Security for the Aged

Report Outline
Plight of the Aged in Price Inflation
Government Action to Relieve Old Age Insecurity
Supplements to Public Security Aids

Plight of the Aged in Price Inflation

Since the end of the war Congress has been under mounting pressure to liberalize and extend the old-age protections of the Social Security Act. Living conditions of old persons dependent on social insurance payments have been reduced to a critical state by rising prices, for which the system makes no allowance, and millions lack even the meager assistance which the insurance benefits afford, owing to statutory limitations of coverage.

President Truman told Congress in a special message May 24 that many old people “have just about reached the breaking point” and urged immediate action to raise social security payments and extend coverage in line with recommendations of the Social Security Administration. Similar proposals had been made, Apr. 8, in the first of a series of scheduled reports by the Senate Finance Committee's Advisory Council on Social Security. However, the only new aid received by the aged as a result of action at the regular session was a small increase in federal contributions to old-age assistance (relief).

Positions of the Parties on Old Age Security

In his message of July 27 to the special session of Congress, the President urged that the present “utterly inadequate” benefits under the retirement system be increased by at least 50 per cent, that the protections of the system be extended to the millions not now covered, that the retirement age for women be reduced from 65 to 60 years. These recommendations were identical with pledges contained in the platform adopted July 14 by the Democratic National Convention at Philadelphia. The Republican platform, adopted June 22, had been less specific: “We urge extension of the federal old-age insurance program and increase of the benefits to a more realistic level.”