The Social Security Act Builds a Federal Safety Net
A system of old-age benefits and unemployment insurance is signed into law
Quick facts
- Signed
- August 14, 1935
- Old-age benefits
- Federal system for workers
- Also created
- Unemployment insurance, aid to dependent children
- Origin
- Committee on Economic Security, 1934
What happened
On August 14, 1935, Roosevelt signed the Social Security Act, establishing a system of federal old-age benefits for workers along with benefits for victims of industrial accidents, unemployment insurance, and aid for dependent mothers and children, the blind, and the disabled. The act declared its purpose to be providing for the general welfare by establishing a system of federal old-age benefits and by enabling the states to make better provision for aged, blind, and dependent people and to administer their unemployment compensation laws. It grew out of the work of a cabinet-level Committee on Economic Security that Roosevelt had appointed the year before.
Why it matters
Social Security created the enduring core of the American welfare state, a federal guarantee of income in old age and unemployment funded by payroll taxes. It answered the Depression's demonstration that individuals and states could not by themselves cushion mass unemployment and old-age poverty, and it remains the largest and most consequential program to come out of the New Deal.
How we know
The act, its signing date, and its provisions are documented by the National Archives, which holds and reproduces the enrolled Social Security Act of August 14, 1935.
Sources
- National Archives (Historical Documents). Social Security Act · Primary source (author-declared)archives.gov · Cited as a "primary" source (no stronger domain match). · Link is live and its text matches the event's key terms (Jul 2026)
- National Archives (Milestone Documents). Social Security Act (1935) · Primary source (author-declared)archives.gov · Cited as a "primary" source (no stronger domain match). · Link is live and its text matches the event's key terms (Jul 2026)
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