Gov’t extends emergency allowance until end of year

The benefits came in April to mitigate losses caused by the pandemic

Published on 02/09/2020 - 14:12 By Andreia Verdélio - Brasília

President Jair Bolsonaro announced today (Sep. 1) that the emergency allowance will be extended by another four installments of $55.83. On Tuesday, he met with ministers and Congress members from his coalition at the Alvorada presidential palace in order to settle the coming actions of the government in the economic arena.

The benefits are directed at informal and self-employed workers, small entrepreneurs, and the unemployed, as a means to provide protection during the crisis brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic. The benefit started being paid in April, and was originally split into three payments of $111 each.

In June, the government extended the allowance for another two installments, with the same value. Now, with another four payments, with a lower price, the benefits will be kept until the end of the year.

“We decided to extend it through a provisional injunction until the end of the year,” Bolsonaro told the press after the session. “The value, as we had said, R$600 ($111), is a lot for those paying it, and we can say it’s not enough for all of the families’ needs, but it does help at a basic level,” he said.

Survival

Approximately 4.4 million (6.5%) Brazilian households survived in July with the income from the government’s emergency allowance alone. Among the poorest homes, income reached 124 percent of the habitual amount, as per a study published last week by the Institute of Applied Economic Research (Ipea).

The financial aid was also enough to exceed the loss inn the total of salaries among employed people by 16 percent, according to an analysis based on the microdata in the COVID-19 PNAD (National Household Sample Survey), carried out by the government’s statistics institute IBGE.

Translation: Fabrício Ferreira -  Edition: Fernando Fraga / Nira Foster

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