The Brazilian government has announced a new plan, called “Bolsa Familia”, designed to take 2.5 million people out of extreme poverty, according to the Folha de São Paulo newspaper.
The new subsidy will be handed out next March and should surpass the minimum monthly income above 70 reais in Brazilian currency (€26.7) which is considered by the Government as the official poverty line.
Dilma Rousseff, the current President of Brazil, claims that this initiative has an annual cost of 928.4 million reais for the state coffers.
The Globo newspaper says there are many Brazilians who are outside of this support network. The Brazilian Ministry of Social Development and Fight against Hunger estimates that there are still 700,000 “invisible” families which have not yet been found by the Government in order to receive social assistance.
The amount spent by the federal government in the “Bolsa Família” plan has increased during the government of Dilma Rousseff. In 2010, the last year of President Lula da Silva, the programme included 14 billion dollars to help the neediest families. The forecast for this year 2013 , according to Globo newspaper, is 23 billion dollars.
