Administering social security: challenges yesterday and today.

In 2010, the Social Security Administration (SSA) celebrates the 75th anniversary of the passage of the Social Security Act. In those 75 years, SSA has been responsible for programs providing unemployment insurance, child welfare, and supervision of credit unions, among other duties. This article focuses on the administration of the Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance program, although it also covers some of the other major programs SSA has been tasked with administering over the years-in particular, Medicare, Black Lung benefits, and Supplemental Security Income. The article depicts some of the challenges that have accompanied administering these programs and the steps that SSA has taken to meet those challenges. Whether implementing complex legislation in short timeframes or coping with natural disasters, SSA has found innovative ways to overcome problems and has evolved to meet society's changing needs.

The story of the social security number.

The use of the Social Security number (SSN) has expanded significantly since its inception in 1936. Created merely to keep track of the earnings history of U.S. workers for Social Security entitlement and benefit computation purposes, it has come to be used as a nearly universal identifier. Assigned at birth, the SSN enables government agencies to identify individuals in their records and businesses to track an individual's financial information. This article explores the history and meaning of the SSN and the Social Security card, as well as the Social Security Administration's (SSA's) SSN master file, generally known as the Numident. The article also traces the historical expansion of SSN use and the steps SSA has taken to enhance SSN integrity.

Uses of administrative data at the Social Security Administration.

The Social Security Administration (SSA) collects a wealth of data in its role as administrator of two large national entitlement programs. Linking SSA's administrative data with survey data yields a broader set of demographic and socioeconomic information and also improves the quality of the survey data. The agency uses these data to produce analyses and research on policy initiatives for its programs and on the earnings of the working and beneficiary populations. SSA studies how these programs and potential changes to them affect individuals, the economy, and program solvency, and develops models to project demographic and economic characteristics of the current working population into the future. The agency also produces public-use microdata files that are available to outside researchers, as well as a variety of research and statistical publications to inform policymakers and the public.