Forty million people benefited from extended unemployment benefits programs put in place to fight the recession that started in December 2007, according to a White House report released Thursday.

Fourteen million people laid off through no fault of their own received benefits under the Emergency Unemployment Compensation and Extended Benefits programs that Congress allowed to lapse this week, and the White House Council of Economic Advisors estimates that “an additional 26 million people living in their households benefited indirectly.”

Arthur Delaney, huffingtonpost.com