Taking Care of the Elderly: Political Economy of the Old Age Assistance Program, 1931-1955

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andreea Balan-Cohen ◽  
Radu Ban
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Old Age ◽  
The Elderly ◽  
Assistance Program ◽  
Old Age Assistance ◽  
Taking Care

Resisting a Right to Relief: States, Responsible Relative Laws, and Old Age Assistance

2018 ◽  
Vol 30 (3) ◽  
pp. 400-428 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan Stein-Roggenbuck
Keyword(s):  
Old Age ◽  
Adult Children ◽  
Public Assistance ◽  
Limit State ◽  
Assistance Program ◽  
The Social ◽  
Old Age Assistance ◽  
Social Security Act ◽  
State And Local ◽  
Eligibility Requirement

Abstract:Efforts to modernize public assistance via the Social Security Act of 1935 met significant opposition from states. One manifestation of that resistance was state responsible relative laws in the Old Age Assistance program. Responsible relative laws enforced support by adult children as an eligibility requirement; applicants with children deemed able to provide support were either denied aid, or the grant awarded was reduced. These laws are an example of parent dependency policies that sought to enforce or encourage family members, particularly adult children, to support parents in need. States sought to ensure that all financial resources were exhausted before public funds were spent on OAA. Responsible relative laws were an arena of public assistance that remained under state discretion, and many states used them to control costs and contest federal efforts to modernize relief programs and limit state and local authority.

Male Retirement Behavior in the United States, 1930–1950

1991 ◽  
Vol 51 (3) ◽  
pp. 657-674 ◽  
Author(s):  
Donald O. Parsons
Keyword(s):  
Social Security ◽  
Old Age ◽  
Low Income ◽  
The United States ◽  
Private Pension ◽  
Assistance Program ◽  
The Social ◽  
Retirement Behavior ◽  
Old Age Assistance ◽  
Social Security Act

Explanations for the recent decline in the labor force attachment of males 65 years of age and older include the introduction of Old Age and Survivors Insurance and the growth in private pension programs. Neither hypothesis can explain the sizable decline that occurred between 1930 and 1950, when aggregate social security and private pension payments were small. Estimates from pooled state aggregate data indicate that the means-tested Old Age Assistance program established by the Social Security Act of 1935 significantly increased retirement activity in this period, particularly among low-income individuals.

scholarly journals Quantifying the mortality impact of the 1935 old-age assistance

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gregori Galofré-Vilà ◽  
Martin McKee ◽  
David Stuckler
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Old Age ◽  
Event Study ◽  
Fixed Effects ◽  
Older Persons ◽  
The Elderly ◽  
The United States ◽  
County Level ◽  
Level Data ◽  
Old Age Assistance

Abstract In 1935, the United States introduced the old-age assistance (OAA) program, a means-tested program to help the elderly poor. The OAA improved retirement conditions and aimed to enable older persons to live independently. We use the transition from early elderly plans to OAA and the large differences in payments and eligibility across states to show that OAA reduced mortality by between 30 and 39 percent among those older than 65 years. This finding, based on an event study design, is robust to a range of specifications, a range of fixed effects, placebo tests, and a border-pair policy discontinuity design using county-level data. The largest mortality reductions came from drops in communicable and infectious diseases, such as influenza and nephritis, and mostly affected white citizens.

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