Explore jobs
Find specific jobs
Explore careers
Explore professions
Best companies
Explore companies
Social Security Administration history
Social Security Administration company history timeline
The Committee's legislative recommendations were presented to the President in January 1935, and introduced to Congess for consideration shortly thereafter.
Large numbers of individuals were not covered, including the self-employed, agricultural and domestic service workers, casual laborers, employees of nonprofit organizations, and those subject to the Railroad Retirement Act of 1935.
In 1935, only Wisconsin had enacted an unemployment program, but the Federal law provided an incentive for all States to establish such programs.
National Conference on Social Welfare, Fiftieth Anniversary Edition: The Report of the Committee on Economic Security of 1935 and Other Basic Documents Relating to the Development of the Social Security Act.
Even as the Social Security legislation moved through the Congress in the late winter and spring of 1935, it was acknowledged by many supporters that the old-age program then under consideration was but a first step in providing comprehensive protection for American workers against loss of earnings.
A spurt of pension legislation was passed in the years immediately prior to passage of the Social Security Act, so that 30 states had some form of old-age pension program by 1935.
The result was a rapid growth in the number of aged persons, to 7.8 million by 1935.
From the beginning of Social Security in 1935, retirement benefits have been conditional on the requirement that the beneficiary be substantially retired.
Late in 1935 the Social Security Board appointed a Field Office Committee to determine the best locations for offices to provide direct public service.
The Clark Amendment Fizzles Out In the following session of Congress in January 1936 the Senate Finance Committee did in fact appoint a subcommittee to draft legislative language.
In April 1936 the Board considered a proposal developed by one of the agency's first employees outlining the problems involved in recording employee wages.
The first application forms were distributed in late November 1936.
Early in 1936, it appeared that the Board would adopt this plan, but in their final recommendations, the Board rejected it.
FIRST FIELD OFFICES (1936) -
If you should die before you begin to get your monthly checks, your family will get a payment in cash, amounting to 3.5 cents on every dollar of wages you have earned after 1936.
Taxes were collected for the first time in January 1937 and the first one-time, lump-sum payments were made that same month.
That is to say, during the next 3 years, beginning January 1, 1937, you will pay 1 cent for every dollar you earn, and at the same time your employer will pay 1 cent for every dollar you earn, up to $3,000 a year.
By June 30, 1937, when the Board assumed responsibility from the Post Office Department for the entire SSN issuance operations, some 30 million numbers had been assigned.
Needless to say, since wage reports were going to start arriving near the middle of 1937, most of the decisions surrounding this issue were being made at the same time as those concerning employee registration.
A complete description of the process that the early administrators agreed upon can be found in the June 1938 issue of the Social Security Bulletin.* What follows are some highlights of that early process and some background material that did not appear in that earlier article.
In 1938 the successful Democratic candidate for governor, Culbert Olsen, openly supported the plan and a proposition was placed on the ballot to adopt the Ham & Eggs plan as California state policy.
Following implementation of the 1939 amendments, the basic Social Security program was in place.
The proponents of the this plan did manage did get it introduced in the House of Representatives, however, the bill died in committee in 1939 before ever reaching a House vote.
Payment of monthly Social Security benefits began in January 1940, and were authorized not only for aged retired workers but for their aged wives or widows, children under age 18, and surviving aged parents.
Regular ongoing monthly benefits started in January 1940.
But in fact, when Ida May Fuller received her first $22.54 benefit payment in January of 1940, this would be the same amount she would receive each month for the next 10 years.
Average monthly benefits grew only slightly, however--from $22.60 for a retired worker in 1940 to $26 at the end of the decade-- less than the rate of inflation.
From 1940, when slightly more than 222,000 people received monthly Social Security benefits, until today, when over 50 million people receive such benefits, Social Security has grown steadily.
By 1940, 477 field offices were in operation.
After the first 3 year--that is to say, beginning in 1940--you will pay, and your employer will pay, 1.5 cents for each dollar you earn, up to $3,000 a year.
In mid-August, 1941, Winston Churchill and Franklin Roosevelt met secretly aboard a warship off the coast of Newfoundland in the North Atlantic.
