On January 31, 1940 (Seventy-five years ago) the U.S. government cut a check for then 65-year-old Ida May Fuller. That check was number was 00-000-001 — the first Social Security check to be sent out.
Ida Mae lived in Ludlow, Vermont, and in early November of 1939, she happened to go by a government office in nearby Rutland. On a whim, she stopped in and asked about Social Security. She applied for benefits, and then got the first check. Now that was unexpected! That check was for $22.54. This monthly check was just a tiny bit less than the $25.75 that was being deducted from her paycheck for the last three years.
When she died in 1975 at age 100, Ida Mae Fuller had received a total of $22,888.92 in social security benefits.
