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Brazil's interim gov't announces 12.5 pct rise in social-welfare program

Xinhua, June 30, 2016 Adjust font size:

Brazil's interim President Michel Temer on Wednesday announced a 12.5-percent increase in "Bolsa Familia," a social welfare program that offers subsidies to low-income families with children in school.

"It was said that we would do away with social programs. But we are here to show that education is crucial and social development is equally important for the country," said Temer at an event to announce greater education spending.

The program is a signature policy of Temer's predecessors, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Dilma Rousseff, the country's suspended president.

Temer's Brazilian Democratic Movement Party (PMDB) and the Workers' Party (PT) of Rousseff are deeply divided over social policies. The PMDB said that the PT administrations had essentially bankrupted the country.

Lula and Rousseff both have been accused of vote-buying through Bolsa Familia, but economic experts defended the policy, saying it worked as it was dependent on a firm commitment to education by families and was usually paid to mothers.

Bolsa Familia provides 162 reais (50 U.S. dollars) a month for around 14 million families, a figure Temer said had not risen since the middle of 2014.

Temer announced that a further 743 million reais (228 million U.S. dollars) would be spent on education to reinforce school meal programs and other pillars of basic education.

"Brazil has rich people, middle-class people and poor people. While this poverty remains, we will need programs like this. Our objective, however, is to ensure that one day they are no longer needed," Temer said. Endit