There are no subcomponents, however the type and amount of the benefit vary according to the composition and degree of poverty of the benefited families in line with the divisions below: 

• Citizenship Income Benefit (BRC, acronym in Portugues);

• Complementary Benefit (BCO, acronym in Portugues);

• Early Childhood Benefit (BPI, acronym in Portugues);

• Family Variable Benefit (FVB, acronym in Portugues); 

• Extraordinary Transition Benefit (BET, acronym in Portugues).

Ministry of Social Development and Assistance, Family and Fight against Hunger – MDS (which during 2019-2022 was designated Ministry of Citizenship – MC).

State and, above all, municipal governments, through SUAS units and workers obeying national parameters. Subnational entities that join the program receive funding from the MDS according to the score in the Decentralized Management Index (IGD, acronym in Portuguese), an indicator that enables the monthly measurement of the results of the management of the Bolsa Família Program (PBF, acronym in Portuguese) and the Single Registry for Social Programs (CadÚnico) at the local level, and encourages good management practices.

Main responsibilities of the municipalities include registration of families (including active search), registration updating, educational monitoring and health monitoring of beneficiary families to monitor and induce access to health and education services provided for in the conditionalities. 

PBF was created in 2003 and, between November 2021 and December 2022, it was formally replaced by Brazil Aid. In March 2023, it is again called PBF, according to the edition of Provisional Measure No. 1.164/2023, which in turn, on June 19, 2023, is converted into law (No. 14.601). See policy brief on the trajectory of PBF and its relationship with Emergency Aid and Brazil Aid.

November 2021, and reestablished in March 2023, with the edition of Provisional Presidential Decree No. 1.164/2023.

Conditional cash transfer

In the area of education:

• Minimum 60% school attendance for children from 4 (four) to 6 (six) years of age; 
• Minimum 75% school attendance for children and adolescents from 6 (six) to 18 (eighteen) years of age who have not completed basic education.

In healthcare:

• Prenatal care for pregnant women; 
• Compliance with the Brazilian vaccination schedule for children under 7 (seven) years of age; 
• Monitoring the nutritional status of children under 7 (seven) years of age. 

The Ministry managing the program (MDS) generates the lists of the target population to monitor the conditionalities and forwards the list of beneficiaries to the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Education. These ministries provide information about the beneficiaries to be monitored in their respective systems and, as soon as the monitoring period is over, send the data recorded by the health network and the education network to the MDS. After consolidating the results of health and education monitoring, unaccompanied families and those accompanied, but in non-compliance with conditionalities, i.e., those who did not access the services, are identified. Thus, these families become priorities for monitoring by the SUAS social assistance network, with a view to gradually overcoming the vulnerabilities or social unprotections that prevented access. Benefits are canceled for non-compliance with conditionalities only after systematic family monitoring and prior warnings. Beneficiary families are prioritized for monitoring by the social assistance network to ensure access to social protection.

Monthly per capita family income equal to or less than R$ 218.00, according to 2023 provisions*. It should be noted that, prior to this year, eligibility was based on the family's classification as being in poverty or extreme poverty[i], calculated based on the Per Capita Family Income (RFPC, acronym in Portuguese) according to the thresholds below (nominal values):

Table 1 Nominal values of the poverty and extreme poverty lines adopted by PBF (includes only years in which there was a change in values)[1; 2; 3; 4; 5; 6; 7]

Source: https://wiki-sagi.cidadania.gov.br/e/en/home/DS/NBF/I/IN051

* As of 2023, there were no more distinct reference values for classifying the situation of poverty and extreme poverty

• After joining the program, the protection rule allows the maintenance of the benefit even if the family has its monthly per capita income increased beyond R$ 218.00, for up to two years.

• The program focuses on families, but interaction and payment are made directly through a Head of Household, who should preferably be a woman. However, men with children/adolescents or that live alone can also receive the benefit.

• Single-person families (people who live alone) can also receive the benefit. Municipalities have a limit of 16% of single-person arrangements on the payroll of the Bolsa Família Program (PBF).

• The program prioritizes families affected by child labor, those freed from conditions similar to slave labor, quilombola and indigenous families, and families of recyclable material collectors..

• Eligibility for the program is based on family composition, with benefits varying depending on the presence of children, youth, nursing mothers, and pregnant women. An additional component ensures no family falls below the extreme poverty threshold. 
• The share of people benefitted in each municipality follows poverty estimates prepared by the MDS.
   

• State and municipal coverage shares estimated from the estimated poverty prevalence based on the Brazilian Household Sample Survey (PNAD, acronym in Portuguese).

• The application for access to the program requires family records in the Single Registry (Cadastro Único), which is made by municipal governments through the structure of SUAS. 

