Nearly 3,000 Millionaires Collected Unemployment In 2008, IRS Data Show

Bloomberg:

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.

Read the whole story: Bloomberg

Comments

[melodeebeth]

12:30 PM on 10/07/2010

It's misleading to only print the first three paragraphs of an article. If you go to the original article and read on, you'll see that Unemployment INSURANCE is just that. It's insurance. It's not need-based. If an individual is in a car accident or their house burns down, should their insurance claim be rejected just because he/she's a millionaire?

Also, remember this information comes from tax returns. That means the recipient of the insurance isn't necessarily the one who's making the millions. It could be the spouse of the high-wage earner. You going to deny a public school teacher, who gets laid off from their job, unemployment benefits just because his/her spouse has a high-paying job?

Read the entire article, not just the first few paragraphs.

[Leviathan21]

10:33 PM on 10/04/2010

I realize that this will not be a popular position here, but here I go anyway:

First, unemployment benefit is something you have earned. It's like an insurance policy that you have paid into, and, therefore, you deserve the payout. Whether or not these people need the money or not, they are fully entitled to getting it.

Second, in many instances, if you have private insurance for loss of your job, you HAVE to file for unemployment as proof, or your other insurance doesn't get unlocked. So, it is possible that many of these people filed it to fulfill some bureaucratic requirement.

Finally, as the article mentioned, it could very easily be a case of a millionaire banker whose wife lost her primary school teaching job. Obviously, she doesn't need the money, but her union would strongly encourage her to file because in many places, that is how the government counts how many people are unemployed.

So, I can understand why people would immediately be repulsed by this story. But, it is important to look deeper before passing judgement. 

[drkazmd65]

11:15 AM on 10/05/2010

I am in agreement with you Leviathian21,

Entitlement programs / Insurance programs we are all required to pay into regardless of our income should not be prorated negatively against us if/when we qualify to access them because of our relative income.

Social Security, Medicare, and Unemployment Insurance are things anybody who makes a wage income have to pay into. Anybody vested in those systems has already paid for the privilege of drawing from them.

[move over]

11:02 AM on 10/07/2010

Okay- for any of you that has never been an employer, only an employee....let me explain how the unemplyment 'insurance' system works.

You do not contribute a dime into this, so technically, you are not 'entitled'. I know not being 'entitled' is a difficult thing for many today, but it is a fact. Your employer is *forced* to pay a percentage of all wages paid out in a form of 'insurance' payment, but if anyone files a claim- and we have had the laziest, riding the system folks get approved when they have failed to show up, failed drug tests, etc., THEN the employer ALSO pays to the 'Unemployment Insurance' the FULL AMOUNT you are awarded, PLUS his overall rate goes up on his insurance 'rate'...kind of like if you have had your car insurance for 20 yrs, paid in, and then when you have an accident they raise your rates.

So- you may ask.....where does all of the money from the employers 'Unemployment Insurance Premiums' go??? My question exactly!!! Even for a small business they are thousands of dollars a quarter. Most small business people are not becoming millionaires, they do what they love and scrape by, just like you.

But NO!!! YOU DO NOT PERSONALLY PAY INTO THAT ON YOUR CHECK, unless of course, your union collects from you.

[WriterGirl]

09:07 PM on 10/05/2010

This all makes good sense, and I salute you for braving that kind of post here :-)

Still, you have to admit that these are extraordinary times. Regardless of what these folks are entitled to, there is still an ethical gap regarding the collection of funds from a government that is clearly struggling to help people who really are in dire need.

Look at it from this angle: it's almost the moral equivalent of a child purchasing the last sandwich in the lunchroom and eating it in front of a group of children who couldn't afford it - the child with money is entitled to the sandwich, but s/he eats it at the expense of the community.

So while it collecting unemployment might be a perfectly acceptable thing to do under ordinary circumstances, now may not be the best time to do it if you're clearly able to get by without it. And somehow, I think people earning $10,000,000 a year can get by.

[DoorMouse]

02:45 PM on 10/04/2010

I don't even know what to say about this one, I'm so flabbergasted. Are any of these millionaires in such a place of penury that they really need to collect? Weren't the $2.5 trillion Bush tax cuts enough?
What really pisses me off is that I make LESS in my weekly paycheck - but at least I'm working.