For the working population under age 65, the Social Security Act created, in title II, an "Old-Age Reserve Account" and authorized payments of old-age benefits from this account to eligible individuals upon attainment of age 65 or on January 1, 1942, whichever was later.
Because of the war-time scarcity of space in Washington and a marked increase in the benefit rolls, the central offices of the Bureau of Old Age and Survivors' Insurance were moved to Baltimore in 1942.
As early as 1945 (1 year after the first electronic computer, a 5-ton device that could multiply two 23-digit numbers in 6 seconds, went into operation at Harvard University) the Board began studying the possibility of using electronic data processing (EDP) for processing earnings information.
In 1945, the recordkeeping operation underwent a geographical expansion when the Board opened its first Data Operations Center in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania.
ESTABLISHMENT OF SOCIAL SECURITY ADMINISTRATION (1946) -
To help it determine the appropriate ongoing role of social insurance in the Nation's income support system, in 1947, the Senate Committee on Finance named an Advisory Council on Social Security.
CHANGES IN REGIONAL OFFICES (1948) -
Also, in 1948, a Division of Management Planning and Services was created within the Bureau of Old Age and Survivors Insurance to address problems created as a result of tremendous growth in the size of the Bureau.
After that, you and your employer will each pay half a cent more for 3 years, and finally, beginning in 1949, twelve years from now, you and your employer will each pay 3 cents on each dollar you earn, up to $3,000 a year.
These recomputations were effective for September 1950 and appeared for the first time in the October 1950 checks.
As its first order of business, in 1950, the Congress addressed the erosion in the value of Social Security benefits due to the inflation that had occurred since the inception of the program.
By 1950, with a decade of experience under the Social Security program behind them, the Congress concluded that many of the obstacles to universal coverage were not as formidable as they had appeared at the beginning.
The 1950 amendments included a so-called new-start benefit computation that based benefit amounts on earnings after 1950 and companion provisions for measuring insured status in terms of work after 1950.
SSA continued to follow developments in the field and in 1950 asked the National Bureau of Standards to conduct a study of the possible adaptation of EDP equipment to the requirements of the social security program.
When domestic workers were first covered by the Social Security Amendments of 1950, lawmakers wanted to help insure these workers for Social Security benefits while minimizing administrative burdens on individuals who hire occasional household help.
Most people are aware that there are annual increases in Social Security benefits to offset the corrosive effects of inflation on fixed incomes. It was not until the 1950 Amendments that Congress first legislated an increase in benefits.
By February 1951 there were more Social Security retirees than welfare pensioners, and by August of that year, the average Social Security retirement benefit exceeded the average old-age assistance grant for the first time.
Except for the adjustments that were necessary to accommodate coverage of self-employment income (which was reported annually) beginning in 1951, the basic method of establishing and maintaining wage records remained substantially unchanged for nearly 20 years.
In 1951, the agency acquired two electronic calculators for use in the computation of benefit amounts.
The Master Earnings File (MEF) contains records for each of the more than 400 million Social Security number (SSN) holders (living or dead). It includes information on annual covered earnings since 1951, quarters of coverage, and additional related information.
DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH, EDUCATION AND WELFARE ESTABLISHED (1953)
Other provisions of the 1954 amendments provided for expansion of State vocational rehabilitation programs to address the difficult problem of rehabilitating the severely disabled.
In 1954, SSA initiated a full-scale study of the requirements of its wage posting processes and developed specifications for a computer system.
ESTABLISHMENT OF DIVISION OF DISABILITY OPERATIONS (1954) -
In March 1956 the first computer was installed, and posting by means of magnetic tape began in July of that year.
In February 1959, SSA purchased a microfilm printer that allowed for the transfer of information directly from magnetic tape to microfilm without going through the steps of printing on paper and taking a picture.
Further, they found that, by the 1960's, the inability of the aged to meet health care costs had become the single most important reason that older people applied for public assistance.
Development of SSA's national communications system began in 1960, when both Western Union and AT&T established pilot systems.
In October 1961, the agency purchased its first solid-state (transistors instead of vacuum tubes) computers.
Death information for persons who died before 1962 is generally only in the Death Index if the death was actually reported to SSA after 1962, even though the death occurred prior to that year.)
