The history of Social Security

Since the entitlement program’s inception in 1935, many changes to Social Security have been enacted or attempted. Here’s a look at some memorable moments in Social Security’s history.

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1935

President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs the Social Security Bill in Washington. The previous year, Roosevelt had set up a Committee on Economic Security whose mandate was to come up with options for improving the nation's battered economy. Roosevelt then took the committee’s recommendations to Congress in January and, after some negotiation and revision, the bill was signed into law in August. The original law was designed to provide income to retired workers over age 65.

/ Associated Press

1936

Postal workers in New York pack their bags with Social Security forms. One of the challenges of implementing the original Act was to register eligible Americans for the program by Jan. 1, 1937. The U.S. Postal Service helped the Social Security Board distribute and collect the forms as well as create Social Security cards.

/ Associated Press

1939

In 1939, legislators amended the Social Security Act so that spouses and minor children of a retired worker could receive benefits under the program. Here, Social Security Board worker Phyllis La Pine works to process a massive stack of applications.

Robert Clover / Associated Press

1940

From 1935 to 1940, Social Security benefits were issued only as single, lump-sum payments. However, the Social Security Act specified that a shift would be made later to monthly checks. Ida M. Fuller, pictured here, was the first person to receive a monthly payment.

AES / Associated Press

1961

President John F. Kennedy signed legislation that increased Social Security benefits for about 4.4 million Americans. The bill also permitted workers to retire at age 62 instead of 65.

Henry Burroughs / Associated Press

1965

The Medicare Act of 1965, signed into law by President Lyndon Johnson, gave health insurance coverage to beneficiaries of the Social Security program. Here, Lillian Grace Avery, the nation's first Medicare beneficiary, signs Medicare forms at Edward Hospital in Naperville, Ill., on July 1, 1966.

/ Associated Press

1977

President Jimmy Carter signed into law a bill that sharply increased Social Security taxes for 107 million American workers in an effort to keep the huge pension system solvent. Earlier in the decade, in 1972, another key change was made to Social Security in which cost-of-living adjustments were made automatically each year to the checks that beneficiaries were receiving. Before that, cost-of-living adjustments were made to benefits only via special congressional legislation. The first cost-of-living adjustment came in 1950 and amounted to a 77 percent benefit increase.

Barry Thumma / Associated Press

1983

During the Reagan administration, the Social Security program was struggling with solvency issues. In an effort to get the program on better financial footing, Reagan signed into law a bill that included some taxation of Social Security benefits and called for a gradual increase in the retirement age. In this photo, senior citizens rally on the Capitol steps in Washington on July 22, 1981, to denounce President Ronald Reagan's proposed cuts in their Social Security benefits.

/ AP

1994

President Bill Clinton signed a bill that made the Social Security Commission an independent agency.

Denis Paquin / Associated Press

2005

After being elected to a second term, President George W. Bush sought to overhaul the entitlement program. He proposed the creation of private accounts that would enable younger workers to bankroll their retirement by diverting a portion of their payroll taxes into stock market investments. Here, he attempts to shore up support for his plan at the Lake Nona YMCA Family Center in Orlando on March 18, 2005. Bush's proposals never became law.

J. Scott Applewhite / Associated Press

2009

In 2009, the Social Security Administration said there would be no cost-of-living increase for Social Security recipients next year, the first year without one since automatic adjustments were adopted.

Bradley C. Bower / NY110

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