Fifty Years of Social Security [1935-1985: excerpts]

The Social Security Act, enacted on August 14, 1935, provided a new federally administered system of social insurance for the aged financed through payroll taxes paid by employees and their employers. Under the system, which applied only to workers in commerce and industry, people would earn retirement benefit eligibility as they worked. With some exceptions, benefits would be related to workers' average covered earnings, and workers could not have earnings and still be eligible for benefits. No benefits were provided for spouses or children, and lump-sum refunds were provided to the estates of workers who died before age 65 or before receiving at least the equivalent in benefits of their taxes plus interest. Collection of payroll taxes began in 1937, and benefit payments were scheduled to begin in 1942.....

1939 legislation also provided a new method of computing benefits, based on average monthly earnings instead of on cumulative wages. The net effect of the 1939 amendments was to increase the annual cost of benefits payable during the early years and to decrease the annual cost of benefits payable during later years. Over the long range, the average annual cost of benefits remained about the same as under prior law....

The program had not reduced the need for public assistance among older persons. On the contrary, the percentage of the aged receiving old-age assistance was somewhat larger (22.5) in 1950 than it had been in 1940 (21.7).

Social Security grew in importance both to the aged and to the economy. The number of beneficiaries grew from about 222,000 at the end of 1940 to over 3 million in 1949. 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...

1950 amendments increased the contribution and benefit base (the amount of annual wages subject to Social Security taxes and creditable for benefits) from $3,000 to $3,600 and provided a revised schedule of gradually increasing tax rates for employers, employees, and the newly covered self-employed. The new law also repealed a never-used provision which authorized appropriations to the program from general revenues if they were needed. These changes made clear the Congress' rejection of Federal general revenues as a major source of Social Security financing and underscored its view that Social Security should be self-supporting in both the short range and the long range...

Social Security legislation enacted in 1954 and 1956 extended coverage to (among others) the farm self-employed, certain groups of professional self-employed (generally with the exception of physicians), members of the uniformed services, and State and local government employees under a retirement system, under various conditions. Thus, by the mid-1950's, some 20 years after enactment of Social Security, the protection offered under the program was available to 90 percent of workers....

The House-passed version of the 1950 Social Security Amendments would have provided for a program of disability insurance along the lines recommended by the Council, but the final bill made no such provision. Instead, the 1950 amendments provided for extension of the State-Federal public assistance program to the permanently and totally disabled, as had been urged by a minority of the Advisory Council's members.

Later, in 1954, the Congress enacted a disability "freeze" provision. No cash disability benefits were payable under this provision, but workers who were permanently and totally disabled and who also met insured status tests could have their Social Security earnings records frozen as of the date of their disability. Through the "freeze" provision, disabled workers could prevent their retirement benefits from being diluted by many years of no earnings. Other provisions of the 1954 amendments provided for expansion of State vocational rehabilitation programs to address the difficult problem of rehabilitating the severely disabled...

Because of concern about the high costs of a disability program and potential abuse, however, benefits were payable only to workers who were at least 50 years old...

"Disability" is defined as the inability to engage in substantial gainful activity (prior to legislation in 1965, permanent disability was required; the 1965 legislation provided the present-law requirement that the disability be expected to last at least 12 months or be expected to result in death); Disability must be established on the basis of objective medical evidence; Eligibility is based on both duration and recency of work in covered employment; ...

In 1958, the insured status requirements for disability benefits were relaxed through elimination of the currently insured status requirement and benefits were extended to spouses and children of disabled workers...

By 1960, then, the old-age, survivors, and disability insurance (OASDI) program...were refined through legislation to create new categories of beneficiaries, to increase benefits so as to maintain their purchasing power, and to adjust tax rates to assure adequate program financing. Moreover, legislation enacted in 1961 lowered the age of benefit eligibility for men. When the Social Security program was established, benefits were made available to men and women at age 65. The Social Security Amendments of 1956 had provided benefits for women as early as age 62. Benefits received prior to age 65 were reduced to take account of the longer period over which they would be received. The 1961 amendments extended eligibility for reduced benefits to include men.

In its examination of the adequacy of Social Security protection for the aged and the disabled, the 1965 Advisory Council came to the conclusion "that cash benefits alone are not enough."...the Council recommended that hospital insurance protection be provided initially without regard to insured status; that is, that people at or near retirement age be grand-fathered into the new program...

In 1965, the Congress passed "Medicare" legislation, which, while it essentially embodied the Advisory Council's recommendations, differed in two major respects. First, in addition to providing protection against hospital costs through a payroll tax financed hospital insurance (HI) program, the plan enacted also included a voluntary program to be financed through monthly premiums and Federal general revenues. This supplementary medical insurance (SMI) program was designed to meet the costs of physicians' services and other outpatient care. Second, only people aged 65 and over, rather than both the aged and disabled, would be eligible for Medicare. (A few years later, in 1972, Medicare protection was extended to people who had been receiving cash disability benefits for 24 months or more.)...

