<P> A limited form of the Social Security program began as a measure to implement "social insurance" during the Great Depression of the 1930s, when poverty rates among senior citizens exceeded 50 percent . </P> <P> The Social Security Act was enacted August 14, 1935 . The Act was drafted during President Franklin D. Roosevelt's first term by the President's Committee on Economic Security, under Frances Perkins, and passed by Congress as part of the New Deal . The Act was an attempt to limit what were seen as dangers in the modern American life, including old age, poverty, unemployment, and the burdens of widows and fatherless children . By signing this Act on August 14, 1935, President Roosevelt became the first president to advocate federal assistance for the elderly . </P> <P> The Act provided benefits to retirees and the unemployed, and a lump - sum benefit at death . Payments to current retirees are financed by a payroll tax on current workers' wages, half directly as a payroll tax and half paid by the employer . The act also gave money to states to provide assistance to aged individuals (Title I), for unemployment insurance (Title III), Aid to Families with Dependent Children (Title IV), Maternal and Child Welfare (Title V), public health services (Title VI), and the blind (Title X). </P> <P> The idea of a federally funded pension plan was popularized by Francis Townsend in 1933, and the influence of the "Townsend Plan" movement on debate over social security persisted into the 1950s . Early debates on Social Security's design centered on how the program's benefits should be funded . Some believed that benefits to individuals should be funded by contributions that they themselves had made over the course of their careers . Others argued that this design would disadvantage those who had already begun their careers at the time of the program's implementation because they would not have enough time to accumulate adequate benefits . </P>

Who was eligible to receive social security when it was created in 1935