Pro Bono in the Age of COVID-19

The mandatory social preventive isolation as the main measure to flatten the contagion curve and avoid the collapse of the health system seems to be the right path. In developing economies, such as Argentina and the rest of Latin America, it also exacerbates the consequences of poverty.

Ameliorating the effects of poverty on the most vulnerable segments of our society has been the focus of attention in some of the measures taken by the Argentine government. Thus, by means of Decree 310/2020, the Government has provided the Emergency Family Income (IFE after its acronym in Spanish) for family groups with no income.

Some of the requirements to be the recipient of the IFE are the following: (i) the recipient must be a native or naturalized citizen and must have been living in the country for no less than 2 years; (ii) the recipient must be aged between 18 and 65; (iii) the recipient and the family group must not be dependent workers, or recipients of pensions, retirement pensions, contributory and non-contributory pensions, and social plans (except for the Universal allocation per child, maternity allowance, and the Progresar program); and (iv) the recipient must be a category A or B self-employed tax payer, or be the owner of an independent business. Later, more payment methods were enabled for people without bank accounts.

The IFE application had to be done by registering the Argentine ID number in the website of the ANSES (National Administration of Social Security). After analyzing the applications with an outdated data base, the ANSES authorized or rejected the IFE applications.

The Argentine Government was expecting about 3.6 million applications, but finally they were over 11 million. More than 7 million applications were authorized, and many were rejected using the correct data. However, many applications were rejected due to outdated information.

Under these circumstances, Marval O’Farrell Mairal and lawyers from the Red Federal Pro Bono advised about 200 IFE applicants. They were advised on whether they had been properly rejected; and on whether they had to file a claim and how to do it; and how to update the data base, among other matters. They were also advised on the recovery date and how to choose alternative charging methods for people without bank accounts. It is important to bear in mind that the most vulnerable segments of society not only usually struggle with managing their personal data on a website, but even to have internet access.

This work allowed us to detect other issues, such as divorces that had not been notified to the corresponding registers, or people with no ID; matters that cannot be solved in the short time IFE access requires. These cases were noted to follow up with the appropriate procedures at the courts to continue supporting the most vulnerable segments of our society with the practice of our profession once the mandatory social isolation ends.