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....

the 1977 amendments were enacted... However, over the next few years, the Nation experienced a period of spiraling inflation and high unemployment along with low or negative real wage growth. These worse-than-expected economic conditions created a two-pronged drain on Social Security in the short term.

Benefit expenditures were pushed up rapidly by high inflation, while payroll taxes went up more slowly because of the relatively slower growth in wages; and High unemployment reduced payroll taxes.

In addition, new long-range projections showed that the decline in the birth rate and the likelihood of increased life expectancy would both have negative effects on Social Security; in the 21st century, fewer workers would be paying taxes and retirees would be receiving benefits longer....

1983 amendments provided for gradually increasing the age of eligibility for unreduced retirement benefits...Benefits will continue to be available at age 62, but the reduction in benefits at age 62 will increase as the age of eligibility for unreduced benefits increases....

During the past decade and a half, the disability insurance program has also undergone substantial change. During the early 1970's, the disability insurance (DI) program began to experience tremendous growth. As the decade unfolded, it became clear that continuing rapid growth in the DI program was beginning to pose a serious threat to the DI Trust Fund.

Studies aimed at discovering the causes of the unexpected growth in the disability program suggested that (1) the beneficiary rolls included many ineligibles, and (2) the program structure tended to discourage people who might be able to return to work from doing so....

The Social Security Disability Amendments of 1980 included a limit on monthly family disability benefits, additional work incentive provisions, and administrative improvements, including mandatory reviews, at least once every 3 years, of the continuing eligibility of disabled beneficiaries whose disabilities are not necessarily permanent. ... Throughout 1982 and 1983, amidst great controversy, the Congress considered a variety of reforms to mitigate the effects of the periodic review process.

These efforts culminated in the enactment of the Social Security Disability Benefits Reform Act of 1984. The major provisions are mandatory application of a medical improvement standard in continuing disability reviews, continuation of disability benefit payments during appeal of termination decisions, and a moratorium on reviews of cases involving mental impairments pending development of revised review criteria.

Supplemental:

1990 Amendments...Liberalized the definition of disability for disabled widow(er)s by making it consistent with that for disabled workers....

Extended benefits to spouses whose marriage to the worker is otherwise invalid, if the spouse was living with the worker before he or she died or filed for benefits....

Extended coverage to employees of state and local governments who are not covered by a retirement plan.

1994 Amendments...

Established the Social Security Administration as an independent agency, effective March 31, 1995...

Restricted DI and SSI benefits payable to drug addicts and alcoholics by creating sanctions for failing to get treatment, limiting their enrollment to 3 years, and requiring that those receiving DI benefits have a representative payee (formerly required only of SSI recipients)....

Reallocated taxes from the OASI fund to the DI fund....

1996 Amendments...

Prohibited DI and SSI eligibility to individuals whose disability is based on drug addiction or alcoholism.

1999 Amendments...

Provided disabled recipients with vouchers they can use to purchase rehabilitative services from public or private providers.

Extended Medicare coverage for up to 4.5 additional years for disabled recipients who work...

-https://www.ssa.gov/history/reports/crsleghist2.html

Note:

Federal SSI payments and administrative costs are financed from Federal Government general revenues. - https://www.ssa.gov/policy/docs/progdesc/sspus/assistance-programs.html

Complete Ponzi scheme. Legal, yes.. but a ponzi.

Predictions of running out of “money” is a scare tactic. Always remember, “money” is actually debt. It is paper and ink, and can be printed at will to the moon. In fact, it has been printed to the moon.

SS must and will be eventually replaced, after a currency Reset, and a return to real Organic-Constitutional PM-backed money.

The first person to collect Social Security benefits, Ida Mae Fuller, paid a total of $24.75 (equivalent to $494 in 2023) in Social Security taxes over a period of three years.

Mainly bcz she died in 1975 at age 100!

During her retirement, Fuller collected a total of $22,888.92 (equivalent to $497,793 in 2023) in Social Security benefits.

While running an errand she dropped by the Rutland Social Security office to ask about possible benefits. She would later observe: "It wasn't that I expected anything, mind you, but I knew I'd been paying for something called Social Security and I wanted to ask the people in Rutland about it."

