The main source of LTC in Brazil is provided for by family/unpaid carers; however, the number of people who began providing care for older adults as ‘formal’ or ‘paid carers’ is increasing rapidly. There is no official statistic on the number of unpaid carers in Brazil. According to the Brazilian Annual Report of Social Information (Relação Anual de Informações Sociais), ‘informal care worker’ was the occupation with the largest growth rate between 2007 and 2017 (growing over 500% – from 5,263 to 34,051 registered informal carer workers) in Brazil (Brazilian Ministry of Economy, 2018). This number reflects a growing interest for the profession by Brazilians (mostly women); however, this may also mean a growing tendency of informal care workers being formally recognized as professionals.

Currently, informal care workers are hired as domestic employees and can be paid for hourly (not registered formally, without any pension or labour rights, and without a minimum payment that is set by the government), or by receiving the minimum wage or more (registered officially, with pension and labour rights as a domestic employee would). For domestic employees, everyone working more than three days a week for a family should be formally hired by law. These individuals are ‘hired’ by the family directly through their personal links, or through care agencies, and they provide from supervision through full time care, which is paid for according to the amount of care needs.

References:

Brazilian Ministry of Economy. (2018). RAIS 2018. http://www.rais.gov.br/sitio/index.jsf