According to a 2012 report by the Government Accountability Office, Social Security is the government program people turn to most often after exhausting unemployment benefits. But the share who do so is relatively small, just 18 percent. An additional 6 percent apply for disability insurance, and just 3 percent use government aid designed for families and children.

Regardless of whether they qualify for government help, the vast majority also rely on private sources of income — a mishmash of personal savings, odd jobs, credit card debt and loans from friends and family, the report found. About half also live in two-person households without children, which means they are more likely to have another income to rely on.

Still, those varied sources of cash typically are not substantial, the GAO said: Four in 10 people who had exhausted unemployment benefits in 2012 earned less than twice the federal poverty level — or less than $22,340 a year.

“It’s not like they’re trying to maintain their lifestyle,” said Rutgers University professor Carl Van Horn, who is researching long-term unemployment. “They’re trying to survive at a lower standard of living.”