• Upon budget availability to receive new beneficiaries, PBF automatically selects those eligible for registration in the Single Registry, and the selection is automatically processed for those with valid registration (i.e., records updated less than two years ago, and reflecting the sociodemographic characteristics of the family).

• The registration in the Single Registry is largely based on self-declared information, including calculation of income and occupation, although there may be a requirement for supporting documentation of the place of domicile and family composition. However, since 2023, and according to Normative Instruction No. 1/ SAGICAD/MDS, of June 2, 2023, the Federal Government started to populate the Single Registry with formal income information from the integration with the Brazilian Registry of Social Information (CNIS, acronym in Portuguese). This procedure is periodic and the change in income is made in situations where income in the CNIS is higher than that registered in the Single Registry.

• Self-declared information to the Single Registry, therefore, is not validated upon registration or selection for the PBF, but a posteriori, as the  Single Registry cross-checks with other administrative records. Thus, persons benefiting from PBF whose information characterizing eligibility was questioned by this exercise must attend SUAS to provide clarifications. 

• This validation exercise also serves as an instrument for implementing the program's protection rule.

In 2004, 4,542,275 families benefited from PBF. The number of families served increased over time, reaching three times higher in 2020 (14,000,445 families) and almost five times higher in 2024 (20,766,801)

Initially, the two original PBF benefits are the Basic Benefit (limited to one per family) and the Variable Benefit (paid per child). In 2007, the Youth Variable Benefit was created, always at a higher value than the Variable Benefit due to the higher cost of keeping adolescents and youth in school. 

In 2011, the Nutritional Variable Benefit and Pregnancy Variable Benefit were created.

Until 2011, there was a limit of three Variable Benefits per family, but with the creation of the Nourishing Variable Benefit and Pregnancy Variable Benefit, families were able to enjoy up to five benefits.

In 2012, the Benefit for Overcoming Extreme Poverty was created, which complements what is necessary to ensure that no family remains with Per Capita Family Income (RFPC, acronym in Portuguese) below the Extreme Poverty line.

From 2023 and onwards, the new Bolsa Família Program offers the following benefits instead of the aforementioned:

• Citizenship Income Benefit: in the amount of R$ 142.00 per family member, intended for all families benefiting from the Bolsa Família Program;

• Complementary Benefit: paid to families benefiting from the Bolsa Família Program to complement the amount of R$ 600.00, if the sum of the other benefits received by the family is less than R$ 600.00;

• Early Childhood Benefit: in the amount of R$ 150.00 per child aged between 0 (zero) and 7 (seven) years;

• Family Variable Benefit: in the amount of R$ 50.00 and intended for beneficiary families who have:

a) pregnant women;

b) children, aged between 7 (seven) and 12 (twelve) years; or

c) adolescents, aged between 12 (twelve) and 18 (eighteen) years; and

• Extraordinary Transition Benefit: to be paid solely to families experiencing a reduction in their Brazil Aid Program benefits, ensuring they do not receive less than their previous amount.

• Payment made by CAIXA (a public bank with a presence in almost all Brazilian municipalities). Before Emergency Assistance (AE, acronym in Portuguese), there were two payment options:

1. Option to receive without creating a bank account (through a Social Card that entitles you to withdraw the full amount of the benefit, and subject to confiscation of benefits not withdrawn within three months. The Social Card only served to enable the withdrawal of the benefit.

2. Option to open a Caixa Fácil bank account (no cost and with many services at no cost).

• After AE, creating a Digital Social Savings (PSD, acronym in Portuguese) account became mandatory for those who did not have Caixa Fácil. The PSD is a digital bank account that allows movement through a digital card via an application.

• Payment staggered on different dates so as not to congest the banking system.

• Cash provisioning according to historical monitoring of banks and municipalities subject to higher demand (as they serve isolated communities).

All payment methods of PBF offer a free maintenance account and a share of uncharged services.

In 2004, about R$ 4 billion (R$ 3,791,785,038) were transferred to the PBF benefit payments. The highest monthly transfer in 2004 was approximately R$ 440 million (December 2004). This amount increased considerably until 2024, reaching an average monthly transfer of approximately R$ 14 billion.

Studies by the Institute of Applied Economic Research and the MDS highlight that PBF was the most progressive social transfer in Brazil between 2001 and 2011 [8], being responsible for more than 1/3 of the reduction in the prevalence of national poverty in its first 15 years of existence [9], and for the reduction of more than 15 points per capita in the Gini Index of Brazilian income [10]..

Impact assessment commissioned by the MDS and carried out by the Center for Regional Development and Planning of the School of Economic Sciences of the Federal University of Minas Gerais (CEDEPLAR-UFMG, acronym in Portuguese) and the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI, acronym in Portuguese) revealed desirable impacts on household consumption, occupancy rate, school attendance and progression, and female bargaining power with their families [11]..

