In Brazil, welfare programs such as “Bolsa Família” Program (PBF) function as an instrument of access to social rights that promote an improvement in the variables that compose the Human Development Index (HDI). In this sense, the present work seeks to answer the following questions: is it possible to deduce from the data of the Brazilian HDI the actual “PBF”? In which way the answer could help observe the relationship between welfare policies and work? We aim to demonstrate the positive signs of restructuring social assistance, in the sense of development and its HDI impact in Brazil. Empirical data was used to allow a practical-theoretical evaluation of the correlation between the right to social assistance, implemented by Bolsa Família, and the human development index. Thus, an empirical analysis of the socioeconomic repercussion of the assistance actions of the Bolsa Família Program end up influencing the demand for work, generating a broad need for the State to promote actions to combat poverty, especially in the current context of crisis.