As of June 2024, the program was paying monthly benefits to more than 72 million Americans.
Heres a time line of significant events in the history of Social Security.
Aug. 14, 1935:President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed the Social Security Act into law.
Jan. 1, 1937:First Social Security benefits paid out in the form of one-time, lump-sum payments.
Aug. 10, 1939:Program broadened to include benefits for workers dependents and survivors.
Jan. 31, 1940:Ida M. Fuller became the first person to receive a monthly benefit.
Her first check was for $22.54, the inflation-adjusted equivalent of $509.46 today.
Fuller lived to the age of 100.
October 1950:Congress authorized the firstcost-of-living adjustment(COLA), an increase of 77 percent.
Previously, no one could claim retirement benefits until age 65.
July 1975:The first annual automatic COLA kicked in, boosting benefits by 8 percent.
Before 1975, congressional authorization was required to adjust benefits for inflation.
July 1980:Beneficiaries received the highest annual COLA increase ever 14.3 percent.
The inflation rate in 1980 was 12.5 percent.
