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Show Current Social Security Board Report Visualizes Coverage of Added Millions . TELEFACT 1 MORE OLDSTERS AT WORK (AVERAGE AGE OF MALE WORKERS) MARCH t 1940 i i i i l!1 37.9 YEARS DECEMBER rV 1942 i . i i . i i i fii 40.5 YEARS Each section represents 4 years JOBS FOR PHYSICALLY HANDICAPPED (PLACEMENTS BY PUBLIC EMPLOYMENT OFFICES) o O 0 0 o c 94o 1S1HH n 00000000000 A J ,94, iiiiiii (Li o-o OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO ,942 raiiimisii Each symbol represents 5,000 placements 5 Benefits Outlined For Farm Help, Domestics Our social security program pro-gram as a nation-wide undertaking under-taking began eight years ago this August. In its seventh annual an-nual report the Social Security Secur-ity board points out that while great progress has been made-toward made-toward security for the American Amer-ican people, there are serious gaps in the program as it stands. While many millions of people are covered by the insurance features of the social security act, other millions mil-lions are not. More than half a million mil-lion are regularly drawing monthly Insurance benefits amounting in all to about 11 V2 million dollars a month. These are benefits paid under un-der the old-age and survivors insurance insur-ance system which covers wage and salaried workers on business or industrial in-dustrial jobs. The benefits go to these workers and their families if the worker qualifies at age 65 or over and is no longer at work, or to the family In case of the worker's death, whatever his age. There are, however, some 20 millions of workers work-ers who are now excluded from old-age old-age and survivors insurance. The same is true of unemployment unemploy-ment insurance. Millions of people are covered by the state unemployment unemploy-ment insurance laws, operated by the states but with administrative rfncto rtnlH hv Iho forfpral pnvprn. Eight now more old and physically handicapped people are employed than ever before. But everybody knows it's the war boom. When peace comes, these marginal workers will be dropped. Then, whether supported sup-ported by relatives or private charities, many of these people will be hard pressed to live decently. The social security board proposes to extend ex-tend the benefits of social Insurance to millions who will fall into the overage over-age or crippled class in a few years. ment. During one year when jobs were hard to get nearly 54 million people who were out of work received re-ceived benefits for weeks at a time. Now during the war boom when jobs are so plentiful, fewer than 120,-000 120,-000 people are getting unemployment unemploy-ment benefits in any one week. The number may go down even further as the war continues. But when the war is over, millions of former soldiers, sailors and war workers will be looking for jobs. Many will be entitled to unemployment unemploy-ment insurance while they are looking. look-ing. There will also be many who will need the insurance payments but will not be eligible as the laws now stand. Under the public assistance programs pro-grams of the social security act, three million needy people are receiving re-ceiving monthly cash payments which last year amounted to more than $770,000,000. These payments go to persons who do not have enough to live on and cannot provide pro-vide for themselves - because they are old and cannot work, because they are blind, or because they are too young to work and have lost a parent's support or care. There are about two million old people and one million children on the lists. The blind number around 55,000. But many other people who lack the bare essentials of life cannot be helped under the presentpublic assistance as-sistance programs because they are neither over 65, nor very young, nor blind. Gaps in Insurance. Most serious, however, according to the social security board, are the . gaps and shortcomings in the insurance insur-ance features. The purpose of these programs is to furnish some income for families to live on when the breadwinner cannot earn wages or salary. But wages or salary may stop for reasons other than unemployment, unem-ployment, old age, or death. If a person cannot work because he is sick or disabled, not only does his pay check stop but he has the extra expense of his illness. The social security board thinks we should have insurance against disability and the costs of hospital care, along with our present unemployment insurance insur-ance and old-age and survivors insurance. in-surance. About 20 million workers, including includ-ing some of the lowest income groups in the country, are not covered cov-ered by the old-age and survivors insurance provisions of the social security act. Most of these do not have the protection of any social insurance in-surance system. Farm workers, domestic do-mestic servants, employees of nonprofit non-profit educational, religious and charitable organizations constitute the largest groups of wage and salary sal-ary workers left out in the cold. The self-employed, such as farmers and storekeepers, are also excluded. More than 600,000 persons already are drawing monthly payments under un-der old-age and survivors insurance. Thousands more have earned rights to benefits and will be able to claim them whenever they stop regular work. The benefits go to insured workers and their families when the worker is 65 or older and is no longer long-er employed, and to the families of insured workers who die either before be-fore or after they are 65. As the law stands today, the old-age old-age and survivors insurance system covers wage and salary workers on business and industrial jobs that is, all kinds of jobs in factories, shops, mines, mills, stores, offices, banks, hotels, restaurants, laundries, telephone tele-phone and telegraph offices, and other oth-er places of business or industry carried on by private firms, corporations, corpora-tions, or individuals. This leaves, howev.er, a good many who are not covered, merely because of the nature na-ture of their employment. For example, ex-ample, the $10,000 executive employed em-ployed by a corporation comes under un-der the federal insurance system; the man working for himself whose income may fall below $1,000 a year is not insured, because the present law excludes the self-employed. When a Worker Is Disabled. Every time the clock ticks off a second, five people in this country get hurt or get sick, to such an extent ex-tent that they are unable to carry on their ordinary activities for one day or longer. If the disability is slight, the worker may not lose much, but to a man dependent upon his earnings, every dollar counts. The loss is especially serious it the injury lays him up for life. Yet the big majority of workers disabled off the job have no insurance insur-ance protection nothing to make up, even in part, for the pay they lose and the extra expense they have to meet. Congress has directed the Social Security board to make recommendations for such changes in the present regulations as will provide pro-vide for insurance payments to ease the blow of these calamities. Disability insurance is one of the missing girders in the social insurance insur-ance structure we have been building build-ing in this country since 1935. Already Al-ready in place are two of the main supports unemployment insurance, which pays weekly benefits to in sured workers who lose their jobs through no fault of their own and cannot get other jobs within a short time; and old-age and survivors insurance in-surance which pays monthly benefits to insured workers and their families fami-lies when the worker is old and retires, re-tires, or to his family when he dies, whatever his age. The social security board believes the next step is insurance against disability, temporary or permanent, with provision pro-vision to cover also the costs of hospital care. The need for such a program is pointed up by the fact that of more than 3 million disabled workers between be-tween 16 and 64 years of age, nearly one million have been disabled for 1 more than a year. Around 7 million mil-lion people are ill on any one day in the year many of them for protracted pro-tracted periods of months and years; many with no prospect of recovery. Six Cents on the Dollar. No new governmental agency would be necessary to administer disability insurance, and no additional" addi-tional" reports would be required of employers. The cost of the entire social insurance program, including disability protection, could probably be met through a total contribution rate of 5 or 6 cents on each dollar of pay roll from employers and 5 or 6 cents on each dollar of wages from employees. The total of 10 or 12 cents on the dollar (the rate would depend on the exact benefits provided) pro-vided) instead of 9 cents which will be the figure in 1949 under the present pres-ent law would provide insurance protection against all the most important im-portant economic risks faced by all workers. American families would be assured of an income when wages of the breadwinner stop because be-cause of unemployment, old age, illness, disability, or death and would also have insurance protection protec-tion against the costs of hospital care. Twenty-eight nations now provide insurance protection to their workers work-ers against temporary disability. With only one exception (Spain), the United States is the only country which provides insurance against old age without also providing against the risks of chronic or permanent per-manent disability. "When can we best afford the additional ad-ditional cost of an expanded social insurance system?" asks Arthur J. Altmeyer, chairman of the social security se-curity board. "Now, when earnings are high and all the wheels of industry in-dustry are turning, workers and employers em-ployers can set aside the contributions contribu-tions needed to ensure future rights to benefits," he replies. "There is no way in which increased earnings could be better invested, from the standpoint of either the family or the nation. For the family which actually meets with disaster sickness, sick-ness, unemployment, chronic disability, dis-ability, or death insurance benefits give a far greater protection than could have been obtained if the worker's insurance contributions had been kept as his individual savings. sav-ings. In any period of recession, the money now saved would be paid at a time when it is most needed and to those who most need it." : - ? v. "j--. s$ .-1 When a worker loses his income through sickness or injury, he generally gen-erally is unable to support his family fam-ily for long, after he is unemployed. Frequently he must meet heavy medical costs, so his savings are soon exhausted. His wife and children chil-dren then often suffer privations. The social security hoard recommends recom-mends that the laws be amended to cover such cases. |