Social Security was enacted during the great depression. Franklin Delano Roosevelt enacted the program as part of The New Deal. Programs created during the Great Depression were designed to ease the poverty prevalent at the time. Whether or not the New Deal programs actually worked to get the country out of the great depression is another matter entirely. Many modern economist feel that they prolonged the great depression. Today, social security serves many people with disabilities and elderly Americans. It does not offer much financial planing help
Social security administration office workers are not trained in financial matters. Their primary concern is processing the paperwork, dealing with applicants, and updating the cases of people who need to have their cases updated. Although the workers do not deal with financial resources, the office itself may help a recipient find financial resources. If the social security offices do not have this information, a person can find other places where he can get financial help. A senior citizen can turn to his local Area on Agency to find this information. A person who gets disability benefits may be able to get help through other social service agencies.
What Social security is designed to do is give a person a retirement income, even if their employer does not provide one. A person who has a job pays into the fund, whether or not he wants to do so. When he reaches the retirement age, he will receive payments based on the amount he paid in. A person who receives retirement benefits gets them for the rest of his life. Disability benefits work differently. A person can decide to save his benefits if he sho chooses.