The model in use by 1964 was the fourth model to be used. (Soon after that, small scale, second generation computers became available and began to become part of the agency's operating processes.)
The most significant administrative change involved the signing of the Medicare bill on July 30, 1965, by President Lyndon Johnson In the presence of former President Truman, who received the first Medicare card at the ceremony, Lady Bird Johnson, Vice-President Hubert Humphrey, and Mrs.
PROGRAM BUREAUS ESTABLISHED (1965) -
In 1968, the first teleservice center (originally called a metropolitan answering service unit) was opened in Washington, D.C. Teleservice centers are offices where employees use special telephone answering equipment to handle calls from the general public in specific geographical areas.
During the early 1970's, the disability insurance (DI) program began to experience tremendous growth.
In 1972, the Congress approved legislation that established automatic cost-of-living adjustments (COLA's) in benefits based on price increases as measured by the Consumer Price Index and provided for automatically increasing the maximum amount of earnings covered under the system.
Shortly after passage of the 1972 legislation, it became apparent that Social Security faced a funding shortfall, both in the short-term and in the long-term.
Q15: What is the "notch"? A: In 1972 a technical error was introduced in the law which resulted in beneficiaries getting a double adjustment for inflation.
BUREAU OF SUPPLEMENTAL SECURITY INCOME (SSI) ESTABLISHED (1973)
The Commissioner of Social Security announced a reorganization of the Agency in January 1975.
The earliest document considered to be a strategic plan was the Master Plan for the Development of the Future SSA Process, published in 1975.
At the time that the 1977 amendments were enacted, it was thought that, due to the lower long-range costs resulting from the new benefit formula, changes the Congress made in the tax rate schedule would be adequate to finance benefit payments well into the next century.
The Social Security Amendments of 1977 increased the amount of earnings needed to achieve a quarter of coverage, but did not increase the $50-per-quarter coverage threshold for domestic workers.
FUNCTIONAL REORGANIZATION OF SSA (1979) -
Fine tuning by succeeding Commissioners who found the span of control too broad under the 1979 reorganization was implemented over the next four years.
Shortly after implementation of the 1980 amendments, however, the periodic review provision began to be criticized by the public and Congress.
The 1980 Amendments also required SSA to conduct periodic reviews of current disability beneficiaries to certify their continuing eligibility.
Beginning with cards issued on October 31, 1983, all new and replacement cards have met these criteria, marking the first substantial physical change in the card's appearance in 47 years.
A model district office was established in the Central Office in December 1983 to test and evaluate the new procedures.
By comparison, for tax year 1983 alone, the nearly 200 million annually reported wage items amounted to more than $1.7 trillion.
The 1983 National Commission on Social Security Reform (aka, the Greenspan Commission) again raised this issue and recommended a special study be commissioned of the matter.
All members of Congress, the President and Vice President, Federal judges, and most political appointees, were covered under the Social Security program starting in January 1984.
So there are still some Federal employees, those first hired prior to January 1984, who are not participants in the Social Security system.
They pay into the system just like everyone else. Thus all members of Congress, no matter how long they have been in office, have been paying into the Social Security system since January 1984.
These efforts culminated in the enactment of the Social Security Disability Benefits Reform Act of 1984.
Washington, D.C.: Project on the Federal Social Role, 1985.
In 1985, about 122 million people will work in employment covered under Social Security, which applies today to 95 percent of all jobs in our economy.
Current plans call for 18 additional offices to begin to pilot the system in late 1985.
During the 1990's, current projections show, substantial excesses of income over outgo will replenish program reserves and build up substantial trust funds.
The increase to $700 reflects the amount that roughly corresponds to wage growth since the last increase in 1990.
A critical first step in the development of the new ASP was the formulation of the Agency’s first new mission statement since 1991.
As part of the effort to better understand why some work attempts are successful in the long term and some are not, SSA began Project NetWork in 1991.
In 1992, an intercomponent group developed an Agency Transition Guidance Document that served as the basis for 7-year tactical plans covering the five priorities in the strategic plan.
The Board of Trustees for the Social Security Trust Funds in their 1992 Report to Congress discussed the impending financial crisis facing the disability program.
