In fact, Ms Rousseff claims that some of the alleged fiscal crimes she is accused of in her impeachment process were procedures intended to protect social programmes from drastic spending cuts.
Earlier this month she told crowds that Vice-President Michel Temer would remove 36 million people from the programme and "throw them into the free market, forcing the poor to fend for themselves".
One of her last moves was to raise the Bolsa Familia benefit by 9%, and to change the financial definition of poverty, to bring more people into the scheme.
AP
Ms Rousseff's speech struck a chord with women in Itamatatiua and across Brazil. They fear that under Mr Temer's rule their benefits might be cut.
The pottery cooperative makes on average $225 (£155) a month, which is split between its 12 members.
Success and failure
But most women here do not make the bulk of their income from the cooperative.
Keeping children in school is more lucrative than running a business or even getting a job, when they can find one.
Itamatatiua is one of the 207 small communities in Alcantara, a very poor city in Maranhao state, that highlights the successes and failures of Bolsa Familia.
The city has a Human Development Index (HDI) of 0.573, which means there is a low standard of living, but even so it has improved its score by 40% over the course of the decade.
The small communities now have roads connecting them to the city centre.
Another social programme implemented by the Workers' Party (Minha Casa, Minha Vida) built brick-and-mortar houses where mud and straw ones used to stand.
But despite all improvements, the local economy has come to depend heavily on money that comes from the federal budget.
In a city of 21,000 residents, a staggering 78% of them receive money from Bolsa Familia. On payment week, there are long cues outside the payment centre from the early hours until closing time.
Job search
Some of the women I met wanted better standards of living but could not find jobs.
Many simply gave up on the idea of working, and found themselves better off by having children and living on welfare.
Alcantara's mayor Domingos Araken, from Ms Rousseff's Workers' Party, acknowledges that even after 13 years of Bolsa Familia, the town has so far failed to build a self-sustaining economy.
"Over the years we didn't get our economy going on its own feet - but the social programmes allowed us to spend a lot more on infrastructure, such as roads and houses, and invest in education.
"Hopefully all that will pay off now and we won't depend so much on Bolsa Familia in the future."
He believes that spending cuts to the programme will force thousands to migrate to bigger urban centres, in search of work.
Budget deficits
The future of Bolsa Familia is a challenge for Brazilian society and its new president.
The Workers' Party says it has helped lift 36 million people out of poverty and has drastically reduced inequality.
The programme has earned plaudits from the World Bank and has been copied in many other places.
Yet Brazil is running high budget deficits and its public debt is in an unsustainable course.
With a deepening recession, tax increases no longer seem viable and the government is cutting spending where it can.
GETTY IMAGESFuture concerns
Mr Temer and people around him have signalled that Bolsa Familia still ranks high in his list of priorities, but has said that no social programmes are immune to cuts.
After a decade of benefiting from Brazil's economic emergence, families in many poor communities across the country like Itamatatiua now fear their fates may be about to change.
Back in her pottery cooperative, Ana Rita de Jesus does not believe her wage will be enough for her to make it on her own.
"I need the money from the government. It is not every day that we get to sell our pottery pieces. But I know that I can count on Bolsa Familia every month."
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