Adult children claimed as depedents

[Larmil]

I am seeing an alarming number of adult children being rightfully claimed as dependents this year. Who knows how many I have missed because the parents assume that they cannot claim the child and don't mention it.

GOOD NEWS - The economy improved in 2009 and the 'cost of living' did not go up!????

[thomtax]

That is the official cost of living did not go up. It's like everything else, the figures get doctored to come out the way the government wants them to look. It's just like the government trying to balance the budget - if they have a big enough problem the cost is taken "off budget".

My biggest complaint is the unemployment claims. They keep touting the economy is getting better because the number of new unemployment claims was only 200,000, which was down from the 220,000 the month before. Of course it is down - fewer people are employed, therefore fewer to lose their job. With this kind of warped propaganda the economy will be pronounced cured when no one files a new unemployment claim. Of course this is also when no one has a job after a complete collapse of the economy. If no one is employed, they cannot be laid off.

LT

[S T]

Statistics

You can make "statistics" say anything you want, depending on the factors that you are using and presenting. Thomtax said it better the UI figures are based maybe on "NEW" employment claims, Would this only include "NEW" claims filed in the last 30 or 60 days? And what criteria - full time, part time, refiling a claim for extended benefits?

The problem with unemployment figures as Thomtax pointed out, the unemployment figures do not give us the "factual" number of people that are unemployed, the figures fail to provide us with the people that have dropped off the unemployment roles due to their benefits being exhausted, and years later have never been rehired or re-employed. Self -employment and business closings where the owner is unemployed, does not receive unemployment benefits, etc.

New claims could also include those part-timers that are retired as a part-time job to supplement retirement, are they included in the unemployment figures?

Is there a matrix of what actually compiles the data for Unemployment?

Sandy

[taxea]

I am seeing an alarming number of adult children being rightfully claimed as dependents this year. Who knows how many I have missed because the parents assume that they cannot claim the child and don't mention it.

GOOD NEWS - The economy improved in 2009 and the 'cost of living' did not go up!????

You can easily solve that problem by asking 1. are there any changes in your household status since last year or 2. is there anyone else living in your home that you have not mentioned? This, of course, will set you up to look like the hero if the kids, etc have moved in and they don't know the new rules.