From protection to autonomy
the social program is the start of the journey, not the end
Proposes keeping existing social programs and giving beneficiaries priority in first-job, vocational training and job-placement initiatives, with a return to the benefit after unemployment insurance.
What the program says
There is a lie the left has been repeating for twenty years: that only it takes care of the poor. The numbers say otherwise. In 2020, at the height of the biggest pandemic in a hundred years, extreme poverty in Brazil fell to its lowest level in history — just 1.95% of the population, thanks to the Auxílio Emergencial (the pandemic emergency aid). It was not rhetoric: it was protection reaching those who needed it most, at the worst possible moment. And we did not stop there: we created the Auxílio Brasil (a federal cash-transfer program), which tripled the amount paid to families. “No Brazilian is left behind” is not a campaign slogan for us; it is what we already did when the world fell apart. That is why the commitment is clear and comes first: we will keep the existing social programs, with improved management, correction of distortions and the fight against fraud. Those who depend on the State’s help today to put food on the table will not have that help taken away. Period. But keeping them is not enough, and this is where we part ways with the left. For them, the social program is a destination: the more people dependent, the better, because dependence turns into votes. For us, the social program is a starting point. It is the net that breaks the fall and, at the same time, the first rung of a ladder that has to lead somewhere. [p. 42]
That is why social program beneficiaries will have priority in all State initiatives aimed at work: priority in first-job programs, in vocational training initiatives and in job placement. We will create a training and placement track designed specifically for those who receive the benefit, so that leaving it is not a leap in the dark but a path with support at every step. And we will guarantee an immediate, queue-free return to the benefit after unemployment insurance, provided the eligibility conditions are still met, so that no one is afraid to try a job and end up unprotected if it does not work out. Our focus is overcoming the poverty trap, not managing it. Every policy of this government will be designed with one question in mind: does this help the person depend less on the State tomorrow than they do today? Because the goal of a good government is not to have more people in the aid line. It is to have more and more Brazilians who have achieved their own autonomy and no longer need it. [p. 43]
In plain language
- The program proposes keeping the existing social programs, with improved management, correction of distortions and action against fraud. It states that those who depend on this help today will not lose it.
- It provides for priority for beneficiaries of social programs in State initiatives aimed at work: first-job programs, vocational training and job placement.
- It proposes creating a training and placement track designed specifically for those who receive the benefit.
- It provides for an immediate, queue-free return to the benefit after unemployment insurance, provided the eligibility conditions are still met, so that a person can try a job without fear of being left unprotected.
- The text states that all government policies will be designed so that people depend less and less on the State.
What is not in the program
- It does not identify which distortions would be corrected nor how fraud would be fought.
- It does not detail how the priority for beneficiaries and the training and placement track would work: who runs them, duration and number of places.
- It does not name the legal instrument (law, decree or other) to guarantee the immediate return to the benefit.
- It gives no timeline, cost or source of funds for the measures.
- It does not set numerical targets for beneficiaries leaving social programs.