Descentralização na Assistência Social de 2017 A 2021: O (Des)Financiamento sob Análise.

The objective of this article is to analyze the process of decentralization of Social Assistance in Brazil since the approval of the Organic Law that instituted it as a public policy in the 1990s until the present time. For this purpose, the analysis was primarily based on Marta Arretche's studies. The research approach is qualitative and used documentary research and bibliographical studies to verify if decentralization as a structuring guideline of the Unified Social Assistance System (SUAS) is being met or if it just deconcentrates responsibilities. The results of the research indicated that despite the identification of many advances, it was verified that the process is marked, on the one hand, by evolution of an institutional nature, observed in the examination of the extensive legislation that guides the policy and, on the other hand, it is perceived barriers of a structural nature, which were evidenced when analyzing the direction of expenditures made by the Federal Government in the National Social Assistance Fund in the series from 2017 to 2021. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]