Federal Spending on Social Assistance Programs in Brazil
The development of Brazil’s modern social safety net is quite recent, and social assistance programs claim a relatively small share of resources of the broader social sector. A key feature of the Brazilian social protection system is the duality be...
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| Format: | Policy Note |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2021
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| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/705861614344028456/Background-Chapter-of-the-2018-Expenditure-Review-A-Fair-Adjustment-Efficiency-and-Equity-of-Public-Spending-in-Brazil http://hdl.handle.net/10986/35231 |
| Summary: | The development of Brazil’s modern
social safety net is quite recent, and social assistance
programs claim a relatively small share of resources of the
broader social sector. A key feature of the Brazilian social
protection system is the duality between formal sector
workers, who gained social insurance and labor benefits as
early as the 1930s, and the large number of mostly poor
informal workers and their families who were historically
excluded. The objective of social assistance programs in
Brazil is to provide support to people living in poverty and
other vulnerable groups. These programs primarily include
social pensions for the poor elderly and disabled,
conditional cash transfers for poor families, unconditional
cash transfers, housing assistance for low-income
households, school feeding, food programs, social services,
and a variety of other small benefits and services. They are
usually targeted to the poor or low-income groups via
means-testing, or provide eligibility to specific vulnerable
groups. Within the broader system of social protection,
social assistance programs complement social insurance
pensions, which are contributory by design but have been
significantly subsidized from general taxation, and labor
market programs, which are largely contributory and include
a mix of active and passive benefits and services. The
current note focuses on Social Assistance Programs while a
second background chapter focuses on Labor market programs.
This document is a Background Chapter for the report A fair
adjustment : efficiency and equity of public spending in
Brazil : Volume 1 - Overview (report No.121480). |
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