Unemployment Insurance (UI) benefits were a central part of the social safety net during the COVID-19 recession. UI benefits, however, are severely understated in surveys. Using administrative tax data, we find that over half of UI benefits were missed in major survey data, with a greater understatement among low-income workers. As a result, 2020 official poverty rates were overstated by about 2 percentage points, and corrected poverty reached a six-decade low. We provide data to correct underreporting in surveys and show that, compared to UI benefits, the UI exclusion tax expenditure was less targeted at low incomes.

中文翻译：

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调查和行政数据中的失业保险

在 COVID-19 经济衰退期间，失业保险 (UI) 福利是社会安全网的核心部分。然而，UI 的好处在调查中被严重低估了。使用行政税收数据，我们发现超过一半的失业保险福利在主要调查数据中被遗漏，低收入工人的低估程度更高。结果，2020 年的官方贫困率被高估了约 2 个百分点，而纠正的贫困率达到了 6 年来的最低水平。我们提供数据来纠正调查中的漏报，并表明，与 UI 福利相比，UI 排除税支出较少针对低收入人群。