Social Security Corporation history

So much so that by as late as 1915 at most only 25% of the money spent on outdoor relief was from public funds.

The belated development of large-scale governmental programs in the field of social welfare was due to the fact that during the 1920's the American people did not realize that, while life in the United States had become safer and more prosperous, living had become less secure.

When the New York Stock Exchange opened on the morning of October 24, 1929, nervous traders sensed something ominous in the trading patterns.

The findings of this Council formed a major milestone in the history of Social Security by reaffirming in the post-Depression era the social insurance principles established in the 1930's.

Compared to pre-Depression levels, net new business investment was a minus $5.8 billion in 1932.

Doctor Townsend published his plan in a local Long Beach newspaper in early 1933 and within about two years there were 7,000 Townsend Clubs around the country with more than 2.2 million members actively working to make the Townsend Plan the nation's old-age pension system.

In November 1934 the CES sponsored the first-ever national town-hall forum on Social Security.

Eighty-five years after President Franklin Roosevelt signed the Social Security Act on August 14, 1935, Social Security remains one of the nation’s most successful, effective, and popular programs.

A further obstacle developed in that it was then so late in the session that when Senator Long staged his longest filibuster, the appropriation to put the Social Security Act into effect could not be acted on in the Senate and it was not until February 1936 that such an appropriation was made.

Beginning with a set of decisions in March, April and May 1937 (including the Social Security Act cases) the Court would sustain a series of New Deal legislation, producing a "constitutional revolution in the age of Roosevelt." 4

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.

The Chairman of the Board reported directly to the President until July 1939 when the Board was placed organizationally under the newly established Federal Security Agency.

Regular ongoing monthly benefits started in January 1940.

In mid-August, 1941, Winston Churchill and Franklin Roosevelt met secretly aboard a warship off the coast of Newfoundland in the North Atlantic.

Indeed, monthly benefit payments, under the original Act, were not scheduled to begin until 1942.

However, beginning in 1946, the Federal government has been making grants to the States, local units of government, and non-profit organizations for the construction of hospital and other medical facilities.

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.

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.

Other provisions of the 1954 amendments provided for expansion of State vocational rehabilitation programs to address the difficult problem of rehabilitating the severely disabled.

The payroll tax increase in 1957 was to fund the new Disability Insurance program.

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 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.

Altmeyer, Arthur J., The Formative Years of Social Security, The University of Wisconsin Press, Madison, 1966, 314 PP.

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.

BUREAU OF SUPPLEMENTAL SECURITY INCOME (SSI) ESTABLISHED (1973)

The 1977 amendments mark the start of the second phase in the program's history, which focused on stabilizing costs and securing adequate revenue.

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.

Recent trends also justify boosting Social Security’s payroll tax revenue: Social Security’s tax base has eroded since the last time policymakers addressed solvency in 1983, largely due to increased inequality and the rising cost of non-taxed fringe benefits, such as health insurance.

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.

Washington, D.C.: Project on the Federal Social Role, 1985.

During the 1990's, current projections show, substantial excesses of income over outgo will replenish program reserves and build up substantial trust funds.

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.

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.

P.L. 107-171 (H.R. 2646) the Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002 was signed into law on May 13, 2002.

2004 Annual Report of the Board of Trustees of the Federal Old-Age and Survivors Insurance and Disability Insurance Trust Funds.

That issue is now at hand, as the first boomers will begin retiring in 2008.

Beginning on June 25, 2011, the SSA implemented a new assignment methodology for Social Security Numbers.

That study finds that in 2012, 3 in 10 elderly Americans would be poor without Social Security, and that the program lifted more than 10 million elderly Americans out of poverty.

Social Security lifted 1.5 million children out of poverty in 2018, as the chart shows. (The figures in the chart use the comprehensive Supplemental Poverty Measure in order to show the full effect of non-cash benefits.

Nearly 6 million children under age 18 lived in families that received income from Social Security in 2019.