Her claim was taken by Claims Clerk, Elizabeth Corcoran Burke, and transmitted to the Claims Division in Washington, D.C. for adjudication. The case was adjudicated and reviewed and sent to the Treasury Department for payment in January 1940. The claims were grouped in batches of 1,000 and a Certification List for each batch was sent to Treasury. Miss Fuller's claim was the first one on the first Certification List and so the first Social Security check, check number 00-000-001, was issued to Ida May Fuller in the amount of $22.54 and dated January 31, 1940. - https://www.ssa.gov/history/imf.html

I recently applied online for my SS benefits now that I'm an old bastard and was asked to go the the local SS office to provide a copy of my birth certificate.

I went yesterday and waited four hours to see an agent. The waiting room was loaded with people 25-30 years old with Mexican passports.

They were being brought in by the bus load; well, 15 passenger vans, actually.

They had to lock the doors at noon because they didn't think they could process those already waiting by COB (4:00 PM). While I waited until 2:00 PM, 2 van loads were turned away.

Social security is doomed.

The original Social Security started out with fairly good intentions. It was to provide a stipend for people in their old age who have worked all their lives, paying into the system with a simple FICA tax. Even back then, it was not intended that anybody could survive economically on Social Security alone. It was still expected that the elderly would have additional income/wealth to make ends meet or be taken in by younger family members. The Social Security was meant to keep them out of breadlines and allow them to get some groceries or whatnot.

I know this is hard to believe but back in 1935, employees FICA tax was just one percent of their income (with their employers paying another one percent) up to a maximum of $3,000 a year.

Now Social Security is extended to younger people with "disabilities". I personally know somebody who went on SSI in his mid 30s because he had bad knees and could not do his job anymore (tiling). He was offered an office job by his employer but declined and went on lifetime SSI instead.

This is not how the system was supposed to work. It has bloated into another welfare system as the original plan of paying into the system over a long career so that you do not go hungry in old age has gone by the wayside.

The above is a classic example of the government getting their foot in the door with a tax that just keeps increasing as time goes on. Nowadays, the FICA burden is 15.3% of income (with employers still paying half) up to an income of $168,600 in 2024. Now Social Security is extended to younger people with "disabilities". I personally know somebody who went on SSI in his mid 30s because he had bad knees and could not do his job anymore (tiling). He was offered an office job by his employer but declined and went on lifetime SSI instead

Social Security has expanded, while contraception and welfare is much to blame for deficients. And I am quite sure I know someone else who scammed her way into SSDI. However, the gov. states:

SSI is financed by general funds of the U.S. Treasury — personal income taxes, corporate taxes, and other taxes. Social Security taxes collected under the Federal Insurance Contributions Act (FICA) or the Self-Employment Contributions Act (SECA) do not fund the SSI program.

What was said in 1964...

https://www.ssa.gov/history/ssa/usa1964-2.html

Compulsory

“Another important principle is that to the extent possible coverage is compulsory. A society cannot be secure if large numbers of its members are not protected against the loss of earnings that results from the retirement, disability, or death of the family provider.

If the program were not compulsory, many of the people who need its protection most would not participate. Many low income workers, for example, as much as they might recognize the need to protect themselves, would choose not to pay social security tax contributions because of the difficulty they have in meeting their current needs.

In the end they would have to be supported through assistance from the general revenues of the Government.”

When SS was first formed, you could retire at 62 years of age, BUT the average life span then was 57 years.
Then came penicillin and other antibiotics. Life span took off like a rocket!

Back about twenty years ago, AARP magazine had an article on why the SS system is NOT A PONZI SCHEME!

Ponzi schemes always collapse when new suckers, er, that is contributors, do not join at the bottom. Since Social Security had not collapsed, that was proof it was not a Ponzi Scheme.

A few pages on in the same issue, Jane Briant Quinn had an article on HOW the SS system was set up. without saying the word “Ponzi” she showed how it was set up just like a Ponzi scheme but with with new born people being FORCED to join at the bottom.

Since the US has promoted ZPG (Zero Population Growth) and abortions, there are fewer new compulsory people being born at the bottom, so the borders have to be opened and allow foreigners in to take up the slack. As we have been told in the past, the SS system problems is just the government “kicking the can down the road” for future administrations to deal with.

Thanks for clarification but our tax dollars nonetheless funding young and mostly able people to not have to work the rest of their lives.

That just irks me to no end. I can understand, for example, a true disability that prevents one from doing a certain job (i.e. construction) but that should not preclude one from having a desk job inside the construction trailer or another job that does not require manual labor.

I have a relative that works for a cement company and ended up getting disabled. Now he works as a dispatcher for that same company and tells the trucks where to go.

a true disability that prevents one from doing a certain job (i.e. construction) but that should not preclude one from having a desk job inside the construction trailer or another job that does not require manual labor.

But it seems threat to psychological health may justify abortion, likewise disability $.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/3808247/posts?page=16#16

https://freerepublic.com/focus/chat/4125609/posts?page=67#67

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