Today, there are 39 beneficiaries for every 100 signed cards, a number that has remained the same since August 2025; the highest proportion was in January 2023, with 50 grants for every 100 formal vacancies
The economy’s dependence registered a sharp drop in 2025, but has now stabilized at the beginning of 2026.
In February, there were 38.6 beneficiaries of the program for every 100 people with a signed work card. This level has been stable since August last year.
The record for dependence on aid was in January 2023, when there were 49.6 registrations for every 100 formal work registrations. That month was also the 1st of the current PT administration.
The drop in dependence on Bolsa Família in 2025 was due to 2 reasons:
- rise in formal employment – the booming economy boosted vacancies with signed employment documents to a record high;
- fine-tooth comb benefits – the government changed some rules and carried out an intense fine-tooth comb on federal aid, including Bolsa Família. The program lost 2.1 million families in 2025 alone with this registration review.
The stability in the employment/benefit ratio now in 2026 is partly due to the slowdown in the economy, which slowed the creation of formal jobs, and the maintenance of Bolsa Família at a much higher level of families served than in 2019, before the pandemic.
Brazil as a whole has 48.8 million people in formal employment and 18.8 million families on Bolsa Família.
Experts say that , created in 2023, was mainly responsible for the improvement in the social program’s indices and the increase in formal employment.
The mechanism allows Bolsa Família beneficiaries who rise in social status and have an income of up to half a minimum wage per month per person to receive half the value of the benefit for up to 1 year.
In March, there were 2.4 million families covered by the Protection Rule. These are beneficiaries who have found a job or set up a business and are in a transition period to stop receiving aid.
9 STATES: + SCHOLARSHIP I EMPLOY
Maranhão, Pará, Piauí, Bahia, Paraíba, Amazonas, Alagoas, Acre and Amapá are the units of the Federation in which there are more families on Bolsa Família than formal jobs, with data from February 2026.
In the same period of 2023 and 2024, there were 13 States in this situation of extreme dependence, a number that dropped to 12 in 2025. In 2021, before the program was inflated by (PL), 8 UFs had more aid than registered vacancies.
Although 9 states still have more families on Bolsa Família than formal vacancies, the formal contract has advanced more than aid in all units of the Federation in 1 year, as shown in the table below:
Read more at Poder360:
