1941: Social Security

Until Dec. 19, 1941, when the President converted the Federal-state employment services into a national program, the year 1941 had witnessed the fewest national developments in social security since the adoption of the Social Security Act in 1935.

The major social security programs of the United States at the beginning of 1942 were as follows:

Federal Plan of Old Age and Survivors Insurance.

This system pays 'primary' benefits at 40 per cent of the first $50 of the average monthly wage earned after 1936, plus 10 per cent of the balance up to $250 monthly to persons reaching age 65. One per cent of the primary benefit is added for each year of minimum earnings after 1936. A wife past 65 years of age is entitled to 50 per cent of her husband's primary benefit. A dependent child of a retired or deceased worker under the age of 16, or 18 if regularly attending school, is entitled to a similar benefit. Widows who are either aged 65 and over or have dependent children under the ages specified above are entitled to 75 per cent of the deceased husband's monthly primary benefit. Wholly dependent parents of a worker who leaves no other survivors are each entitled to 50 per cent of the primary benefit. When no eligible dependent survives, six times the primary annuity is paid as a funeral benefit. Retired beneficiaries may earn outside up to $14.99 per month.

Altogether 465,663 monthly awards were made by the end of November under this system. Of these, 224,178 were given to primary beneficiaries, 61,725 to wives of beneficiaries, 117,699 to children, 14,134 to widows past the age of 65, 46,059 to younger widows with dependent children and 1,868 grants were given to parents.

In the month of November, the amount of payments in force was $8,476,025. The average monthly primary benefit in September was $22.69. The average wife's benefit was $12.09; aged couples thus received a national average of $34.78 monthly. The average widow's benefit was $20.26 while a child's benefit averaged $12.17 and a parent's, $12.94.

By Oct. 1, a total of $2,742,065,000 was collected in Federal old age insurance taxes. The benefits up to that time amounted to $122,900,000. Including interest, the old age insurance trust fund totaled $2,575,417,000 at the beginning of October.

Railroad Retirement Act.

The Railroad Retirement System had 154,847 pensioners and annuitants of various types on Sept. 30, 1941. The amount in force in September was $9,862,086. The total amount received under this Act up to Oct. 1, 1941, was $647,877,000. Benefit payments up to October amounted to $450,926,000. At the end of September the fund's balance was $196,951,000.

Public Assistance.

The number of recipients of public assistance throughout the United States were as follows in September: 2,204,189 old age assistance beneficiaries received a total of $46,174,595; 383,796 families with 926,149 children received aid-to-dependent-children amounting to $12,562,222; 74,892 blind persons received aid-to-the-blind amounting to $1,909,998. The average national old age assistance payment in September was $20.95. It ranged from $7.63 in Arkansas to $36.45 in California. The national average payment under aid - to - dependent - children amounted to $32.73 per family the same month. The average national monthly blind pension was $25.50. General relief in September amounted to $18,547,000, granted to 817,000 cases, or an average of $22.70 monthly.

Unemployment Insurance.

The Federal-state unemployment insurance funds paid out $519,945,914 in benefits during 1940, approximately $90,000,000 more than in 1939. The average in 1940 was $100.15 per worker as contrasted with an average of $84.24 in 1939. The average benefit for a week of total unemployment was less than $10 in 30 jurisdictions and below $7 in 7 of them. The proportion of beneficiaries who exhausted their benefits while still unemployed ranged from 30.2 per cent to 78.7 per cent in 25 jurisdictions. In 1940 the benefit expenditures represented 60.8 cents of every dollar collected during the year.

In September 1941, there were 2,170,455 unemployment compensation claims throughout the country. A total of $22,941,874 was paid in benefits that month. This represented a decline of 13.4 per cent from August and 37.3 per cent from September 1940. The total collections in taxes since these laws came into operation amounted to $3,883,249,000 by the end of September. The total benefits paid out amounted to $1,618,853,000 by the same date.

In September 1941, 545,676 persons were placed in jobs which was a 7.1 per cent increase from the previous month. The President nationalized the Federal-state employment services on Dec. 19.

Railroad Unemployment Insurance.

The railroad unemployment insurance system paid in September 1941, $561,828 to 25,659 persons. This contrasted with $991,712 to 66,336 beneficiaries in September 1940. Altogether this fund has paid out nearly $34,000,000 since its inception. See also UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE.