in Amazonas, indigenous people in the same situation. This is what makes the BPC so important for Brazilian social geography.

But BPC resources also play a fundamental role in the economy. Whether on the outskirts of capital cities or in the villages of the Brazilian semiarid region, BPC resources ensure the survival of the most vulnerable population. In addition, these resources, in different ways, contribute to the solvency of municipal economies, fundamentally small local retail. BPC is rooted in the Brazilian social geography, making it fundamental to the survival of millions of Brazilians.

This analytical perspective can be seen in Figure 3, which shows the relationship between the total value of resources from the BPC, accumulated in one year, and the total value of income from formal employment. In 586 municipalities, the total value of the BPC, accumulated in the year, is greater than the total accumulated income from formal employment. In another 1.108 municipalities, the value of the BPC represents up to 50% of the total value of resources from formal employment. There is no secret here.

The regional profile supports the hypothesis that BPC resources reinforce the circulation of income and retail consumption, which means that, to varying degrees, the resources distribute income and generate employment. Another aspect that deserves further reflection refers to the role of BPC in the settlement and permanence of the vulnerable population in specific areas of the national territory, especially in the Amazon Region.

This preliminary portrait of Continuous Benefit Payments would also require correlation with a set of social indicators and demographic structure. This public of more than six million beneficiaries, most of whom are women and also have disabilities, to varying degrees, are invisible to public opinion and also to those enthusiastic about fiscal austerity, with or without a mandate. Tax exemptions, based on the CNPJ, are invisible to public opinion. Expenditures on social benefits, in the chessboard of economic policy, appear as dysfunctional expenses for the State and municipal economies. This thesis, oiled in neoliberal doctrines, must be exhaustively contested.

Our hypothesis, explored in the report “In defense of BPC – the management of poverty as a veneer of fiscal austerity” and also associated with the argument outlined by Loic Wacquat (2013), in Punishing the Poor – The New Management of Poverty in the United States, is that the punitive demands expressed in Bill 1847 (2024) represent the way to, using administrative techniques, impose yet another defeat on the most vulnerable portion of the Brazilian population.

This line of argument is not new and has already been explored by David Deccache (2024) and by science communicator and historian Jones Manuel (2024). Our effort, based on a territorial approach, involves giving visibility to the Continuous Benefit Payment, highlighting its relevance for the survival of the most vulnerable portion of the Brazilian population, especially women.^[1]

* Tadeu Alencar Arrais He is a professor at the Department of Geography at the Federal University of Goiás (UFG).

*Tathiana Rodrigues Salgado is a geography professor at the State University of Goiás.

References

BRAZIL. Law No. 8.742 of December 7, 1993. Provides for the organization of Social Welfare and other measures. Official Gazette of the Union: section 1, Brasília, DF, December 7, 1993. Available using this link.

DATAPREV. Infologo – AEPS. Social Security historical data platform. Available using this link.

DECCACHE, David. Why the BPC is under threat. Other words, 13 Sep 2024. Available using this link.

HUGO, Victor. The miserable. São Paulo: Martin Claret, 2020.

INSS. National Institute of Social Security. Ministry of Social Security. Social Security Statistics. Available using this link.

MANOEL, Jones. PT and PSOL vote with the far right to attack social rights. YouTube, 18 Sep 2024. Available using this link.

MDS. Ministry of Social Development. VISDATA Platform. Secretariat of Evaluation, Information Management and Single Registry (SAGICAD). Brasília, DF: MDS, 2022. Available using this link.

RAIS. Annual Report of Social Information. Statistical data, by municipality. Brasília, DF: MTE, 2022. Available using this link.

FEDERAL SENATE. Bill No. 1847, of 2024. Senate, 2024. Available using this link.

WACQUANT, Loïc. Punish the poor. Rio de Janeiro: Revan, 2013.

Note

[1] This article summarizes the first part of the report's arguments. In defense of BPC – the management of poverty as a veneer for fiscal austerity, published by the Brazilian Social State Observatory as a result of the approval of Bill Number 1847/24, which deals with tax exemptions and measures to combat fraud in Continuous Benefit Payments. Available using this link.

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