Thaindian News

October 7, 2010 (Pen Men at Work): Bloomberg reports a whopping 2840 millionaires applying for unemployment benefits in 2008. The report quoted the recent IRS figures while also stating that these households had each reported an income upwards of $1 million in their income tax returns. However, that did not deter them from collecting $18.6 million as jobless aids. The figure comes to about $6,550 per millionaire. A further division reveals that almost 802 among them made around $2 million while 17 of the others actually had incomes superseding $10 million.

The number of millionaires are not a majority though, they represent only a miniscule of the 9.5 million taxpayers who had reportedly received $43.7 billion as unemployment benefits the same year. The news may be astonishing but the collection of such benefits by millionaires cannot be strictly termed as illegal. The unemployment benefits are not need based like the welfare and serve as insurance with the taxes being paid by the employer. Roberton Williams, an expert on tax policy endorses the view as well.

Whatever, be the legalities, it is certainly difficult to justify the millionaires collecting about $360 or so per week that too from the cash strapped government. Most of the people think that the millionaires who have a habit of dealing with huge quantities of wealth can definitely try to exploit all avenues for making money even in a jobless situation. The millionaires simply grabbed the opportunity of making a quick buck by claiming unemployment benefits.