At 16, I finally entered the “real working world” with a part-time job at McDonald’s making minimum wage. In addition to earning money for a school trip to Germany, I also started contributing to the Social Security System. Every year, close to my birthday, I am reminded of those earnings and my lifelong work history when I receive my statement from Social Security. Like most of us, I have a long relationship with Social Security.
August 14 marks the 75th anniversary of Social Security. An old-age insurance program was on the list of things social worker Frances Perkins asked President Roosevelt to support before she would agree to be the Secretary of Labor. In a 1962 presentation, Ms. Perkins details the political history and enactment of this program. She says,
“I suppose the roots–the idea that we ought to have a systematic method of taking care of the material needs of the aged–really springs from … the efforts and the struggles of charity workers and social workers to handle the problems of people who were growing old and had no adequate means of support.”
In honor of the anniversary, The Frances Perkins’ Center has developed the “Social Security Stories Project” to document how social security has made a difference in peoples’ lives. They are accepting written submissions of 400 words or less, or about three minutes of video.
There are certainly important discussions and questions about the future of Social Security that need to be addressed; however, I think as social workers we can hope like Frances Perkins did in 1962 that, “It is safe forever, and for the everlasting benefit of the people of the United States.”