The Distribution of transfers, target-group and coverage of the Continuous Cash Benefit

Abstract

The article proposes an operational definition of disability and a methodology to estimate the distributions of the elderly and persons with disability eligible to the Continuous Cash Benefit by income groups using three sources of Brazilian data, the 2000 Demographic Census, the 2006 National Household Survey (PNAD 2006) and administrative records from the Ministry of Social Development (MDS). According to the estimate, persons with disability and the elderly are distributed uniformly across income groups but the benefits go predominantly to the lower income population. The results indicate that the coverage of the target population is still below necessary and the program presents targeting errors but those are mostly low intensity errors.

Key words – Cash transfer. Social assistance. Disability. Incapacity to work. Targeting.