OBJECTIVES The objective of this research was to analyze the profile of BPC concessions for people under 16 years of age requested from the National Social Security Institute of Maringá, Brazil, from May 2015 to October 2017. Brazil is one of the ten richest countries in the world, but about 25% of the population live on the poverty line. For people with disabilities, poverty acts as an aggravation of their disability and promotes poverty. The Continuous Cash Benefit - BPC assists populations living in extreme poverty by providing a minimum monthly income. Seniors and people with disabilities who have physical, mental, sensory or intellectual impairments in the long term are candidates. It is necessary to prove a gross monthly family income of less than ¼ of a minimum wage per person and, for people with disabilities, expert medical evaluations are necessary.

METHODS The population consisted of 332 applicants and had as its primary source through Expert Medical Assessments - Person with Disabilities – under 16 years between May 2015 and December 2017, which were made available by the National Social Security Institute. For the analysis of the data, homogeneous groups of classes of dysfunctions (Cluster Analysis) were established and, from them, the profile of the applicants and the standard of the concessions were characterized.

RESULTS A predominance of male, pre-school, illiterate individuals with a diagnosis of mental and behavioral disorders, diseases of the nervous system and congenital malformations was observed.

CONCLUSIONS The grants appeared to be more dependent on the medical diagnoses of the applicants than on the degree of dysfunction suffered by the individuals, emphasizing the burden of the disease as a vulnerability factor.