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
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Alan Viard, resident scholar at the American Enterprise
Institute, a Washington research organization. “But, people at
any income level can lose their jobs.”
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