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The City With The Lowest Number Of Bolsa Família Beneficiaries, Located In Rio Grande Do Sul, Underwent A Rigorous Registration Review, Which Should Further Reduce The Number Of People Eligible To Receive The Benefit.
São Domingos do Sul, in Rio Grande do Sul, is the city with the fewest Bolsa Família beneficiaries in Brazil. According to the latest data, only seven families are registered in the social program. With the updating of registrations and new government guidelines, this number may change in the coming months.
City With Fewest Bolsa Família Has Agriculture, But May Lose Even More Beneficiaries
Even with a relevant number of inhabitants (2,700 residents), the city with the fewest Bolsa Família beneficiaries has only 1.3% of the population receiving Bolsa Família in Brazil, which indicates a margin 20 times lower than the Brazilian average, which is 25%.
This happens due to the strength of the Agriculture sector, which drives the entire state of Rio Grande do Sul and provides a wide range of jobs to residents – including those in the city with the fewest Bolsa Família beneficiaries. Additionally, a very thorough review of all registrations in the small city was carried out, contributing to the reduction in the number of Bolsa Família beneficiaries in Brazil.
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Registration Review Was Conducted By Social Worker
The main person responsible for the analyses carried out on Bolsa Família registrations in the city of São Domingos do Sul was the Municipal Secretary of Social Assistance, Juliana Cerchiari, 41 years old. The reason: Proper management of all records is essential to ensure that the Bolsa Família benefit in Brazil is directed to those who really need it.
According to the Secretary of Social Assistance of São Domingos do Sul, Bolsa Família is “an excellent program, but it needs to be well managed,” and she also stated that “the federal government finances, but the municipality has the autonomy to apply the resources.” Juliana added, “if all municipalities followed the law rigorously, almost half of the beneficiaries would stop receiving.”
The Drop From 120 Beneficiaries To 35
The ‘tightening’ in the city with the fewest Bolsa Família beneficiaries has been ongoing since 2019, the year Juliana Cerchiari took office in the municipality. That year, 31 families – approximately 120 people – were receiving the benefit. However, after a detailed review of the registration updates, cuts were made, and the number of Bolsa Família beneficiaries in the city dropped sharply.
Juliana’s team worked intensively on cross-referencing information to detect any inconsistencies in registrations, finding several individuals who did not meet the profile to receive the aid. All registrations that did not meet the minimum criteria were removed from the Federal Government’s program.
Juliana Cerchiari reports that she found numerous registrations with inconsistencies and even surprising stories through the data cross-referencing. According to her, there were cases where “women claimed to be single but had husbands,” and she noted other cases where “they declared zero income but appeared in the system with expenses of R$ 1,500 per month.”
Cities With Bolsa Família Registrations Outside The Norm
Currently, around a quarter of the Brazilian population receives and depends on Bolsa Família, with an estimate of 54 million people registered to receive the benefit, according to the Federal Government. With about 72 million families, the country has at least 20 million registered for the benefit. But while there is good management in the city of São Domingos do Sul, this is not the case in other Brazilian cities where efficiency is lacking.
A wave of fraud is currently occurring in some cities in Brazil, and one of the most critical situations is in the state of Maranhão, in the city of Serrano do Maranhão. Located in the interior of the state, Serrano do Maranhão has only 3,953 homes but has more than 5,000 families registered in Bolsa Família, according to data from the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) and the Ministry of Social Development.
According to the mayor of Serrano do Maranhão, Val Cunha (PL), there was an error in the 2022 Census. She stated that the number of households listed in the IBGE survey is incorrect. According to the city’s attorney, Romulo Emanuel da Silva, the village of Santa Filomena, where about 200 people live, was wrongly considered part of the city of Santa Helena.
Moreover, the village of Boa Esperança, where around 800 people live, according to Romulo Emanuel, did not even receive a visit from IBGE census takers for information gathering for the 2022 Census in the city.
