Republican Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst introduced a bill aimed at preventing millionaires from collecting unemployment benefits — a problem that had become widespread during the presidency of Joe Biden.
The Ending Unemployment Payments to Jobless Millionaires Act would require state unemployment agencies to cross-check all available income data before approving benefit payments, according to the bill’s text. The Department of Labor would be allowed to double-check the state approvals to ensure they were verifying applicants thoroughly.
“Able-bodied millionaires shouldn’t expect handouts paid for by overtaxed and overworked Americans,” Senator Ernst said in a statement accompanying the bill. “The freebies for free-loading fat cats are over.”
Thousands of millionaires have received unemployment assistance in recent years despite not needing financial support, according to a memo researchers sent to Ernst. During the years of 2021 and 2022 combined, more than 20,000 individuals with incomes exceeding $1 million received unemployment benefits — totaling over $270 million. On average, each received more than $10,000.
Unemployment Insurance — the federal-state program designed to support workers who lose their jobs through no fault of their own — is funded by employer payroll taxes and administered by individual states under federal guidelines. A Labor Department rule prohibits states from denying benefits solely based on income, the memo indicated. As a result, millionaires and other wealthy individuals are able to receive benefits intended for truly needy people.
Unemployment insurance is not the only program being abused. Several years ago, a millionaire in Minnesota sought out to prove it was easy for even a wealthy individual to receive welfare benefits.
Rob Undersander — a retired engineer and millionaire — applied for food stamps and openly told the case worker he did not need them, the Foundation for Economic Education (FEE) reported in 2019.
“I begged him to find some reason to deny my application for food stamps,” Undersander said at the time.
Three weeks later, his benefits arrived in the mail.
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