Withdrawal of pandemic welfare fuels poverty in Brazil

FILE - This May 15, 2021 file photo shows an aerial view of the Penha Brasil favela where families have started relocating during the coronavirus pandemic in Sao Paulo, Brazil. The pandemic shantytown sprang up virtually overnight when people began using scavenged wooden boards to build shacks on a plot of empty land in Sao Paulo, Brazil's biggest city. (AP Photo/Andre Penner, File)

FILE - In this March 4, 2021 file photo, COVID-19 patients rest in a field hospital built inside a sports coliseum in Santo Andre, on the outskirts of Sao Paulo, Brazil. COVID-19's spread accelerated in 2021, causing more deaths in the first four months of 2021 than in all of 2020. (AP Photo/Andre Penner, File)

FILE - In this May 8, 2021 file photo, a man suspected of having COVID-19 who collapsed on a street is treated by Mobile Emergency Care Service staff, in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Nearly 2,000 people are dying of COVID-19 each day of in Brazil, a tally surpassed only by India. (AP Photo/Marcelo Chello, File)

FILE - In this May 15, 2021 file photo, Geovani de Souza, who lost his job as doorman, poses for photos with his wife Juliana Moraes, who is pregnant, inside their home in the Penha Brasil Favela where families have started relocating during the pandemic in Sao Paulo, Brazil. "Without a job, I couldn't pay my rent, was evicted from where I was living and found the solution here," said de Souza, who now relies on occasional work as a bricklayer. (AP Photo/Andre Penner, File)

Brazil's President Jair Bolsoanro, center, takes a motorcycle tour with supporters in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Sunday, May 23, 2021. (AP Photo/Bruna Prado)

FILE - In this May 15, 2021, a girl eats from a pot as she eyes the camera in the Penha Brasil favela where families have started relocating during the coronavirus pandemic in Sao Paulo, Brazil. The shantytown's rapid rise reflects a resurgence in poverty after the government limited socioeconomic turmoil in 2020 with one of the world's most generous welfare programs. (AP Photo/Andre Penner, File)

FILE - In this May 15, 2021 file photo, Geovani de Souza, who lost his job as a doorman, works to help a friend build a home in the Penha Brasil favela, where families like his have started relocating during the coronavirus pandemic, in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Geovani de Souza and his pregnant wife were among the 200 families who moved in about six months ago amid the economic turmoil caused by COVID-19. (AP Photo/Andre Penner)

FILE - In this April 28, 2021 file photo, a healthcare worker injects a woman with a dose of the Sinovac COVID-19 vaccine in Sao Joao de Meriti, Rio de Janeiro state, Brazil. Most nations are short of vaccines, but Brazil's government in particular neglected to chase deals, and just 8.5% of the population is fully vaccinated as of late May 2021. (AP Photo/Silvia Izquierdo, File)

Women carry home bags of donated food, distributed by the the Covid Without Hunger organization in the Jardim Gramacho slum of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Saturday, May 22, 2021. Food insecurity for people with informal jobs is quadruple that of salaried employees, according to Tereza Campello, a former minister of social development. (AP Photo/Silvia Izquierdo)

FILE - In this April 29, 2021 file photo, people wearing masks amid the COVID-19 pandemic wait to buy cooking gas from the Petrobras Oil Tankers Union, part of a solidarity campaign to sell fuel at low prices, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The withdrawal of generous pandemic welfare payments is fueling a rapid rise in poverty in Brazil. (AP Photo/Silvia Izquierdo, File)

Ana Carolina Silva, who lost her job during the COVID-19 pandemic, sits with her daughter Cataleia outside her home in the Paraisopolis favela of Sao Paulo, Brazil, Monday, May 24, 2021. (AP Photo/Andre Penner)

FILE - In this March 19, 2021 file photo, a healthcare worker lends against a wall in the corridor of an ICU unit for COVID-19 patients at the Hospital das Clinicas, in Porto Alegre, Brazil. The withdrawal of generous pandemic welfare payments comes at a time when there is no near-term hope of mass vaccination to safeguard the labor force. (AP Photo/Jefferson Bernardes, File)

A girl waits for food donated by the Covid Without Hunger organization in the Jardim Gramacho slum of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Saturday, May 22, 2021. As incomes fall, prices are surging, which means the disadvantaged are doubly squeezed. (AP Photo/Silvia Izquierdo)

FILE - In this April 18, 2021 file photo, Debora Estanislau, who made her living as a domestic worker before the new coronavirus pandemic hit, holds her one-year-old daughter Ana Beatriz as she cooks at home where she lives with her four children in the Cidade de Deus favela in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Limited and reduced welfare payments is leaving vulnerable Brazilians exposed to soaring food prices and a still-worsening job market. (AP Photo/Bruna Prado, File)

Youths carry home food donated from the Covid Without Hunger organization in the Jardim Gramacho slum of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Saturday, May 22, 2021. Poverty — defined as households living on less than one minimum wage — spiked in the first quarter of 2021 to its highest level in at least nine years, after plunging last year, according to Marcelo Neri, director of the Getulio Vargas Foundation's social policy center.(AP Photo/Silvia Izquierdo)

FILE - In this March 30, 2021 file photo, commuters wearing protective face masks ride in a crowded public bus during the COVID-19 pandemic in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The region's well-heeled are flying to the U.S. to get vaccines, leaving the poor at the mercy of local vaccination schedules. (AP Photo/Bruna Prado, File)

Women and children wait for donated food distributed by the the Covid Without Hunger organization in the Jardim Gramacho slum of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Saturday, May 22, 2021. Inflation is climbing at its fastest pace since 2016, at 6.8%, but over the past 12 months the cost of staple foods rose between 18% and 57%. (AP Photo/Silvia Izquierdo)

Gracieli Lima, 34, waits for food donated by the Covid Without Hunger program in the Jardim Gramacho slum of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Saturday, May 22, 2021. The federal government withdrew the welfare lifeline at the end of 2020, then resumed payments in April, but for only two-thirds as many people, who now receive less than half the previous monthly amounts. (AP Photo/Silvia Izquierdo, File)