social security

State provision of financial aid to alleviate poverty and to provide income to retired persons and disabled workers. The term ‘social security’ was first applied officially in the USA, in the Social Security Act of 1935. The term usually refers specifically to old-age benefits, which have a contributory element, unlike ‘welfare.’ The US Social Security Administration is responsible for social security (Medicare, retirement, survivors', and disability insurance and supplementary insurance for the elderly, blind, and disabled); unemployment insurance is covered by a joint federal-state system for industrial workers, but few in agriculture are covered; and welfare benefits are the responsibility of individual states, with some federal assistance. The program is an important source of income for the growing population of retired Americans, although the benefits pose a growing burden for the working-age population.

The concept of such payments developed in the late 19th century in Europe. In the USA the program was developed as part of the effort to cope with the effects of the depression from 1929, when large numbers of Americans were without income.

In 1996 President Bill Clinton signed the welfare reform law, which said that adults could not receive federal welfare aid for more than 24 consecutive months or for more than five years during their life. In March 2000 the US government announced that the projected date of the social security system's insolvency is 2037, and that of the Medicare trust is 2023. These dates were later than had previously been predicted. In 2006, $546 billion was paid in social security benefits and there were 49 million beneficiaries at the end of that year.