The Social Security Program of the United States

1936 ◽  
Vol 30 (3) ◽  
pp. 455-493 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph P. Harris
Keyword(s):  
Social Security ◽  
Old Age ◽  
Social Insurance ◽  
The United States ◽  
Economic Security ◽  
Social Security Program ◽  
Unemployment Compensation ◽  
The Social ◽  
Old Age Assistance ◽  
State Unemployment

The Federal Social Security Act, which may be regarded as the central core of the social security program, is an omnibus act, containing the following features: (1) a national, compulsory oldage insurance plan, covering all employees except certain exempted groups; (2) two measures designed to stimulate the states to enact state unemployment compensation laws, namely, (a) a uniform nation-wide tax upon employers, against which a credit is allowable for contributions made to approved state unemployment compensation plans, and (b) subsidies to the states to cover the administrative costs of unemployment compensation; and (3) grants-in-aid to the states for old-age assistance, pensions for the blind, aid to dependent children, child welfare, maternal and child health, vocational rehabilitation, and public health activities. It is estimated that each of the two forms of social insurance will apply to about 25,000,000 wage-earners, and, when the maximum rates become effective in 1949, will involve annual contributions of nearly $3,000,000,000. This amount is approximately equal to the normal annual expenditure of the federal government prior to 1930. In addition, the grants-in-aid to the states were estimated by the actuaries of the President's Committee on Economic Security to reach a total of a half-billion dollars annually within a few years.History of the Federal ActWhen, in a message to Congress on June 8, 1934, the President indicated that he would submit a program of social insurance for consideration at the following session, the Wagner-Lewis unemployment insurance bill and the Dill-Connery old-age assistance bill were pending. Shortly afterwards, the President, by executive order, created the Committee on Economic Security, consisting of the Secretaries of Labor (chairman), Treasury, and Agriculture, the Attorney-General, and the Federal Emergency Relief Administrator. This committee appointed Professor Edwin E. Witte, of the University of Wisconsin, as executive director, and proceeded to build up a staff of actuaries and experts to study the whole problem of economic insecurity, and to prepare recommendations.

A New Deal for the Alien

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cybelle Fox
Keyword(s):  
Social Security ◽  
Old Age ◽  
Social Insurance ◽  
Assistance Programs ◽  
Aid To Dependent Children ◽  
The Social ◽  
Disparate Treatment ◽  
Old Age Assistance ◽  
Social Security Act ◽  
European Immigrants

This chapter focuses on the Social Security Act and the disparate treatment of blacks, Mexicans, and European immigrants in the administration of Social Security, Unemployment Insurance, Aid to Dependent Children, and Old Age Assistance. Though framed as legislation that would help the “average citizen,” scholars have shown that the Social Security Act in fact excluded the vast majority of blacks from the most generous social insurance programs, relegating them to meager, decentralized, and demeaning means-tested programs. European immigrants, by contrast, benefited from many of the provisions of the Social Security Act, and in at least some respects, they benefited more than even native-born whites. The net result of these policies was that blacks were disproportionately shunted into categorical assistance programs with low benefit levels, European immigrants were disproportionately covered under social insurance regardless of citizenship, and Mexicans were often shut out altogether.

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.

The Social Security Program and the Private Sector Alternative: Lessons from History

1987 ◽  
Vol 25 (3) ◽  
pp. 239-246
Author(s):  
Jill Quadagno
Keyword(s):  
Social Security ◽  
Private Sector ◽  
The United States ◽  
Social Security Program ◽  
Old Age Security ◽  
Social Security Fund ◽  
The Social ◽  
Security Fund ◽  
Older Citizens ◽  
Relationship Of

As the Social Security program in the United States emerged from the crisis of the 1970s with a solid set of reforms intended to guarantee the program's financial solvency into the twenty-first century, a new attack on the system arose in the form of debates centering around the relationship of the Social Security fund to the federal deficit. Conservative economists used concerns about the national economy as fuel for their own arguments that Social Security has negatively affected the economy and that heavier reliance should be placed on private sector benefits. This paper uses historical evidence to analyze how adequately private sector benefits functioned in the past. Among the conclusions reached are that the private sector failed to provide adequate protection for older citizens, and that benefits were inequitably distributed on the basis of gender and social class. Any tendency toward heavier reliance on the private sector for provisions for old age security would only exacerbate existing inequalities.

