ARGENTINA:
Public Aid Generous but Hard to Get
Marcela Valente

BUENOS AIRES,  (IPS) - The Argentine government announced substantial improvements to the social programmes created in 2002 at the height of the economic crisis. But analysts observe that the changes favour those beneficiaries who have already registered, while nearly half a million families remain outside the system.

"We think these are good improvements, but we believe helping those who aren't getting any government aid is far more urgent," María Eugenia Vidal, director of the social area in the Sophia Group Foundation, which does research on public policies, told IPS.

Centre-left President Néstor Kirchner announced increases this week of up to 50 percent in social allowances for poor families with school-age children. He also launched a new employment and training insurance scheme, which will give unemployed workers an income as well as job training or re-training.

The insurance scheme will come into effect in April, and will consist of monthly payments of 225 pesos (75 dollars) for up to two years. The period of insurance will be counted towards future pension rights. In return, beneficiaries must take training courses.

The programme will initially give priority to unemployed people under 30. Help will also be available from municipalities to look for new jobs suited to individual abilities.

The government's aim is to scale back the Unemployed Heads of Households Plan to its minimum expression. That programme was launched in 2002 by interim president Eduardo Duhalde (2002-2003) to alleviate the crisis that followed the late 2001 economic, social and political collapse.

At the peak of the crisis, in mid-2002, 54 percent of the population of 37 million were living in poverty, while nearly one-quarter were unemployed.

The Heads of Households Plan, run by the Ministry of Labour, was the first programme of supposedly universal scope, offering an allowance of 150 pesos (50 dollars) a month to unemployed male or female heads of households, in return for which they had to work.

However, shortly after it began, intake was stopped when 2.2 million households had registered. The plan was no longer universal, and protests by organised groups of unemployed workers were unsuccessful in obtaining an extension of the registration period, or even replacing households leaving the programme with new entrants.

Since then, the poverty rate has fallen to 34 percent, according to official figures cited by Kirchner, and unemployment has plunged to 11 percent. But experts say those who need it most are precisely the ones who are not receiving public assistance.

This particular problem is aggravated by the new measures, which will only increase the help given to those who are already beneficiaries of the plans.

With the registration process frozen and the economy recovering, the number of beneficiaries of the Heads of Households Plan has fallen. According to data from the Ministry of Labour, 400,000 people dropped out of the Plan because they found jobs, and a further 240,000 joined the Families Plan, which does not require recipients to work.

At present, the Heads of Households Plan has 1.4 million beneficiaries, and there are no prospects for registration to be reopened or for payments to be increased. When the improvements to the Families Plan are implemented and the unemployment and training insurance scheme is created, it is expected that the number of beneficiaries will fall to 300,000.

Nevertheless, the largest allowances are paid to those who are registered under the Unemployed Heads of Households Plan, while other families have fallen through the cracks.

According to estimates by the Roman Catholic humanitarian agency Caritas, nearly 500,000 families receive no public assistance. The Sophia Group Foundation also agrees with the Caritas estimate.

The Families Plan is administered by the Ministry of Social Development, and is aimed at low-income mothers with school-age children, who have greater difficulty getting jobs. The programme was created in 2004, but now it has been relaunched by Kirchner, who promised increases in the allowances from April.

The Plan currently provides monthly payments ranging from 100 pesos (33 dollars) a month for women with one child to 125 pesos (42 dollars) for families with two children, 150 pesos (50 dollars) for families with three, 175 pesos (58 dollars) for families with four, and 200 pesos (67 dollars) for families with five or more children.

Now a flat increase of 50 pesos (16 dollars) will be given to all recipients, so that a mother with one child will receive 150 pesos (50 dollars), while families with five or more children will be paid 250 pesos (83 dollars) a month.

In return, mothers do not have to work, but they must produce certificates to show that children under 19 attend school, have regular check-ups in hospitals or clinics, and receive all mandatory vaccinations.

Unlike the Heads of Households Plan, the Families Plan does not prevent the beneficiary or her spouse from taking up legal employment, because it provides supplementary income. In contrast, under the Heads of Households Plan, if the head of the family finds work, he or she must immediately give up the state benefit.

"The raises in family allowances and the creation of an opportunity for training and reinsertion into the labour market for people out of work are positive steps, which should be welcomed because we believe that a structural solution to poverty has to include employment," said Vidal.

"But we do have some reservations. In the first place, the transfer of people from the Heads of Households Plan to the Families Plan was announced in 2004, but a limited number of families actually made the change," because recipients are afraid to lose their benefit scheme if they come forward to transfer to another programme.

Based on figures from the government budget law, the state is assisting some 2.7 million poor families with different payments, pensions and allowances. However, nearly 500,000 households living in poverty or extreme poverty are surviving without any public aid.

"The state is not planning to increase the intake into its programmes, and neither is it posing the question of how to reach those who are not covered," said Vidal.

Economist Claudio Lozano, a legislator for the Fuerza Porteña party who has links with the Argentine Workers' Central (CTA), expressed the same opinion.

Lozano called for "universal policies" that genuinely cover everyone in need. He also argued that unemployment insurance should be 150 percent higher than what is offered.