One independent analysis published in 1993 asserted that “virtually all the key systems and work process goals of the Master Plan have been achieved through the continuity of plans and design that followed [the Master Plan’s] demise.”
Subsequently, the Commissioner released SSA’s Plan for a New Disability Claim Process on September 7, 1994.
Under that 1994 law, the Councils are abolished and a permanent 7-member Advisory Board was formed to serve many of the same functions.
The 1994 redesign plan outlined a vision for an ideal process that was efficient, unified and highly automated.
In FY 1994, the final group of 52 projects was awarded multi-year funding by SSA. These projects shifted their focus primarily to application assistance rather than identification and referral.
However, the analysis also found a narrowing in the gender gap in coverage and an increasing shift from defined benefit plans to coverage solely by 401(k)-type plans (Woods, 1994).
Starting in 1994, with selected tables and the report on Social Security Programs Throughout the World (see below), publications first became available to the public on the World Wide Web and Gopher Service.
With these findings in hand, SSA, under the leadership of Commissioner Chater and Doctor Daniels, developed an employment strategy in 1995.
The prevalence in the FY 1995 APP of Input and Output measures and the lack of already measured Outcomes demonstrated that SSA still had a distance to travel.
A second reorganization move within the Office of the Commissioner was the creation of the Office of Customer Service Integration (OCSI) in 1995.
The FY 1995 pilot APP had included just 12 performance measures out of 27 based on outcomes.
In July 1996, the National Council on Disability released a report entitled Achieving Independence: The Challenge for the 21st Century.
The legislation required SSA to review (redetermine) the cases of approximately 288,000 children on the rolls and to complete those reviews within one year of the bill’s enactment, August 26, 1996.
First, a quarter of work earned after December 31, 1996 may not be counted towards the 40-quarter total if the LAPR or the individual who earned the qualifying quarter received certain Federal means-tested benefits during the period in question.
The submission of the pilot project performance plan for FY 1996 completed SSA’s formal participation in the GPRA pre-implementation pilot.
Throughout the spring of 1997, the Administration and congressional leadership engaged in extensive negotiations that culminated on May 2, 1997, with the announcement that they had reached an agreement for a balanced budget.
An extensive round of ASP presentations and dialogues with employees began in the Chicago Regional Office in December 1997 and moved into high gear in the following year.
1997 Redesign Focus Narrowed to Most Critical Areas
As he promised in his Senate confirmation hearings in 1997, Commissioner Kenneth Apfel’s first action upon becoming Commissioner was to order a comprehensive review of SSA’s implementation of the PRWORA childhood provisions.
Rather, the Panel was concerned that policy makers’ ability to make informed choices for future reforms “is seriously compromised by the lack of research on issues that have an important bearing on those choices” (1997: 181).
In March 1998, at the beginning of the 105th Session of Congress, Rep.
In October 1998, following an April 16, 1998 Federal Register announcement, two, university-based, multi-disciplinary centers were chosen for the RRC. One was centered at Boston College and the other at the University of Michigan Retirement Research Center.
SSA issued a revised Planning Guide in November 1998 that reflected the Agency’s shift in focus from developing a baseline of POAs to plan management.
Rupp and Stapleton (1998) later published results of that work in their edited collection, Growth in Disability Benefits.
Requires that all federal payments (including Social Security and SSI) be made by electronic funds transfer (no more paper checks) effective January 1, 1999, unless a waiver is granted by the Secretary of the Treasury.
On January 28, 1999, Senator Jeffords and Senator Kennedy introduced the bill, S. 331 that would eventually become law.
In January 1999, Commissioner Apfel created a new office with primary responsibility for implementing TWWIIA. The Office of Employment Support Programs is headed by a newly created Associate Commissioner position.
Commissioner’s Broadcast to SSA employees, March 12, 1999.
In May 1999, the new RRC sponsored its first annual conference.
In addition, a specialized 2-day symposium on the “Impact of Privatization of Social Security on Retirement Income” was held in May 1999 in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
On June 16, 1999, Senator Roth, Chairman of the Finance Committee, amended S. 331 with a substitute bill.
