well i think you ought to take one of the lighter jobs a man your age should be lifting i have a daughter who's talking i'm no warmer than you are jim i'm going to remind you of that someday when i see you trying to live one of those heavy on the social security headquarters building for heaven's sake what should i do sharpen your pencils now grant i want to do kind of a double storey social security scene from the viewpoints of both older and younger people and that's why i need this is the home office of the american system of old age survivors and disability insurance nerve center of the social security program that affects practically every american family will guide them through the building she will answer many questions questions like what happens if i lose my social security card what happens to the report of earnings my employer sends in our other records of my earnings kept and last but not least just simply why our social security account number each day there are two scheduled tours this one was especially arranged to give nancy the material she needs for her story about how our knowledge of social security is important for both old and young first the basic idea working people and employers pay social security taxes which are kept in special trust funds the money can be used only to pay social security benefits and operating expenses when earnings start because of retirement disability or death benefit payments are made from these funds to replace part of the earnings the family has lost from this headquarters the activities of the nation's six hundred social security district offices and seven payment would i have to travel all the way up to program to get to the nearest social security office now you are not in family settled areas such as security representative makes trips from town to town at scheduled intervals and then they conduct business in court from here the guide will lead nancy and tim to the section where over one hundred thirty nine million original applications for social security cards are filed in numerical order actually more than one hundred and ninety four million names are recorded here because many people have changed their names for various reasons out of one hundred and ninety four million names recorded there are bound to be many duplicated names there are actually almost six hundred thousand millers and possibly hundreds of timothy millers and nancy carols that's why individual numbers are assigned to social security accounts which everyone keeps all his working life keeping every account separately is an important step toward keeping the two count accurately thank you  i'll be i don't remember making this out what they're doing is december fourteenth nineteen thirty six i was in san francisco working on the bay bridge when then say that was before you were born  here here is mrs katz oh say this is made out from this nancy's e mailer goodness i forgot to change my name on your records after i got married have i lost any credit for my earning no since your account is kept by both your social security number and your name the records can be kept straight even if reports come in under two names but you should apply for a new card you'll keep your original number but the name will be different and this prevents any possible confusion when your earnings are reported now you can see how important your social security card is so i certainly do say i wonder if i could check on jim's that's my husband his application he made his application in hawaii just after the korean war but now that i think of it i can't remember his number anyway that wouldn't matter too much in the next section we visit the information is kept by name in alphabetical order so if your husband were here i could find a social security card quickly with his name and date of birth but i can show you that mrs carroll all information here is confidential i can show it only to your husband and i think if we go to the next section you'll see what i mean and now we come to the section where information is kept by name in these containers of microfilm each container has about ninety thousand names in the members recorded on film the young ladies here can locate any number almost as quickly as it can be spoken it mr miller had lost his card they could find his a but what goes into these records and how is this information entered about two hundred seventy million earnings items i received each year from employers and self employed people no ordinary bookkeeping system could handle this many entries so the social security administration turned to the most modern electronic equipment to do the job with this system the bureau can now handle all its present work efficiently and keep up with additional workloads in the future information from these reports is transferred to punch cards which are used to transfer the information to magnetic tape information from this tape goes into an electronic computer which brings the old earnings record up to date and delivers a new tape with the current record of each person's earnings and you tape stores the information for daily use until new reports come in handy a new tape is ma social security offices across the nation wire baltimore and request information from the earnings record when an application for benefits is made the request starts on paper tape is relayed through a communication center and received in the central office on magnetic tape no further typing is needed to get the required information back to the district office these machines furnish the records and compute the amount of monthly benefits for more than fifteen thousand applications each day rick first for wage information also came in by mail directly from people who want to be sure that the earnings have been properly reported their requests are transferred to punch cards and then handle in about the same manner as requests from district offices they go to magnetic tape to the computer and then statements of earnings printed automatically and mailed everyone whose work is covered by this law could write for one of the statements about every three years over two million of these statements are prepared every year while back there you said something about a man draw on benefits even after he keeps on workin yet you have to quit working entirely you can earn quite a good deal and still collect benefits that say i'm sure glad i came out here with you on business falls off i'm and not long after his visit to the social security building with nancy tim did decide to apply for old age insurance benefits he went to the post office and met a social security rep who was making one of his regular visit the application blank to him sign that morning was in social security district office later in the day a request for information from tim's earnings record was sent by teletype through a communication center to the record keeping center national headquarters tim's earnings record was located and the amount of his benefit figured by the computer later in one of the payments satyrs monthly payments to two i'm were authorized you finally applied for a did you remember the day i went with my granddaughter on a story assignment yeah he did i ever show you that story that she wrote up year insurance domain the day had come out you signed it now  then she's reported she's one chapter in a continuing story which every american should know the story on hold a survivor and disability insurance protection under the social security law