The Attorney General's Office highlighted that there are no technical means to prohibit this type of expenditure, as it is not possible to distinguish the benefit money from other income received by the family in a specific bank account.
Brazil.- The Attorney General's Office (AGU, for its acronym in Portuguese) appealed the decision of the Supreme Federal Court (STF) that ordered the national government to adopt tools to prevent beneficiaries of the social program Bolsa Família from using the funds received through the program for gambling.
In the request, the legal body points out that the Executive does not have the technical means to prohibit this type of expenditure, since it is not possible to distinguish the benefit money from other income that the family receives in a specific bank account.
Furthermore, the technical areas highlighted that, once the benefit is transferred to the registered family account, the money becomes the property of the account holder and the government loses any influence over its allocation.
The petition was presented in the form of a clarification request, an instrument used to request clarifications on points of a judicial decision. In it, the AGU asks the STF to indicate how the government should comply with the court's determination, considering the listed obstacles, and to grant a “reasonable period” for the implementation of these measures.
The AGU based its arguments on technical arguments from two Executive bodies, the SPA (Secretariat of Prizes and Bets) of the Ministry of Finance and the Senarc (National Secretariat of Citizen Income) of the Ministry of Social Development.
The Senarc pointed out that the bank account for the payment of Bolsa Família benefits, used by 99 percent of the covered families, is not exclusively used for the program and can move amounts from other sources, such as work. Only 1 percent of the benefited families make the complete withdrawal using the program's card.
“Regarding the Bolsa Família payment accounts, only 9.67 million families regularly perform Pix from the benefit account and, on average, they performed only 2.5 transactions, with a value of R$ 355 (USD 59) each. Moreover, the more than 9.67 million families generated around R$ 8.500m (USD 1.422m), but only received R$ 6.500m (USD 1.088m) from the program, so it is essential to understand that any blocking of the account invades the private sphere, where the citizen generates other incomes,” says the document.
In the article, AGU states that it does not intend to revisit the decision nor express disagreement with it, but to resolve doubts about its content. The vote of the rapporteur, Minister Luiz Fux, was ratified unanimously by the court.
“Although the concern for the economic situation of vulnerable people and families is commendable and necessary, the adoption of ‘immediate measures’ encounters practical barriers that are difficult to overcome, hence it is essential to clarify the appealed sentence,” states the AGU.
The legal body also requests clarifications on other points of the judicial decision that, in the Government's opinion, generated confusion. One of them is the expression “similar”, in the section where the Supreme Court determines the adoption of immediate measures to prevent spending on gambling with resources from social and welfare programs; “like Bolsa Família, the Continuous Payment Benefit (BPC) and similar”.
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The AGU questions whether this means that the decision extends beyond Bolsa Família and BPC to other federal benefits and also to income transfer programs maintained by the states that are part of the union, especially considering that they are also authorized to explore the betting modality.
