Age Assistance Program Research Articles

Resisting a Right to Relief: States, Responsible Relative Laws, and Old Age Assistance

Abstract:Efforts to modernize public assistance via the Social Security Act of 1935 met significant opposition from states. One manifestation of that resistance was state responsible relative laws in the Old Age Assistance program. Responsible relative laws enforced support by adult children as an eligibility requirement; applicants with children deemed able to provide support were either denied aid, or the grant awarded was reduced. These laws are an example of parent dependency policies that sought to enforce or encourage family members, particularly adult children, to support parents in need. States sought to ensure that all financial resources were exhausted before public funds were spent on OAA. Responsible relative laws were an arena of public assistance that remained under state discretion, and many states used them to control costs and contest federal efforts to modernize relief programs and limit state and local authority.

Government Old-Age Support and Labor Supply: Evidence from the Old Age Assistance Program

Many government programs transfer resources to older people and implicitly or explicitly tax their labor. We shed new light on the labor supply and welfare effects of such programs by investigating the Old Age Assistance Program (OAA). Exploiting the large differences in OAA programs across states and Census data on the entire US population in 1940, we find that OAA reduced the labor force participation rate among men aged 65–74 by 8.5 percentage points, more than one-half of its 1930–1940 decline, but that OAA’s implicit taxation of earnings imposed only small welfare costs on recipients. (JEL H24, H55, H75, J14, J22)

Taking Care of the Elderly: Political Economy of the Old Age Assistance Program, 1931-1955

We use the variation in political incentives of state governors provided by term limits to show that the variation in the level of Old Age Assistance (OAA) benefits per recipient between 1931 and 1955 was due to governors' vote seeking behavior. Governors who faced reelection were more likely to increase benefits than "lame duck" office holders. The manipulation of OAA only occurred in states with intermediate sizes of the elderly population. In addition, this manipulation increased with the degree of political competition. This paper provides evidence that the elderly and not other vulnerable groups, were the target of politically motivated transfers in accordance with the electoral incentives of state governors.

Edward D. Berkowitz and Larry DeWitt. The Other Welfare: Supplemental Security Income and U.S. Social Policy.

Edward D. Berkowitz and Larry DeWitt have spent their careers honing a portrait of the centerpiece of the New Deal welfare state—the Social Security Act. Together, they have pulled its previously unknown architects into the limelight, illuminated lesser-known elements of the system, drawn connections to insurance expansions like disability and Medicare, and provided scholars and students with access to primary sources crucial to its historical development. From DeWitt's position as chief historian of the Social Security Administration and Berkowitz's perch as professor of history and public policy and public administration at George Washington University in Washington, D.C., they have modeled generous, cooperative scholarship. In their second collaboration, they bring their knowledge and experience to bear on a distant relation of Social Security in a much later period—the Supplemental Security Income Program (SSI). In the last quarter of the twentieth century, SSI emerged as a large, vital component of the welfare state, but its history, nevertheless, has been little-understood. SSI is a means-tested income-support program for the elderly and disabled who are not otherwise eligible for the larger federal disability insurance program, Social Security Disability Insurance. Created in 1972, SSI has come to serve over nine million Americans and continues to grow annually. Its architects in the Social Security Administration and Congress intended to include elderly and disabled adults as part of a more respectable, federally controlled welfare program—one more generous and more uniform than the previous Old Age Assistance program or the despised Aid to Families with Dependent Children, serving single mothers. In practice, however, the program fell short of those goals. Berkowitz and DeWitt demonstrate how SSI quickly evolved into a system as variable, vulnerable, and unpopular as many of the other means-tested “welfare” programs. Though policymakers desired a truly national program, compromises in the legislative and administrative processes left SSI at the mercy of state and congressional meddling. SSI paid radically different benefits from state to state as a result. The authors also track how shifting target populations generated hostility from lawmakers and the media. Though SSI initially aimed to provide support to the “respectable” elderly and disabled, increasing numbers of mentally disabled, mentally ill, and addicted adults and children soon populated the program. None of them proved to be popular or politically influential clientele. From the moment of the program's birth through the 1990s, journalists and disgruntled members of Congress attacked SSI's recipients. Today, despite the aims of its architects, SSI hovers just above Temporary Assistance for Needy Families and the food stamp program in the eyes of its critics.

