The Social Security Act was the best of reform legislations, and is still intact today. It provided assistance for the elderly, unemployed, disabled, and families with children. The reform that, for generations afterward, would affect the lives of nearly all American was the passage in 1935 of the Social Security Act. It created a federal insurance program based upon the automatic collection of payments from employees and employers throughout people’s working careers. The Social Security trust fund would then be used to make monthly payments to retired persons over the age of 65. Also receiving benefits under this new law were workers who lost their jobs (unemployment compensation), persons who were blind or otherwise disabled, and dependent children and their mothers.
Works Progress Administration:
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After its first year of operation under Hopkins, it employed 3.4 million men and women who had formerly been on the relief rolls of the state and local governments. It paid them double the relied rate but less than the going wage for regular workers. Most WPA workers were put to work constructing new bridges, roads, airports, and public buildings. Unemployed artists, writers, actors, and photographers were paid by the WPA to paint murals, write histories, and perform in plays. One part of the WPA, the National Youth Administration (NYA), provided part-time jobs to help young people stay in high school and college or until they could get a job with a private employer. The WPA was closed down by Congress and the war boom in 1943, and thus, does not still exist