States and municipalities should receive more than R$ 3.5 billion by the end of the year for social programs

States and municipalities should receive more than R$ 3.5 billion by the end of the year to maintain the regular functioning of social programs. Only for the restructuring of the Unified Social Assistance System (SUAS) R$ 1.4 billion will be transferred. Budget consultant Cesar Lima points out that this money is related to the rapporteur’s amendments. He explains that, after being considered unconstitutional by the Federal Supreme Court (STF), the general budget rapporteur had to redistribute resources that had already been allocated for this type of action. In this way, a part of these resources went to the individual amendments of the parliamentarians and another part was redistributed within several actions of the Union budget. In this process, the expert says that a part ended up being destined for the restructuring of social assistance actions.

“States and municipalities can request these actions, there is a cost ceiling in accordance with Ordinance MDS Nº 866 of that year and you can also request for construction, in the case of reference centers for social assistance, the so-called CRAS/CREAS, and also for the purchase of permanent material equipment, in this case, the purchase of computers, special beds, wheelchairs… ”, he evaluates.

For Evilasio Salvador, economist and professor at the Graduate Program in Social Policy at the University of Brasilia (UnB), the transfer is an attempt to recover the regular budget for serving the network of the single social assistance system.

“This transfer that the government is doing now seems to me to be very much aimed at updating the single registry and the active search for families, which had been abandoned in recent years. The Single Registry is essential for families to receive benefits and build this important social policy and make the destination of income transfer and social assistance services more transparent”, he points out.

The expert points out that this transfer is a way of guaranteeing the poorest population two types of protection: the social protection system and the special protection system. According to Evilásio, these transferred amounts are part of discretionary expenses, that is, those that do not have mandatory expenses, which allows their use in different projects such as the one being used for the recovery of SUAS.

But the UnB professor recalls that states and municipalities must be prepared to receive the amounts that will be earmarked. “These resources that are passed on require that municipalities and states have councils, funds and that they have plans to receive and organize the application of these resources, basically in basic social protection and special social protection that aim at strengthening two public apparatuses such as CRAS and the CRES”, reinforces.

In the opinion of the economist at the Getúlio Vargas Foundation of São Paulo (FGV-SP), Renan Gomes De Pieri, the transfers from the federal government to the area of ​​social assistance are essential for states and municipalities to implement policies to support the poorest families. “In Brazil, the social protection network has grown a lot in the last 20 years with several programs that try to identify which families are in vulnerable situations to propose policies that mitigate these adverse reactions. These transfer adjustments are important, especially in a context of higher inflation in recent years, and will help strengthen these social programs”, he observes.

Budget forecast

A budget recomposition by the federal government and carried out by the Ministry of Development and Social Assistance, Family and Fight against Hunger will allow the transfer of BRL 3.5 billion reais, until the end of 2023, to strengthen social policies in states and municipalities . Among the transfers that occur on a regular and automatic basis for the maintenance of SUAS services, the National Social Assistance Secretariat (SNAS) has already transferred more than R$ 909 million in 2023 alone to states, municipalities and the Federal District.

In the package, there are co-financed services in the Basic and Special Social Protections, including remaining amounts payable from the previous management that were only passed on this year. The folder informs that there are still another BRL 141 million already paid for the Early Childhood component in SUAS/Criança Feliz. The transfer of federal co-financing is carried out through the National Social Assistance Fund (FNAS).

With the launching of the Emergency Program for Assistance to the Single Registry (Procad) at SUAS, the MDS was able to transfer R$ 199.5 million. Resources can be used to recompose service teams, purchase equipment and other needs of municipalities and states.

The Decentralized Management Index (IGD), used to measure the results of Bolsa Família and Cadastro Único management, also had the reference value for calculating transfers readjusted. With this, municipalities will be able to receive R$ 239 million more this year. Now, the rate has been raised to R$4, a readjustment of 14.3%. Based on this change, the MDS believes that the total budget for 2023 will reach the mark of R$ 755.3 million, which will be passed on to the municipalities by the end of the year (IGD-M).

The budget forecast, according to the Ministry of Development and Social Assistance, Family and Fight against Hunger, for until the end of the year is more than R$ 3.5 billion, in actions to correct the Single Registry, active search for new beneficiaries, and transfers from the IGD and federal co-financing.