The Social Security Act is justly regarded as
a landmark in the social history of this country because of the
development it has made possible in social insurance. That aspect
of the law has over-shadowed all others in the past year, during
which the foundation has been laid for the two Nation-wide insurance
systems which will provide income during periods of unemployment
and in old age to large numbers of those who have worked in industry
and commerce. These far-reaching developments, however, should be
regarded in turn as a part of the fundamental contribution to social
progress implicit in the social security program as a whole.
In this act, Congress envisaged "social security" as
a goal to which effort is directed through several approaches. The
Social Security Board is charged with the administration of five
programs which have one factor in common in that all of them result,
under specified circumstances, in the payment of money to individuals.
These are the Federal program of old-age insurance, tile Federal-State
program of unemployment compensation, and the Federal-State programs
of public assistance to the needy aged, needy blind, and dependent
children A second group of programs, administered by Federal agencies
other than the Social Security Board, results not in the payment
of money to individuals but in the establishment and extension of
services for welfare and health. The third important area of service
defined in the act is the responsibility, delegated to the Board,
for study and recommendation as to "methods of providing economic
security through social insurance, and as to legislation and matters
of administrative policy concerning Old-age pensions, unemployment
compensation, accident compensation, and related subjects."
Thus, from the start, "social security" has been regarded
not as an isolated goal but as an advance through a series of interrelated
social services essential to the well-being of a modern people.
The act's provisions for public assistance to the needy and for
the extension of community services for health and welfare are rooted
in the history of past effort on the part of local communities,
the States, and the Federal Government. Through the authority granted
in the law, Federal funds have been made available for these programs
to complement those provided in the States, and national recognition
has been given to needs with which localities and even States could
not cope alone. A Nation-wide framework has been established in
which the States are encouraged to participate according to their
special needs, capacities, and desires. The extent to which this
opportunity has been accepted by the States indicates national acceptance
of the fundamental objectives of the Social Security Act, and a
degree of progress made possible only because of the collaboration
of agencies of government at the various levels-- Federal, State,
and local.
The two insurance programs represent an extension of the area of
the social services within the United States. A century ago a bitter
controversy raged as to the place of government in the field of
education. It was then necessary to argue that government alone
could provide the opportunity inherent in public education. It was
necessary to point out that the well-being of families, of communities,
and of the people as a whole required that access to education be
assured to all children.
Now the insurance programs represent a similar recognition of the
place of other social services in a Nation whose economic life is
bound together by the strands of commerce. Here, as in the older
countries, it has become evident that the welfare of the
Nation, as well as the welfare of individuals,suffers when income
is interrupted or cut short for large groups of the population.
Agriculture, industry, trade, and the professions all depend on
an unimpeded flow of purchasing power. The progress of a whole people
depends upon the assurance of opportunity not only to those who
are helpless by reason of personal adversity but also to those whose
chance to gain a living is blocked by social forces which they,
as individuals, cannot control.
Basically, all 10 programs inaugurated under the Social Security
Act have a common aim in safeguarding the opportunity of American
families to participate in the economic life of their times. This
opportunity is furthered by the services to give children a chance
for a fair start in life, to prevent sickness and the dependency
resulting from sickness, and to help handicapped workers to regain
a place in productive activity. It is safeguarded by the provision
of income to groups of the needy who are unable to earn for themselves--children
deprived of parental support, the blind, and the aged. As the two
insurance programs get fully under way, opportunity will be further
sustained by these methods of steadying the livelihood of a great
army of the Nation's wage earners during periods of temporary unemployment
and in old age. The protections afforded under the Social Security
Act are still by no means complete. It is important to realize,
on the other hand, that a substantial ground work has been laid
for an integrated development of the social services demanded by
the circumstances of modern life.
It is the conviction of the Social Security Board that the responsibilities
with which the Board is charged can be met only by continuing consideration
of its activities in their relationship to the whole area of the
social services. The meaning of the programs administered by the
Board is to be understood only by reference to those of other agencies
which also are concerned with efforts to prevent, offset, or abolish
forces which make for insecurity. An outstanding example of this
interdependence appears in the relationship between the State unemployment
compensation administrations and the State employment services.
When a qualified worker cannot get a suitable job within the period
of time set by the law of his State, he has a right to benefits.
From the moment, however, when he first reports himself out of work,
the employment service endeavors to provide what is better than
benefits from the standpoint of both morale and money--the chance
to work and to earn a living. If that chance is lacking, his benefits
help to tide over the period of his involuntary unemployment.
Assistance to the needy under the Social Security Act is bound
up with other measures of government directed to the same end. At
the request of other Federal agencies and with their collaboration,
the Board has therefore instituted the collection or compilation
of regular reports to indicate the total extent of public aid to
the needy in the United States. Within the States there has been
progress toward the coordination or integration of efforts under
the three public-assistance programs, and in some instances under
general relief programs also, to promote economical and efficient
administration and well-rounded consideration of families whose
needs entitle them to aid. lecithin the programs administered by
the Board, the system of Federal old-age insurance, which is to
provide future annuities for qualified workers, is hardly to be
understood except in association with the complementary Federal-State
program of old-age assistance, which provides help for those who
have been unable to secure their livelihood in old age by this or
other means.
It is with the aim of fulfilling its own responsibilities for study
and administration and of facilitating the efforts of other agencies
concerned with the social services that the Board has started publication
of the Social Security Bulletin. The Bulletin will record developments
in the fields for which the Board carries responsibility and, in
certain instances, through the collaboration of other agencies,
will summarize closely related developments essential to the measurement
of the present progress and future potentialities of the social
security program. As occasion offers, the results of research will
be presented. Designed primarily as a link between members of the
Board's Nation-wide organization and between the Board
and the large number of Federal and State agencies directly concerned
with administration of the program, it is hoped that the Bulletin
also will promote a general understanding of the contribution of
the social services to progress in the United States.
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