Human Services Societies conventionally have chalked out the programs to sustain people who are not able to support for themselves especially old people, people having disabilities, people who do not have family etc. The Code of Hamurabi, devised by King Hammurabi of Babylonia in the 18th century BC is regarded as one of the oldest documents to mention about the social support. The religious and morality involved teachings in several societies have also been an incentive to assist one another via the acts of individual well-being. It is till the last few centuries that no society could have a universal social support system which is being publicly funded. The publicly financed system in form of a series of legislative acts known as poor laws which was developed in England during the 16th century is considered the oldest one. Such laws proved the local governments to construct almshouses and huge facilities for the unemployed. (Social Security)

Additionally, poor laws entailed for certain activities known as outdoor relief that offered help to the poor and the unemployed outside the realm of alms houses or that of the workhouses. The financing of the poor law programs is made through general taxes instead of from those of the people being supported. Presently the measures and kind of support extended through the poor laws have been grouped under welfare programs. The necessity for more extensive social support system felt in the United States during the mid-to late 1800s as a result of substantial variations in labor pattern brought by the Industrial Revolution. Prior to industrialization, people mostly were engaged in agricultural activities and lived in extended joint families.

The healthy working age members could support their young, older people and infirm relatives in the extended families. The growth of factory system, office and blue-collar jobs compelled the people to leave home and move far away from their extended...

The shift from extended family to nuclear family made them loose their most reliable source of support. This made a number of people to end up in poverty in absence of their capability to work and without the family members to support them at their old age. The most extensive social support system in the United States was seen to be developed during the American Civil War when in 1862 the federal government created a generous pension program supporting the Union war veterans disabled in battle and for their families. (Social Security)
This was amended subsequently to incorporate the Union veterans in their old age and to those disabled out of the battle. During the early parts of the 1900s many states in U.S. enacted the worker's compensation laws that entailed the commercial houses to extend benefits to the employees injured on the job or to the families of workers those died as a result of work related accidents or illness. The economic security for all citizens has reduced considerably in the year 1929 with the crash of the stock markets, and the Great Depression which was marked by severe unemployment through out the country. The people were thrown into poverty. It has been severe especially among the oldest members of the population. This gave rise to enactment of social security legislations during the period by many states.

During 1934 President Roosevelt formed a Committee on Economic Security to form a program of social support system for all U.S. citizens who were economically affected at the time of Great Depression of the 1930s. This was part of the many radical programs which were created to stimulate the economy. In the initial part of 1935 the Committee on Economic Security forwarded its Economic Security Bill to the Congress of the U.S. Congress later on altered the name of the bill to that of Social Security and had approved it by the mid of the year 1935 and was signed into law in the August of…