Show c SOCIAL SECURITY L t People Receiving Survivors Insurance Payments A young man walked into a social security field office recently and said Ive just started to work for myself and I want to get straight on my rights and obligations under old-age old survivors insurance The conversation developed some interesting facts His father had been a plant foreman and his job n was brought under social security when the original law went into effect effect effect ef ef- in 1937 At the time of his death in the forties he was fully insured By careful management of the family's s meagre savings plus the monthly survivors' survivors benefit payments payments payments pay pay- ments the widow had been able to keep the son in school He finished his vocational school training He took a job and then he married Now he had started his own business business business busi busi- ness and so is one of at more than four million self employed who are for the first time coming under social social social so so- cial security This particular interview was of unusual significance in that it is an outstanding example of a generation protected protected by old-age old and survivors insurance building social security protection for the next generation It is proof that social security has come of or age In January 1937 when the program program program pro pro- gram was inaugurated it was frankly an innovation and an experiment For several years its progress was necessarily slow and its impact on family economy was limited Beneficiaries Beneficiaries Beneficiaries Bene Bene- added to the rolls did not average over a quarter of a million persons yearly and md coverage was restricted to persons employed in commerce and industry Fifteen years and the several amendments to the original act have changed the picture The widow widow widow wid wid- ow and the son in our story are numbered numbered numbered num num- among the three out of every four mothers and children who now have this insurance protection Moreover not only jobs in commerce commerce commerce com com- merce and industry but most other kinds of work are now covered by the social security law In brief the old-age old and survivors insurance program under federal social security now affects three out of every four lour workers in the nation three Sixty million persons gainfully employed or self employed are in work covered by the law OBVIOUSLY fifteen years of operation operation operation op op- has not been a sufficient length of time to bring old-age old in insurance insurance insurance in- in protection to even a majority majority major major- it ity of at the people past 65 However at the close of the fifteenth year of the program people were receiving monthly old age and survivors survivors survivors sur sur- insurance payments How much in benefit payments does this mean to the average worker work work- er and his family For the worker who after 1950 earns a month his personal monthly benefit payment payment payment pay pay- ment will be 72 00 he and his wife will get a total of monthly and andin andin andin in case of his death his widow will get The scale of benefit payments ranges from a minimum of 20 monthly to an individual to a maximum maximum maximum maxi maxi- mum family benefit payment of As earnings up to a year are arenow arenow arenow now credited to a workers worker's social security account the average benefit benefit benefit bene bene- fit payment will steadily increase lse in the years immediately ahead It is not difficult to evaluate the effect of this social insurance program on the average community community community and the average family As in inthe inthe inthe the case of the young man mentioned mentioned mentioned men men- at the beginning of this article article article ar ar- it is making it possible to hold many homes together as illustrated in his case also it is enabling one generation to acquire the means to build the same protection for the next generation This as old-age old and survivors insurance enters its sixteenth year of continuous operation operation opera opera- tion is the most sign significant achievement achievement achievement achieve achieve- ment of the program |