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The History Of Social Security Act And Ssi Benefits

President Roosevelt and his committee drafted the Social Security Act as part of the New Deal in 1935. The act was created to limit the dangers of modern American life including elderly, poverty, problems faced by widows, fatherless children, and unemployment. The SSI benefits help those who fall under these categories get monetary aid. For the elderly, the SSI benefits will allocate money to assist the aged from the state. SSI benefits also go to mothers on child welfare and the disabled. The act also provides SSI benefits to retirees and those whose loved ones have died. The Social Security act is also known as the Old Age Pension Act. Roosevelt wanted to protect the American people against these financial hardships with these SSI benefits. He was the first president who wanted to protect the elderly from inevitable money hardships.

There has been plenty of controversy with the Social Security Act over the years. Many believed by drafting this act, this would cause a huge influx of loss of jobs. Others believed this would be a good thing because it would cause many elderly to lose their jobs, which would in turn create more jobs for the younger and more able. The program is now one of the most popular in the United States.

One interesting fact is when it first began, it initially excluded women and only catered to white males in the categories of old age pensions and unemployment insurance. Also, there were a lot of jobs that were not covered by the SSI benefits, including agricultural labor, domestic services, government employees, teachers, nurses, librarians, and social workers. SSI benefits from the act did not originally cover on and off seasonal workers. Non-white employees and women once dominated those jobs. These exclusions exempted half of all of the working population.

It is thought that the southern democrats developed this discrimination. Many southern congressmen supported the act to help relieve all the financial blows individuals were facing because of the Great Depression. Although, a lot of these southern congressmen didn't agree with allowing nonwhites to receive the same SSI benefits of the act as white males. Many southern congressmen avoided signing the legislation because of this. In order to get the signatures in the south (which was a major component to getting the Act signed), the solution was to allow the individual states to be held responsible of who would be excluded from the Social Security Act.

Social security in the US is a social insurance program funded through dedicated payroll taxes called Federal Insurance Contributions Act (FICA). To get SSI benefits, you must fill out an application with the correct information regarding medical information, work history, correct addresses, and correct telephone numbers. The social security application or SSI application is a very time consuming process. After finishing the application, the social security administration will review your case and see if you qualify for the benefits or not. The application is tedious, but SSI benefits are worth the effort. President Roosevelt started the Social Security Act, and it still benefits many Americans in their time of need today, just as the original policy was enacted to do.

By: Peter Drummond