The United States Social Security Administration (SSA) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that administers Social Security, a social insurance program consisting of retirement, disability, and survivors' benefits. To qualify for these benefits, most American workers pay Social Security taxes on their earnings; future benefits are based on the employees' contributions.
The Social Security Administration was established by a law currently codified at 42 U.S.C. ยง 901. Its commissioner, Michael J. Astrue, was sworn in on February 12, 2007, for a six-year term.
SSA is headquartered in Woodlawn, Maryland, just to the west of Baltimore, at what is known as Central Office. The agency includes 10 regional offices, 8 processing centers, approximately 1300 field offices, and 37 Teleservice Centers. As of 2007, about 62,000 people were employed by the SSA. Headquarters non-supervisory employees of the SSA are represented by AFGE Local 1923. Social Security is currently the largest social welfare program in the United States, constituting 37% of government expenditure and 7% of GDP.
Read more about Social Security Administration: History, Headquarters, Coverage, Operations, Criticism and Controversy, Baby Name Popularity Report, Records
Famous quotes containing the words social and/or security:
“If you complain of people being shot down in the streets, of the absence of communication or social responsibility, of the rise of everyday violence which people have become accustomed to, and the dehumanization of feelings, then the ultimate development on an organized social level is the concentration camp.... The concentration camp is the final expression of human separateness and its ultimate consequence. It is organized abandonment.”
—Arthur Miller (b. 1915)
“The reins of government have been so long slackened, that I fear the people will not quietly submit to those restraints which are necessary for the peace and security of the community.”
—Abigail Adams (1744–1818)