The effort to publicize the data has generated hundreds of experimental and quasi-experimental impact assessment studies that corroborate and expand on the findings of the impact assessment commissioned by the MDS. To mention some classic studies, it is worth remembering the publication in The Lancet of a study indicating effects on the improvement of several health indicators, including mortality of children under 5 (five) years of age [12]..

IPEA studies categorically reject unwanted effects on job supply [13] and academic studies also reject unwanted effects on fertility rates [14].

Other studies also indicate desirable macroeconomic effects, such as an increase in GDP and per capita income of municipalities [15], and a rate of return to the economy of R$ 1.78 for every R$ 1.00 spent by the program [16]..

Other effects include a more intense impact on girls' education [17], and even a reduction in homicide rates, with a more intense effect on reducing cases of domestic violence perpetrated against girls and women [18]..

A survey carried out in 2023 by the Mobility and Social Development Institute shows that 64% of dependent beneficiaries from 7 (seven) to 16 (sixteen) years of the program in 2005 were no longer in the Single Registry 14 years later, in 2019. Of the portion that remained in the Registry, 20% continued to receive Bolsa Família in early adulthood, while 14% were in the Registry, but did not receive the benefit, because, conjecturally, they were above the poverty line [19].

Additional benefit for families with children aged between 0 (zero) and 7 (seven) years.

Additional benefit for families that have pregnant women, nursing mothers, children aged between 7 (seven) and 12 (twelve) years; or adolescents, aged between 12 (twelve) and 18 (eighteen) years

The initiative's conditionalities focus on maternal and child health care, as well as monitoring school attendance for children and adolescents. It prioritizes children in child labor, playing a key role in reducing this issue.

The program encourages and prioritizes female heads of household, contributing to their autonomy by preferably issuing the card that gives access to the family benefit in their name. There are also additional benefits for pregnant and nursing women.

The program coordinates with MEC and MS to promote the monitoring of school attendance, the prenatal care of pregnant women and the monitoring of the nutritional and vaccination status of children, as a subsidy for monitoring conditionalities.

The SUAS social assistance network monitors beneficiary families in non-compliance with conditionalities for gradually overcoming their vulnerabilities and social unprotections. In this way, the MDS acts together with these policies to guarantee the supply and induce access to these services.

Most beneficiaries began receiving Emergency Aid, resulting in a more generous benefit.. There were exceptional measures for the Bolsa Família recipients that allowed access to the benefit by the same means that have already been used to withdraw from PBF, including maintaining the payment schedule traditionally used by PBF.

Conditionalities, however, were no longer monitored during the Covid-19 pandemic. In March 2020, the verification processes of Bolsa Família and CadÚnico that could result in the disruption of payments of the PBF financial benefits was interrupted. With the extension of the pandemic, other ordinances were published in order to maintain the suspension of some of the verification processes, such as the monitoring of health and education conditionalities.[20]

