Q 01/05

In what year did President Franklin D. Roosevelt sign the Social Security Act?

A) 1935

B) 1937

C) 1939

D) 1941

Answer · why

A) 1935

The 37-page act, signed on August 14, bundled old-age insurance with unemployment insurance and aid to dependent children.

Q 02/05

What does the acronym OASDI, the formal name of Social Security, stand for?

A) Old-Age Savings and Deposit Income

B) Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance

C) Official American Social Dividend Initiative

D) Old-Age Security and Dependents Income

Answer · why

B) Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance

The original 1935 program was just Old Age Insurance; survivors were added in 1939 and disability in the 1950s.

Q 03/05

Who received the very first Social Security payout, a lump sum of 17 cents, in January 1937?

A) John Sweeney

B) Ida May Fuller

C) Ernest Ackerman

D) Hilda Whitcher

Answer · why

C) Ernest Ackerman

Early one-time payouts went to workers who retired before monthly benefits began in 1940.

Q 04/05

How much was the first monthly Social Security check, issued to Ida May Fuller in 1940?

A) $31.25

B) $41.30

C) $55.10

D) $22.54

Answer · why

D) $22.54

Check number 00-000-001 was dated January 31, 1940; she went on to collect more than $22,000 over 35 years.

Q 05/05

Ida May Fuller, the first recurring beneficiary, came from which state?

A) Maine

B) Vermont

C) Ohio

D) Kansas

Answer · why

B) Vermont

A Ludlow schoolteacher turned legal secretary, she went to school with Calvin Coolidge at Black River Academy.