On December 17, 1999, President Clinton held a signing ceremony for HR 1130 at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Memorial in front of a depiction of the former president.
As part of its overall plan for managing the disability process, Commissioner Apfel directed in 1999 that the Agency develop a plan for improving the hearings process.
In 1999, Vice President Gore announced the SGA increase at a disability event in Albany, New York.
The legislation began its swift march through Congress on March 1, 2000 when the full House of Representatives passed H.R. 5 by a vote of 422 to 0.
The March plan, Social Security and Supplemental Security Income Disability Programs: Managing for Today/Planning for Tomorrow, broadened the Agency’s focus to reflect priority management objectives in the President’s FY 2000 Budget.
The first contract, to prepare a draft research protocol was completed in May 2000.
A draft report was received from the contractor in May 2000; a final report on data development is expected by the end of 2000.
· Expanded Availability of Health Care Services The new law also includes several improvements to Medicare and Medicaid coverage that will be effective on October1, 2000.
Initial Performance Plan – Fiscal Year 2000
In his first speech to a joint-session of Congress in February 2001, the President announced his intention to appoint a Presidential Commission to recommend ways to address Social Security reform.
On May 2, 2001 the President announced the appointment of his Social Security Commission, the "President's Commission to Strengthen Social Security." The Commission issued its final report in December 2001.
In FY 2001, an SSA inter-component workgroup will complete a detailed protocol that describes the resources and methods that will be required to implement the demonstration projects, subject to the availability of appropriations.
In FY 2001, that extramural amount is expected to rise to $60 million.
P.L. 107-171 (H.R. 2646) the Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002 was signed into law on May 13, 2002.
SSA planned a rollout of prototype process changes in FY 2002.
By January 1, 2004, SSA expects the Ticket program to be operational nationally.
Correspondingly, all Agency plans would from this time forward be aligned with the principles and specific strategic initiatives found in the 2010 Vision.
While stakeholders were providing input to the “View from 2010,” SSA’s leadership continued its discussions of how the 2010 Vision should be developed and designed.
SSA’s 2010 Vision Released
While the Agency’s initial focus is on 2010, the Vision will be an evolving one that carries SSA beyond 2010.
Beginning on June 25, 2011, the SSA implemented a new assignment methodology for Social Security Numbers.
Rate Social Security Administration's efforts to communicate its history to employees.
Social Security Administration jobs
Do you work at Social Security Administration?
Is Social Security Administration's vision a big part of strategic planning?
Social Security Administration competitors
| Company name | Founded date | Revenue | Employee size | Job openings |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Internal Revenue Service | 1862 | $3.2B | 74,454 | 2 |
| Federal Housing Finance Agency | 2008 | $26.0M | 731 | - |
| Federal Communications Commission | 1934 | $120.0M | 1,482 | - |
| U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement | 2003 | $420.0M | 15,000 | - |
| Social Security Corporation | - | $1.2M | 125 | - |
| Oklahoma Farm Bureau | 1942 | $5.0M | 750 | 8 |
| Tennessee Farm Bureau | 1923 | $50.0M | 65 | - |
| Louisiana Workforce Commission | - | $106.8M | 1,250 | 12 |
| Texas Municipal League | 1913 | $910,000 | 50 | - |
| Aloha Care | 1994 | $8.5M | 150 | 1 |
Social Security Administration history FAQs
Zippia gives an in-depth look into the details of Social Security Administration, including salaries, political affiliations, employee data, and more, in order to inform job seekers about Social Security Administration. The employee data is based on information from people who have self-reported their past or current employments at Social Security Administration. The data on this page is also based on data sources collected from public and open data sources on the Internet and other locations, as well as proprietary data we licensed from other companies. Sources of data may include, but are not limited to, the BLS, company filings, estimates based on those filings, H1B filings, and other public and private datasets. While we have made attempts to ensure that the information displayed are correct, Zippia is not responsible for any errors or omissions or for the results obtained from the use of this information. None of the information on this page has been provided or approved by Social Security Administration. The data presented on this page does not represent the view of Social Security Administration and its employees or that of Zippia.
Social Security Administration may also be known as or be related to Social Security Administration.