1. WWP. 2017. “Como se dá a focalização e a identificação do público em situação de pobreza e de extrema pobreza no âmbito do programa bolsa família (PBF)?” http://wwp.org.br/wp-content/uploads/19.-Focalizacao-Elegibilidade-e-Cobertura-do-PBF-Identificacao-do-publico.pdf.
2. GoB, Min. Desenvolvimento Social 2022. Página Inicial > Acesso à Informação > Perguntas Frequentes > Bolsa Família > Benefícios > Beneficiário > Perguntas Frequentes”. 6 de junho de 2022. http://mds.gov.br/acesso-a-informacao/perguntas-frequentes/bolsa-familia/beneficios/beneficiario#:~:text=%2D%20Fam%C3%ADlias%20em%20situa%C3%A7%C3%A3o%20de%20extrema,fam%C3%ADlia%20pode%20receber%20at%C3%A9%205
3. CAIXA. s.d. “CAIXA › Poder Público › Infraestrutura, Saneamento e Mobilidade › Desenvolvimento Social › Bolsa Família”. https://www.caixa.gov.br/poder-publico/infraestrutura-saneamento-mobilidade/desenvolvimento-social/bolsa-familia/Paginas/default.aspx.
4. FGV. 2020. “FGV Social comenta os cortes no Bolsa Família e o aumento da extrema pobreza no Brasil”. 3 de março de 2020. https://cps.fgv.br/destaques/fgv-social-comenta-os-cortes-no-bolsa-familia-e-o-aumento-da-extrema-pobreza-no-brasil
5.  Agência Brasil. 2021. “Governo aumenta valor dos benefícios pagos a famílias carentes. Decreto também reajusta faixas de extrema pobreza e de pobreza”. 6 de novembro de 2021. https://agenciabrasil.ebc.com.br/politica/noticia/2021-11/governo-aumenta-valor-dos-beneficios-pagos-familias-carentes.
6. Osório e Soares 2014
7. Paiva, Luis Henrique, Tereza Cristina Cotta, e Armando Barrientos. 2019. “Brazil’s Bolsa Família Programme”. Em Great Policy Successes. Mallory E. Compton and Paul ’T Hart. https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/handle/20.500.12657/23594/9780198843719.pdf?se#page=36.
8.  IPEA. 2012. “A década Inclusiva (2001-2011): Desigualdade, Pobreza e Políticas de Renda”. http://repositorio.ipea.gov.br/handle/11058/4639.
9.  Souza, Pedro H. G. Ferreira de, Rafael Guerreiro Osório, Luis Henrique Paiva, e Sergei Soares. 2019. “Os efeitos do Programa Bolsa Família sobre a pobreza e a desigualdade: um balanço dos primeiros quinze anos”. http://repositorio.ipea.gov.br/handle/11058/9356.
10. Hoffmann, Rodolfo. 2014. “Transferências de renda e desigualdade, Brasil, 1995-2012: Análise de 11 parcelas da renda doiciliar per capita”. Em Programa Bolsa Família: Uma década de inclusão produtiva. https://fpabramo.org.br/acervosocial/wp-content/uploads/sites/7/2017/08/505.pdf.
11. Hoffmann, Rodolfo. 2014. “Transferências de renda e desigualdade, Brasil, 1995-2012: Análise de 11 parcelas da renda doiciliar per capita”. Em Programa Bolsa Família: Uma década de inclusão produtiva. https://fpabramo.org.br/acervosocial/wp-content/uploads/sites/7/2017/08/505.pdf.
12. Rasella, Davide, Rosana Aquino, Carlos A. T. Santos, Rômulo Paes-Sousa, e Maurício Barreto. 2013. “Effect of a conditional cash transfer programme on childhood mortality: a  nationwide analysis of Brazilian municipalities”, julho. https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(13)60715-1/fulltext.
13. Oliveira, Luis Felipe Batista de, e Sergei S. D. Soares. 2012. “O que se sabe sobre os efeitos das transferências de renda sobre a oferta de trabalho”. http://repositorio.ipea.gov.br/bitstream/11058/1161/1/TD_1738.pdf
14. Simões, Patrícia, e Ricado Brito Soares. 2012. “Efeitos do Programa Bolsa Família na Fecundidade das Beneficiárias”. RBE, outubro. https://www.scielo.br/j/rbe/a/JBY5LPpQ3Rz8YXSyVLDhzFP/?lang=pt&format=pdf.
15. Menezes-Filho, Naercio, Guilherme Denes, e Bruno Kawaoka Komatsu. 2018. “Uma Avaliação dos Impactos Macroeconômicos e Sociais de Programas de Transferência de Renda nos Municípios Brasileiros”. Rev. Bras. Econ 72 (julho). https://www.scielo.br/j/rbe/a/z588jJkmH7YrWg9PrgMJZpD/?lang=pt.
16. Neri, Marcelo Côrtes, Fabio Monteiro Vaz, e Pedro Herculano Guimarães Ferreira de Souza. 2013. “Efeitos macroeconômicos do Programa Bolsa Família: uma análise comparativa das transferências sociais”. Em Programa Bolsa Família: uma década de inclusão e cidadania. https://wwp.org.br/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/efeitos_macroeconomicos_do_bf_ipea.pdf.
17. Brauw, Alan de, Daniel O. Gilligan, John F. Hoddinott, e Shalin Roy. 2014. “The impact of Bolsa Família on schooling: Girls’ advantage increases and older children gain”. https://www.ifpri.org/publication/impact-bolsa-fam%C3%ADlia-schooling-girls%E2%80%99-advantage-increases-and-older-children-gain
18. Perova, Elizaveta, Sarah Reynolds, e Ian Schmutte. 2021. “Does the Gender Wage Gap Influence Intimate Partner Violence in Brazil? Evidence from Administrative Health Data”. https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/35569.
19. Instituto Mobilidade e Desenvolvimento Social (IMDS). 2023. Saída do CadÚnico e acesso ao mercado de trabalho formal - Uma análise dos beneficiários de 2005 do PBF". https://imdsbrasil.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Imds003-2023-PBF_CadUnico_RAIS_01.pdf
20. Boletim Legislativo nº 102, de 2023: Do Auxílio Brasil ao Novo Bolsa Família: quais os avanços para a segurança alimentar do país? (senado.leg.br)