This text carries out an exploratory analysis of the impact of reform on the Brazilian social welfare system. Though attempts at reform are recent, an expectation was created for a decline in benefit demand, especially with regard to retirement benefits. However, results are inconclusive, due to uncertainties inherited from the past. This article goes on to examine the significance of social welfare in the 1988 Constitution and to explore the international and Latin American contexts.
welfare reform; financing of social welfare system; social welfare system