Some 3,000 Millionaires Claim Jobless Benefits, IRS Data Show

[Donnachaidh]

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-10-01/almost-3-000-millionaires-claimed-jobless-benefits-in-2008-irs-data-show.html

After the economy slipped into recession in 2008, millions of Americans received unemployment benefits to make ends meet -- including almost 3,000 millionaires.

According to U.S. Internal Revenue Service data, 2,840 households reporting at least $1 million in income on their tax returns that year also collected a total of $18.6 million in jobless aid. They included 806 taxpayers with incomes over $2 million and 17 with incomes in excess of $10 million. In all, multimillionaires reported receiving $5.2 million in jobless benefits.

Those numbers are a minuscule fraction of the 9.5 million taxpayers who reported receiving $43.7 billion from jobless benefits in 2008, up from 7.6 million recipients reporting $29.4 billion in benefits in 2007. Still, economists said they are surprised so many people with seven-figure incomes claimed benefits.

“It’s a larger number than I would have expected,” said Alan Viard, resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, a Washington research organization. “But, people at any income level can lose their jobs.”

More at the link --

[dkf]

1. Gee I wonder how many millionaires get social security and Medicare?

All of them over 65.

Well we refuse to means test.

[MH1]

5. as soon as you means test, you make it a lot easier to gut the programs

it's amazing how much it helps to have the greedy on your side.

and besides, if people paid in, why shouldn't they get the benefit? It's called 'unemployment insurance' for a reason. If I wreck my car my auto insurance company doesn't get to deny my claim because I have too much money in the bank.

[dkf]

10. Yet if you means test maybe that protects the viability of the program.

It's a trade off in a period of increasing beneficiaries per worker.

[bluerum]

2. "It's a larger number than I would have expected". Well no $hit you mindless dreck.

Any number greater than zero, that's 0 with nothing after it, is too many.

I am sorry. This just gets a triple WTF from me.

[proud patriot]

3. Greedy Fucks

[dmallind]

4. UE is not means tested - high earners can lose their jobs too.

We all pay into UE insurance via our employers, so we are all eligible for benefits. By we of course I mean all people who work; I am well paid myself but nowhere near a million a year. Such people are only eligible for the state max - usually 350-500 a week - just like any other reasonable wage earner.

[Davis_X_Machina]

8. Social insurance is social insurance, and should not...

...be means-tested, if for no other reason than the iron law of the politics of social provision: Programs for the poor invariably become poor programs.

[Edweird]

6. If they have paid into it, they are entitled to collect. Are they 'classless'? Absolutely.

Are they wrong? No. Here in Florida the maximum benefit is $250/wk = AKA peanuts. There are much bigger financial drains to be concerned with.

[Shallah Kali]

7. so are the Republicans going to denounce them as lazy goodfornothings suckling at the gov. teat?

any time now i am sure....

[REP]

9. Anyone who had a job, lost it and qualifies for UE can collect it. I have no problem with that.

[TacticalPeek]

11. I disapprove of what they draw, but I will defend their right to draw it.

Apologies, Evelyn Beatrice Hall.

[KurtNYC]

12. They paid in.

[On the Road]

13. That's An Average of $6,549 per Person per Year

quite a comedown from $1M or over.

[GKirk]

14. They said millionaires

not million dollar a year salaries.

[Nikia]

19. The title says millionaires

But the details of the article suggest that they refer to people who make over 1 million.

[On the Road]

23. "According to U.S. Internal Revenue Service data,

2,840 households reporting at least $1 million in income on their tax returns that year also collected a total of $18.6 million in jobless aid."

[quaker bill]

15. But, people at any income level can lose their jobs

True that. But I really do not care. Have them spend down, like the do with medicaid. Once they are as broke as the guys I feed at the homeless shelter, I will feed them too. (I will in fact do this, just as I have for the last 10 years)

[Kat45]

16. I wonder if they're some of the rich folk who want to cut the programs

You know, because they're worried about the deficit and of course we can't raise taxes.

[provis99]

17. it's an insurance program. It's working the way it's intended.

[jwirr]

18. What we need to deal with the richest recipients of these programs

is a reverse sliding fee scale. If the amount we receive is based on our income then the more you make the less you get. Apply this to anyone making more than a million dollars.

[Brickbat]

20. Fine with me.

[Logical]

21. WHY IS THIS AN ISSUE? Is it legal? If they lost their job they....

deserve to get it like anyone else. Wow is this how liberals get a bad image. n-t

[Logical]

22. WHY IS THIS AN ISSUE? Is it legal? If they lost their job they....

deserve to get it like anyone else. Wow is this how liberals get a bad image. n-t