In 1934 President Franklin Roosevelt convened a special committee on economic insecurity, comprised of the heads of the departments of Labor, Agriculture and the Treasury as well as the Attorney General and the Federal Emergency Relief Administrator. After a year of research, they presented Roosevelt with their recommendations, which became the basis for the passage of the Social Security Act in August 1935. The program was originally set up to solely provide retirement benefits to workers 65 years or older - and, for the first few years, in lump-sum p......

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