Social Welfare

Article 193. The social order is based on the primacy of work and aimed at social well-being and justice.

CHAPTER 2: Social Welfare

Section 1: General Provisions

Article 194. Social welfare comprises an integrated whole of actions initiated by the Government and by society, with the purpose of ensuring the rights to health, social security and assistance.

The Government shall organize social welfare, based on the following objectives:

1. universality of coverage and service
2. uniformity and equivalence of benefits and services for urban and rural populations
3. selectivity and distributiveness in the provision of benefits and services;
4. irreducibility of the value of the benefits;
5. equitable participation in funding
6. diversity of the financing basis
7. democratic and decentralized character of administration, by means of a quadripartite management, with the participation of workers, employers, retirees, and the Government in the collegiate bodies.

Article 195. Social welfare shall be financed by all of society, either directly or indirectly, as provided by law, with funds coming from the budgets of the Union, the states, the Federal District and the municipalities and from the following welfare contributions:

1. of employers, companies, and entities defined by law as being comparable to companies, assessed on: a) the payroll and other labour earnings paid or credited, on any account, to individuals who render services to them, even when there is no employment bond; b) income or revenues profits;
2. of workers and other persons insured by social security, no contribution being assessed on retirement pensions and other pensions granted by the general social security scheme referred to in article 201
3. on the revenues of lotteries;
4. of importers of goods or services from other countries, or of other parties defined by law as being comparable to such importers.

Paragraph 1. The revenues of the states, the Federal District and the municipalities alloted to social welfare shall be included in the respective budgets, not being part of the budget of the Union.

Paragraph 2. The proposal for the social welfare budget shall be drawn up jointly by the agencies responsible for health, social security and social assistance, in accordance with the goals and priorities established in the law of budgetary directives, ensuring each area of the management of its funds.

Paragraph 3. A legal entity indebted to the social welfare system, as establishedin law, may not contract with the Government nor receive benefits or fiscal or credit incentives therefrom.

Paragraph 4. The law may institute other sources intended to guarantee the maintenance or expansion of social welfare, with due regard to the provisions of article 154, I.

Paragraph 5. No social welfare benefit or service may be created, increased or extended without a corresponding source of full funding.

Paragraph 6. The social contributions referred to in this article may only be collected ninety days after the publication of the law which instituted or modified them, the provisions of article 150, III, b, not applying thereto. Paragraph 7. Benevolent entities of social assistance which meet the requirements established in law shall be exempt from contribution to social welfare. Paragraph 8. Rural producers, sharecroppers, tenant farmers, and self-employed fishermen, as well as their spouses, who exercise their activities within a household system and without permanent employees shall contribute to social welfare by applying a rate to the proceeds from the sale of their production and shall be entitled to the benefits provided by law.

Paragraph 9. The welfare contributions set forth in item I of the head paragraph of this article may have differentiated rates or assessment bases, according to the economic activity, the intensive use of labour, the size of the company, or the structural situation of the labour market.

Paragraph 10. The law shall define the criteria for the transfer of funds allocated to the unified health system and for social assistance initiatives, from the Union to the States, the Federal District, and the Municipalities, and from the States to the Municipalities, with due regard for the respective transfer of funds.

Paragraph 11. It is forbidden to grant remission or pardon of the welfare contributions referred to in itens I, a, and II of this article, for debits which exceed the limit stipulated by a supplementary law.

Paragraph 12. The law shall define the sectors of economic activity for which the contributions stipulated under the terms of items I, b; and IV of the head paragraph, shall be non-cumulative.

Paragraph 13. The provision of paragraph 12 shall also apply in the case of gradual replacement, either total ou partial, of the contribution stipulated under the terms of item I, a, by the contribution due on income or revenues.