The Skyland post. [volume] (West Jefferson, N.C.) 193?-1988, 1936-12-10
By FRANK w. HANCOCK


Within the past few days, through
the courtesy and assistance of our
efficient postal employees, the Social
Security board has put into action
in all parts of the United States the
plan that will set up for approx
mately 26 million working men and
women Social Security accounts,
comparable to annuity insurance,
which will enable millions of our
working class of people to retire at
the age of IS with a monthly income
for life, the amount of the income
being determined by their previous
wage records.
This has naturally set thousands
of our people to thinking about this
great and constructive humanitarian
program. They are wondering what
it really is and how it will affect
them. Though there has been a great
deal of discussion of the Social Sc
curity act in the newspapers and
over the radio within the past sew
eral weeks, many are still without
an understanding knowledge of its
detectives and just how it works.
There are eleven sections Of the
Social Security act altogether. These
sections may be classified into three
groups; one group provides financial
assistance to the States to carry on
health and welfare activities, includ-
ing assistance to needy aged, needy
blind, and dependent children.
Another group provides method
under which each State, with the aid
of the Federal government, may en-
act an unemployment compensation
law without placing its employers at
a competitive disadvantage with
employers in other States. The third
group covers the Federal Old Age
benefits plan. It is this plan, provid-
ing benefits comparable to annuitieS
paid by insurance companies, that /
shall try to explain, in order to aid
the 26 million working people who
have recently received Form 1875
known as duplication for Account
Number"
Sometimes Confused
This part of the Social Security act
is sometimes confused with the Sec
IN. of the act providing relief for
.edy aged people many of whom
would otherwise be destitute or in
the poorhouse. Assistance to this
class of our people is provided
through Federal-State cooperative
4, which the State of North Caro-
has not yet qualified to partici-
in. This sort of assistance to
aged people is commonly re-
te as State Old Age pensions.
is way, men and %SefffaneehR VINO
now old and are without means
of their own are helped in humane
and orderly manner. But the Federal
Old Age benefits plan looks to the
future.
These Federal Old Aage benefits
can best be understood if we COM
pare them to insurance. They apply
to wage and salary earnerS who are
now young or middle-aged, to men
and women who work in industry,
in business offices, in commercial
enterprises of all kinds. In these ac-
counts, all of the approximately 26
million persons estimated to be eli
gible will, starting January l, 1887,
begin storing up cash values pay
able the worker at age IS or to his
family if he dies before reaching the
age of IS. In every case, without ex-
ception, the cash value of the &C
count will at all lines be subStanti-
ally larger than the workers own
contribution under the Social Secur-
ity act. All persons working for sal
ary or wages, excepting those en-
gagged in agricultural, domestic SER
vice in private homes, government
Of 0S/NI11H0H
occupations, are eligible. 1t is also
expected that many of those in occu-
pations not now covered by the act
will eventually become eligible
through occasional or part-time
work in those occupations which are
covered. Under the Federal Old Age
benefit provisions of the act, these
men and women will be assured an
income for life, after age IS, when
they are no longer at work. This
income will be paid to them by the
United States government in month
ly checks, just like the inStallments
on annuities from an insurance COM
pany. In case of death, the cash val
ue will be paid to the workers fam
lily. Like an insurance policy, the
workers Old Age benefit from the
government must be paid in ad-
vance. However, instead of weekly,
monthly, quarterly or yearly prem
ium, the government will collect
through the employer weekly or
monthly payments, which may be
called taxes. But these payments will
be used only to pay cash benefits to
the worker. In other words, for eve
ry dollar the worker pays into the
fund for his own benefit, another
dollar is added by the employer for
the workers benefit.
Size of Benefit
The size of the benefit which the
work will receive at the age of IS
will depend entirely upon how much
he or she earns between January l,
1887 and their 65th birthday. A man
or woman who gets good pay and
has a steady i0h most 0f his 0r her