Ida May Fuller

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Ida May Fuller (born September 6, 1874 in Ludlow , Vermont ; † January 27, 1975 in Brattleboro , Vermont) was the first person in the United States to receive benefits from the pension insurance scheme established in 1935 ( Social Security ).

Ida May Fuller was born on a farm and grew up in a simple family. She initially worked as a teacher until she accepted a position as a legal assistant in 1905 . In this profession she worked for the rest of her life. She was unmarried, had no children and lived alone most of the time. Only in the last eight years of her life did she live with her niece.

In 1935, President Roosevelt established the pension scheme under the New Deal . Up until that point in time, there had been no state pension insurance in the USA. Ms. Fuller paid 1% of her income in taxes and social security contributions ( payroll tax ) beginning in the second quarter of 1937, making a total of $ 24.75 in pension contributions through her retirement on November 4, 1939.

After retiring, she checked with the Rutland County Pension Office to see if she was entitled to any payments, and on January 31, 1940, she was the first person in the United States to receive a pension check for $ 22.54.

By her death at the age of 100, she received a total of $ 22,888.92, including subsequent pension increases, which was nearly a thousand times the amount paid.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Martin Sullivan: Understanding Pensions (= Routledge international studies in money and banking. Volume 29). Routledge, London and New York 2004, ISBN 0-415-27389-7 , p. 65 ( limited preview in Google book search).
  2. ^ Extract from Ida May Fuller's insurance history at Social Security Online (accessed June 30, 2009)
personal data
SURNAME Fuller, Ida May
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American first female pensioner
DATE OF BIRTH September 6, 1874
PLACE OF BIRTH Ludlow , Vermont
DATE OF DEATH January 27, 1975
Place of death Brattleboro , Vermont