US Aid Rules Perplex Needy in Downturn

They also want to keep millionaires off food stamps

(NEWSER) - The GOP has found some millionaires it won't stand up for: Millionaires on food stamps. House Republicans have added a measure to their payroll tax holiday bill that would cut off food stamps and unemployment benefits for people with a gross adjusted income of $1 million or more, the New York Times reports. Of course, there aren't actually any millionaires receiving food stamps, which are already means-tested. But some do collect unemployment benefits, which in 2009 cost the government almost $21 million. More»

2M to lose benefits by Christmas as parties hit impasse

(NEWSER) - As Democrats and Republicans wrangled over tax cuts for the richest Americans, time ran out for millions of people who have been unemployed for up to 99 weeks. Congress has failed to agree on how to extend benefits for the long-term unemployed and some 2 million people who have been out of work for 6 months or longer face being cut off before Christmas, NPR reports. Tempers and protests are beginning to flare over the pending crunch. Unemployed New Yorkers in Santa hats protested the benefit cut-off at the Rockefeller Center tree-lighting ceremony. More»

States face raising taxes or slashing benefits

(NEWSER) - The combination of high unemployment and bad planning means that the jobless compensation programs of all but 10 states are on course to go broke by 2011. Some 25 states are already borrowing federal money to issue benefit checks. State lawmakers are coming under intense pressure to either shrink payments or hike payroll taxes to fund the programs, the Washington Post reports. More»

(NEWSER) - Years of tax and budget cuts have left the nation's unemployment system badly weakened just as it's most needed, the New York Times reports. At least a million applications are still stuck in the system and many applicants have to wait months for their first check. Sixteen states have exhausted their reserves and are now using borrowed money to pay unemployment checks. Many more are expected to join them before the year is out. More»

Many make shift as jobless benefits run out

(NEWSER) - Welfare rolls are on the rise nationwide for the first time since President Clinton signed a bill overhauling the system in 1996, the Wall Street Journal reports. Welfare recipients’ ranks fell in some areas at the beginning of the recession, but now 23 of the 30 biggest US states are seeing an increase as residents' unemployment compensation runs out. More»