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Answer: Franklin Delano Roosevelt

Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed the Social Security Act into law on August 14, 1935, during the Great Depression. Those hard time featuring destitution, and family support structures faltering, President Roosevelt decided that he must direct all his efforts into programs that would find employment for jobless Americans. Most other industrialized nations were already hip to offering financial support to citizens in need, but the concept was new to the United States, so Roosevelt and his team of advisers came up with a kind of insurance plan, in which instead of handouts, workers contributed from their weekly pay checks in exchange for the knowledge that they would receive monthly stipends upon retiring.

Answer: First person to receive a Social Security number in the United States

The first Social Security Number was issued in 1936 to John David Sweeney, Jr. (1913-1974), born in Brooklyn, the son of a wealthy factory owner. On December 1, 1936, Mr. Sweeney was assigned the first Social Security number (SSN 055-09-0001), but he would never come to actually receive benefits from the program during his lifetime, as he died of a heart attack at the age of 61. Why did he receive that Social Security number instead of 001-01-0001? Grace Owen of Concord, New Hampshire, was assigned number 001-01-0001, the lowest number possible due to the area number scheme used at the time.

Answer: First person to receive a Social Security check

Ida May Fuller (September 6, 1874 - January 27, 1975) was the first beneficiary of monthly Social Security payments. She began working as a stenographer and legal secretary at a law firm in 1905. She retired in November 1939 after contributing to Social Security for about three years. On January 31, 1940, she received the first Social Security check, numbered 00-000-001, for $22.54. Over her lifetime, she collected a total of $22,888.92 in benefits (about $497,793 in 2025 bucks) until her death at age 100.

Answer: Textile workers

Also, politicians, soldiers and college students were not initially considered as participants.

The Act primarily targeted wage and salary workers in commerce and industry, which included those in the textile industry. The Social Security Act of 1935 defined "workers" primarily as those engaged in wage-earning employment in commerce and industry, who paid into the system through payroll taxes. It excluded several categories of workers from coverage, including agricultural workers, domestic workers, government employees, and certain professions, including many teachers, nurses, hospital employees, librarians, and social workers. Self-employed professionals, doctors, and lawyers were assumed to be able to provide adequately for their own retirement. Over the years, amendments to the Social Security Act, mostly in 1950 and 1954, expanded coverage to many previously excluded groups.

Answer: Birth number

The first three digits are known as the area number originally indicating the geographic region where the individual applied for their Social Security card. Before 1973, it was assigned based on the location of the Social Security office that issued the card, and after that it was based on the ZIP code of the applicant's mailing address.

The middle two digits are the group number, used for administrative purposes to break down the area numbers into smaller blocks ranging from 01 to 99.
The last four digits are called the serial number, assigned consecutively from 0001 to 9999 within each group, uniquely identifying individuals within their respective group.

The randomization process was created to extend the longevity of the nine-digit SSN format by using a broader range of numbers not limited to geographic constraints, since some states were actually running out of available numbers due to population growth.

Answer: First cost-of-living adjustment

In 1950, Social Security beneficiaries received a "cost-of-living" increase for the first time since benefits began in 1940. Congress passed legislation to the benefits to account for inflation, basing it on Consumer Price Index (CPI). The cost-of-living went by the name COLA, and that first one in 1950 was 77%.

Answer: The wrong person was identified as number 1,000,001

On December 9, 1936, Social Security was ready to welcome to the beginning of their second million members, and so they contacted Sobol Brothers Service Stations, Inc. in New York where the recipient James Murray worked. The main office of Sobol Brothers found Mr. Murray and directed him to the Manhattan post office where the press conference would be held, populated by Social Security officials, reporters and photographers.

The event began with some normal straightforward questions but James Murray gave nothing but "incorrect" answers to all of them.

The occasion was held up while the Sobol Brothers main office was contacted again to try and figure out what was going on. Someone at the main office suddenly remembered that there was indeed another James Murray who worked there, a painter on the staff.

He, it turned out was the James Murray that was the 1,000,001st Social Security recipient. He was rushed to the post office and the questions from the press resumed.

Answer: 62

When the Social Security Act was enacted in 1935, the first retirement age for benefits was set at 65 years. That meant that at the beginning of the program, individuals could receive full retirement benefits starting at age 65. The early retirement option to take early retirement benefits was introduced in 1961, allowing individuals to begin receiving reduced benefits as early as age 62, but with a permanent reduction to 80 percent of the full benefit amount.

Answer: Department of Health and Human Services

Signed into law on August 15, 1994, The Social Security Independence and Program Improvements Act of 1994, formalized the change that Social Security become a separate federal agency in 1995. This law restored the Social Security Administration (SSA) to its 1935 original status as an independent federal agency.

But in 1939 the Social Security Administration had operated under the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). It returned to its original status effective March 31, 1995. The purpose was to boost public confidence with a bipartisan advisory board, with separate policymaking from the federal government's broader budget decisions.

Answer: 65 to 67

As part of the Social Security Amendments of 1983, which addressed financial challenges in the Social Security system, Congress voted to incrementally raise the full retirement age for Social Security benefits from 65 to 67. The full retirement age increases were instituted on a sliding scale, beginning with those born in 1938 and continuing until it reached 67 for people born in 1960 or later.

By the year 2000, Americans at retirement age became able to collect full Social Security benefits while still working; they could receive their full monthly Social Security benefit amount without any reduction. No matter how much they earned from their job.