[satanlite]

10:43 AM on 10/04/2010

Hows that "self regulating" thing working, righties (shills of the Americas uber wealthy parasites)?

[Giveadamn]

09:22 AM on 10/04/2010

I would rather hear about all the millionaires who could have collected, but chose not to. Are there any? Hope there was even one!

[Eggplant]

08:47 AM on 10/04/2010

When those truly in need of assistance, those whom have lost their mediocre jobs
and have nothing to live on receive unemployment some call it a hand-out,
free Government money. The middle-class is called lazy, drug addicts, unwilling to
do menial labor.
But, when millionaires, who clearly do not need the money
receive unemployment it's called insurance.
Insurance they paid into and they are entitled to receive.
Where is the criticism of the wealthy usurping monies set aside for those
who really need it?

[h23154]

07:49 AM on 10/04/2010

It is et up as an insurance policy and it pays benefits when the terms of the policy are met. The amount paid out is skewed to the lower ends of the income scale so that people at the top of that pay in far more for far less in benefits. If people want it to be a welfare program and people with certain levels of assets or prior income not be eligible, change the law. But this nonsense of berating people for getting what they are entitled to and paid for is silly.

[phebes]

10:42 AM on 10/04/2010

No it isn't. Just because it's legal doesn't make it right. Considering the millions of people who are REALLY HURTING right now, wouldn't you feel the least bit guilty about collecting money you didn't need?

I sure would. I'd consider myself d*mn lucky I didn't need that money.

[satanlite]

10:44 AM on 10/04/2010

That's because you sound like a good person. Not everyone is a good person.

[tommy b]

07:24 AM on 10/04/2010

No its not cheating they also are entitled but they are gaming the system almost as the people who game the welfare or other social programs. The difference is they are the ones who yell the loudest about S/S and other programs that help the less fortunate

[bluepond]

10:12 PM on 10/03/2010

These people may legally qualify. However, morally, they suffer from a sort of emotional tapeworm. No amount of compensation will ever satisfy their sense of their own worth. They are in a perpetual and paradoxical state of suffering. Let them eat cake, the poor boogers.

[wyldthings]

09:22 PM on 10/03/2010

Funny Unemployment insurance is something I paid into for 45 years. It's an Insurance policy that paid for. Next thing you'll want is my lie insurance because I'm Dead and my family is O.K

[Golemaximus]

12:02 AM on 10/04/2010

wyldthings - It's an assistance program. If you don't need it you shouldn't get it! Now deal with it!

[wyldthings]

12:24 AM on 10/04/2010

No it's not. It's a insurance policy that insures me if I'm unemployed. You deal with it!

[phebes]

10:45 AM on 10/04/2010

I*'m not the first to say this, but why is it called 'insurance' for the wealthy but if poor people need it, they are called lazy leeches.

[wyldthings]

01:13 PM on 10/04/2010

That's your term Lazy leeches. People need help and it's been extended for 99 weeks. The unemployment insurance has run out a long time ago.Where do we get the Money to pay. I guess you might be for just taking the Money from Gates Buffett and Spielberg. This is not the French revolution where we Kill the rulers and strip the rich of their money. You think that's a good Idea Move to Venezuela, that's what Chavez is up to Join Him!

[TheKurgan]

09:15 PM on 10/03/2010

Some leeches are too big to fit in a bucket.

[bluepond]

10:13 PM on 10/03/2010

heehee...fanned

[Bartel5]

08:23 PM on 10/03/2010

That's the trouble with govt handout programs. People cash the checks. Limit govt.

[CJHAN]

08:35 PM on 10/03/2010

So because some of the richest people in our country take advantage of the system, you think those who need it should have to suffer, you really need to check your life prospective.

[tuberider]

06:31 PM on 10/03/2010

What could I do? My whole 9 Million was tied up in pork bellies!

[ragtag]

04:19 PM on 10/03/2010

Can't you just see the desired salary box on the applications they're required to submit for unemployment eligibility. Last salary $1,000,000 - desired salary $2,000,000...

[Appleblossom]

02:27 PM on 10/03/2010

Sure they qualify but unless they also happen to have lost a million, why should they apply for it?

[CJHAN]

08:36 PM on 10/03/2010

GREED thats why.