ABSTRACT
In 1940 Ida Fuller of Brattleboro, Vermont, received her first Social Security check of $22.54. For the next thirty four years of her life, she continued to receive a monthly check for that amount, totaling nearly $21,000 in Social Security benefits. Although she had contributed only about $22 in payroll taxes and because the new program had started only four years before she retired, Ida Fuller became the first American to be able to count on the help of the government in her retirement. Social Security was one of the landmark New Deal programs developed during the administration of Franklin Delano Roosevelt and was designed to provide Americans with a safety net of benefits to make their lives more secure. For much of its history, Social Security was a fiscally sound program that had enormous support among the American people and is still considered the most successful social program initiated by the U.S. government.