scholarly journals OVERVIEW OF SOCIAL INSURANCE IN MALAYSIA: INVALIDITY PENSION SCHEME (IPS)

2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (7) ◽  
pp. 37-46
Author(s):  
Mohd Zaki Awang Chek ◽  
Isma Liana Ismail
Keyword(s):  
Social Security ◽  
Old Age ◽  
Social Insurance ◽  
Private Insurance ◽  
Insurance Coverage ◽  
Pension Scheme ◽  
Cost Of Living ◽  
Public Insurance ◽  
The Social ◽  
Insurance Programme

Social insurance is a public insurance programme that provides protection against various economic risks such as loss of income due to sickness, old age, invalidity, death, or unemployment, where participation is made to be compulsory. Social insurance is regarded as a type of social security, and the two terms are sometimes used interchangeably. Social insurance programmes differ from private insurance in several ways. Firstly, the contributions are normally compulsory and may be made by the insured’s employer, by the state, as well as by the insured himself. Benefits are also not as strictly tied to contributions as is the case with private insurance. For example, to make the programmes serve certain social purposes, some contributors are included among the beneficiaries even though they may not have contributed for the required period of time. Next, benefits may be increased in response to the rising cost of living, which reduces the amount between contributions and benefits. The main objective of this study is to understand the contribution and benefits of social insurance coverage under the Social Security Organisation (SOCSO)’s Invalidity Pension Scheme (IPS).

The Roots of Public Pensions Provision: Social Insurance and the Beveridge Plan

2006 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jose Harris
Keyword(s):  
Social Policy ◽  
Social Security ◽  
Old Age ◽  
Social Insurance ◽  
First Century ◽  
Public Pensions ◽  
Winston Churchill ◽  
The Social ◽  
History Of ◽  
Specialist Knowledge

William Beveridge and his Report on Social Insurance and Allied Services of 1942 continue to occupy a pivotal position in the history of social security provision not only in Britain and Europe but also in the wider world into the twenty-first century. This chapter examines why the Beveridge Plan and its ideas were so popular and seemingly so authoritative. Although Beveridge's long public career in social policy had been mainly concerned with the quite different sphere of unemployment insurance, his ideas about old-age pensions did not spring from nowhere in 1941, but dated back to the year 1907. In 1908, he became a personal adviser to Winston Churchill at the Board of Trade, where he was instrumental in inserting many of his ideas about social insurance into the unemployment provisions of the National Insurance Act of 1911. At the time of his appointment as chairman of the Social Insurance Committee in June 1941, Beveridge had almost no specialist knowledge of pensions administration or pensions finance.

scholarly journals Analisis Yuridis Atas Penggabungan PT Taspen (Persero) dan PT Asabri (Persero) pada Badan Penyelenggara Jaminan Sosial

2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
Wahyudi Prima Putra ◽  
Suhaidi Suhaidi ◽  
Jelly Leviza ◽  
Marsella Marsella
Keyword(s):  
Social Security ◽  
Old Age ◽  
Social Security System ◽  
Security System ◽  
Social Security Program ◽  
Informal Workers ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Security Act ◽  
Pension Payments

The transformation becomes an important vocabulary since last seven years in Indonesia, precisely since the enactment of the National Social Security System (Social Security Act) on October 19, 2004.  Persero four state-owned social security program organizers PT Askes, PT Asabri, PT Jamsostek and PT Taspen  will be transformed into BPJS . Asabri program is part of the rights of soldiers and police members on a decent income. Asabri programs and programs pension payments transferred by Asabri PT and old age savings program and programs pension payments transferred from TASPEN PT is part of the program in accordance with that law. With the inclusion of informal workers in the social security system which has clearly not been recorded, it will take time and a very large cost.

scholarly journals THE STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES OF FINANCING SOCIAL PROTECTION IN LATVIA

2019 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. 4
Author(s):  
Feliciana Rajevska
Keyword(s):  
Social Security ◽  
Old Age ◽  
Social Insurance ◽  
Social Protection ◽  
The State ◽  
Financial Flows ◽  
The Social ◽  
General Government ◽  
Insurance Agency ◽  
The Impact