Healthy, Wealthy, and Wise? The Impact of the Old Age Assistance Program on Elderly Mortality in the United States

How much have government programs improved elderly well-being? I examine the impact of OAA on mortality between 1930-1955. I construct two new data sets: a database on OAA, and a database on elderly mortality. To control for the joint determination of income and mortality, I use a simulated IV approach that relies on exogenous changes in OAA legislation. I find substantial reductions in mortality for vulnerable elderly groups, especially poor males. Mortality decreased mainly because of declines in risky behavior, infectious diseases (after the introduction of antibiotics), and suicides. Household survey analyses reveal changes in consumption consistent with these patterns.

Male Retirement Behavior in the United States, 1930–1950

Explanations for the recent decline in the labor force attachment of males 65 years of age and older include the introduction of Old Age and Survivors Insurance and the growth in private pension programs. Neither hypothesis can explain the sizable decline that occurred between 1930 and 1950, when aggregate social security and private pension payments were small. Estimates from pooled state aggregate data indicate that the means-tested Old Age Assistance program established by the Social Security Act of 1935 significantly increased retirement activity in this period, particularly among low-income individuals.

The impact of administrative stringency on applications for the old age assistance program in new jersey

The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of stricter eligibility enforcement on the flow of applications of the Old Age Assistance (OAA) Program in New Jersey. Most of the previous research in the welfare area has focused entirely on explaining measures of the stock demand for public assistance. Higher claim denial rates may affect the stock demand by deterring those potential recipients with less legitimate claims. However, there is also a strictly mechanical relationship such that a claim period t or in state i reduces, pari passu, the stock demand in period t or in state i below the level that would have prevailed in the absence of the denial. Thus, if the objective is to isolate a deterence effect, it seems more appropriate to examine the impact of previous recent denial rates on the flow of new applications for public assistance. A time series of monthly applications for OAA in New Jersey are related to lagged values of the denial rate of such applications, cyclical activity, seasonal factors and trend. The results suggest that stricter enforcement of eligibility rules does deter future claims.

Characteristics of State Plans for Old-Age Assistance, Aid to the Blind, and Aid to Dependent Children, April I , 1946.

Previous articleNext article No AccessReviews of Government Reports and Public DocumentsCharacteristics of State Plans for Old-Age Assistance, Aid to the Blind, and Aid to Dependent Children, April I , 1946.PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Social Service Review Volume 21, Number 2Jun., 1947 Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/636385 Views: 1Total views on this site Citations: 1Citations are reported from Crossref PDF download Crossref reports the following articles citing this article:Andreea Balan-Cohen Healthy, Wealthy, and Wise? The Impact of the Old Age Assistance Program on Elderly Mortality in the United States, SSRN Electronic Journal (Jan 2007).https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1115333

Responsibility of Children in the Massachusetts Old Age Assistance Program. III: Recent Developments, 1943-45

Previous articleNext article No AccessResponsibility of Children in the Massachusetts Old Age Assistance Program. III: Recent Developments, 1943-45Alton A. LinfordAlton A. Linford Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Social Service Review Volume 19, Number 3Sep., 1945 Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/635402 Views: 1Total views on this site Copyright 1945 The University of ChicagoPDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.

Responsibility of Children in the Massachusetts Old Age Assistance Program. II Legislation and Administration, 1936-43

The Massachusetts old age assistance law of 1930 received its first general revision in 1936, when the measure was almost completely redrafted. Responsibility of children was completely eliminated from this revised law. The Special Commission Established To Study and Revise the Laws Relating to Public Welfare — made up of one senator, three representatives, and three persons designated by the governor — reported2 in 1936 and submitted a re-written O.A.A. measure as a substi-

Responsibility of Children in the Massachuetts Old Age Assistance Program Legislation before 1936

Responsibility of Children in the Massachuetts Old Age Assistance Program Legislation before 1936

The Standard Budget and Children's Responsibility in the Massachusetts Old Age Assistance Program

Previous articleNext article No AccessThe Standard Budget and Children's Responsibility in the Massachusetts Old Age Assistance ProgramJohn J. GriffinJohn J. Griffin Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Social Service Review Volume 18, Number 3Sep., 1944 Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/634955 Views: 2Total views on this site PDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.

Responsibility of Relatives in the Old Age Assistance Program in Pennsylvania

The policy of making relatives responsible for the care of indigent members of their families dates back to Colonial days and can be traced to the law and usages brought to America by the early settlers. In Pennsylvania, as in 'most of the states, this policy was adopted in the legislation of the eighteenth century, and the present support law is based on early statutes with some modifications designed to fit it to present conditions. How far this aim has been achieved will be seen in the course of this discussion.