O SERVIÇO SOCIAL NA ÁREA DA ASSISTÊNCIA SOCIAL: sobre a expansão do trabalho do assistente social a partir do SUAS

This paper discusses the expansion of professional work in the area of social assistance from the perspective of SUAS (Sistema Único de Assistência Social), with indications about the peculiarily of the State of Maranhão. It assumes that the assistance has been strengthened as a policy when facing inequalities and poverty control within the framework of neoliberal reforms in the country since the 1990s and it is the main performance field of social workers in the labor markel. It points out contradictions and challenges facing the professional assistance and the strengthening of philanthropy as the standard of assistance prevailing in the country despite the constitutional achievements of 1988 in which the assistance is entered as right and policy within the social security system