Global Journal of Human Social Science, E: Economics, Volume 23 Issue 3

governments that, due to their ultraneoliberal fanaticism combined with a Malthusian vision or “social Darwinism” (as in the Brazilian case) (LEHER, 2020), they pressure workers and the overwhelmed to resume their activities with threats of deprivation that worsen with the health crisis. In addition to the measures with which the various governments have acted around the world by creating measures to try to contain the pandemic, the new coronavirus has fundamentally affected dependent countries. In this sense, the potential for risk to contagion was not linked only to the epidemiological component (elderly, immunodepressed, cardiac, among others), as it was propagated at the beginning of the pandemic, but it proved that the risk factors for contagion had strong social components: pauperized, black men and women segments, mainly women, LGBT’s, immigrants, that make up the informal and precarious sectors of the labor market that did not interrupt the activities or were at the forefront of essential services. In this sense, the COVID-19 pandemic has helped create conditions that have caused a profound damage to the conditions of existence of millions of families who already had very precarious livelihoods due to the neoliberal crises and counter reforms carried out in Latin America in recent decades. This is expressed in the high poverty rates in the region, where about 186 million Latin-Americans and the Caribbean live below the poverty line and 67.5 million are in poverty condition, in addition to the precarious access to basic resources for prevention of the pandemic: in 2018, only 65% of the Latin American and Caribbean population had access to drinking water and 22% to sanitation, and about 45% of the homes have precarious conditions, compromising social distancing as a preventive measure (FURLONG, 2020). The first COVID-19 case in Latin America and the Caribbean was registered in Brazil on February 26 th , 2020, and from March 13 th , the governments of the region began to announce measures of social protection and combating the health crisis in the face of the sudden fall in incomes. According to a survey carried out by ECLAC (2020), among the main measures taken for social protection in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, the actions linked to the income transfer programs (creation of new programs, in addition to the extension of existing ones, with actions to anticipate installments, expansion of values and coverage, including people in poverty and informal workers) adding 49% of government actions in the region; followed by transfers in kind (food, medicine, masks, hygiene products) (33%) and measures to suspend basic services accounts (water, light, gas, telephone, internet, TV) (19%). (CEPAL, 2020, p. 8) ECLAC data (2020) warn that the creation of new income transfer programs was the most used protection measure by governments in the region to address the impacts of the pandemic, covering 23 countries, among which is Brazil with the creation of Emergency Aid, followed by the increase in the value of existing transfers as the second most widely used measure, adopted by 11 countries in the region. The Emergency Aid was regulated by Law n. 13982/2020, which provided for payment of aid worth R$600.00 for three months to workers over 18 years of age, without formal employment and without any other type of social protection (including individual micro- entrepreneurs), with income per head of up to ½ minimum wage (R$522.50) and not having received taxable income above R$28,559.70 in 2018 (ALVES; SIQUEIRA, 2020). Despite all the difficulties for access, and after the expansion of the R$200.00 reais tax received by the President were increased to the amount paid of R$600.00, 67.2 million people had the right of receipt approved, with an average benefit of R$901.00, which means to serve 43.9% of Brazilian households (PNAD-COVID-19), an exponential increase in demand expressing the reality of deep material precariousness in which the Brazilian working class was (and still is). The government announced the extension of Emergency Aid, but now reduced to R$300.00, which will be paid in up to four installments that were paid by December 202 0 16 . Another highlight is that in early April 2020, 14 countries had implemented income transfers aimed at informal, self-employed or other self-employed workers (ECLAC, 2020, page10), showing an innovation in this form of protection focused on the region, failing to fix its target audience only in the poorest and disabled segments to increase its attention to other segments of precarious workers. According to data from the World Bank (2020 ) 17 , more than 1 billion people have been assisted by assistance actions since the beginning of the pandemic in 200 countries/territories. Latin America has 71% of its social protection measures in the pandemic composed of social assistance actions (including income transfers), behind Africa and South Asia. Social assistance involves the majority of social protection actions in the face of the pandemic, and among the assistance actions prevail the transfer of income, which proved to be short-lived and with the values of benefits relatively higher than those paid regularly before the pandemic. Informal workers form one of the largest target audiences affected by the transfer of income during the pandemic. 16 The four installments will be received by those who received in April the 1 st installment of the original benefit. 17 GENTILINI, Ugo; ALMENFI, Mohamed; ORTON, Ian; DALE, Pamela. Social Protection and Jobs Responses to COVID-19: A Real-Time Review of Country Measures. World Bank, Washington, DC. World Bank, 2020. Available at: https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/hand le/10986/33635. © 2023 Global Journals Volume XXIII Issue III Version I 33 Global Journal of Human Social Science - Year 2023 ( )E Expropriation of Rights, Dependent Capitalism and Transfer of Income: Reflections on the Effects of the Covid-19 Pandemic