INTRODUCTION Public social protection spending in Latvia amounted to 15.2% of GDP in 2016. Financing social protection in terms of PPS per inhabitant was  only 35% of the average amount in the EU-28 in 2016. The explanation for such a permanently low level of social protection funding is not only a modest level of economic development, but traditionally a low priority of social spending in Latvian politics. The analysis of changes in the financing level of social protection, the changes in the main sources of social protection, the impact of past reforms is in focus. The wide variety in financing structures of social protection systems across Europe and the different levels of financing provides an opportunity to better  understand the specifics in  Latvia and its mixture of sources of financing social protection system. METHODS The author uses data from ESSPROS, the State Social Insurance Agency, the Ministry of Welfare for 2005-2017 for Latvia and the EU28 and is doing analysis of secondary statistical data, public policy documents, analysis of legislative acts and Cabinet Regulations from 2005-2018. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS The social insurance schemes are based on the pay-as-you-go principle and the distribution is achieved between the present contributors and the present recipients, at the same time the benefit amount is closely linked to the contributions paid by a certain individual. Such a system creates proper work incentives, albeit requires  significant resources for its administration. The State Social Insurance Agency showed an excellent performance in dealing with this  task. Latvia’s experience with the micro-enterprise tax regime demonstrated the pitfalls of an over-simplified approach to taxation, when the measure, aimed at combating unemployment, became a tax evasion trick at the cost of the workers’ social security. The strong side of the existing model of financing social protection is its ability to maintain a positive balance even in the background of a very turbulent environment. The sustainability of the social insurance budget has always been and remains a top priority for policy-makers. Social contributions play the leading role in the existing mix of financing social protection. The share of old-age function benefits is higher than the EU28 average. The expenditures on some functions grew faster: spending on disability benefits increased by 99%, on unemployment by 75%, on old-age and family benefits by 64%. The last decade demonstrated a trend to an increasing role of the general government contributions. The social contribution rates are already quite high (35.09% in 2018) and can hardly be increased, otherwise labour costs might become uncompetitive. Therefore, a further increase of general government contributions seems unavoidable. CONCLUSIONS Trends in reforms and policy changes were diverse and even contradictory: cost saving, support of specific target groups, reallocating funds in financial flows, an increase of the pension age. A number of policy adjustments were based on the lessons learned during the crisis. Means-tested benefits are thinly represented in the Latvian social security system, and the thresholds used for their calculation are inadequately low. The Latvian healthcare system is chronically underfinanced. It also has a high ratio of out-of-pocket co-financing by patients. Austerity measures had a strong influence on social protection expenditures from 2009–2014. Among the weaknesses of the social insurance schemes, one should mention the inadequately low minimum levels of benefits, especially as concerns old-age pensions. Low wage earners might have a disincentive to diligently pay the contributions, seeing that even the average old-age pension is lower than the at-risk-of-poverty threshold.

scholarly journals The Social Security Program in the United States

1965 ◽  
Vol 32 (4) ◽  
pp. 652
Author(s):  
Kailin Tuan ◽  
Charles I. Schottland
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Social Security ◽  
The United States ◽  
Social Security Program ◽  
The Social

American Social Security System

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eric R. Kingson ◽  
Dana Bell ◽  
Sarah Shive
Keyword(s):  
Social Security ◽  
Social Insurance ◽  
Social Security System ◽  
Economic Security ◽  
Security System ◽  
Future Generations ◽  
Incremental Development ◽  
System P ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Security Act

This entry examines why our nation’s Social Security system was built, what it does, and what must be done to maintain and improve this foundational system for current and future generations. After a discussion of the social insurance approach to economic security and its underlying principles and values, the evolution of America’s Social Security system is reviewed—beginning with the enactment of the Social Security Act of 1935, through its incremental development, to the changed politics of Social Security since the mid-1990s. Next, program benefits and financing are described and contemporary challenges and related policy options are identified, in terms of both the program’s projected shortfall and the public’s need for expanded retirement, disability, and survivorship protections. The entry concludes by noting that social workers have an important role to play in shaping Social Security’s future.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document