Social Security benefits are there for all Americans to use when they need them. Most people only think of Social Security benefits in terms of retirement, disabilities or death.

They know that when people reach a certain age, currently 67, and are ready for retirement that they are able to draw a monthly check of Social Security benefits.

They may also have heard that Social Security benefits are there for people who have some sort of medical disability or the death of a loved one, but may not know much about it. Others are only familiar with Social Security because they had to get a Social Security card when they started to work, and on each paycheck they see a deduction made for FICA. But, Social Security, and Social Security benefits encompass much more than that.

Founded in the 1930's as part of the New Deal of President Franklin Roosevelt, Social Security and the benefits it provides were designed to be a social safety net during and after the Great Depression. It was a way of the government taxing people to create what was, in essence, a government insurance program.

Social Security benefits were designed to be there just in case something happened, with the retirement benefit put in initially as a way of sweetening the pot a little bit for political reasons to make sure that the bill creating Social Security would pass the Congress. At that time, the life expectancy was much lower than it is today, so very few people actually lived to collect Social Security benefits.

In our modern age, with improved health and medicines, people live much longer, and therein lies the problem. Too many people are now collecting Social Security benefits in relation to the number of people paying into the Social Security Trust Fund, which has been borrowed from by the Congress, by both political parties, for many years. While the Social Security Trust Fund on paper appears to be solvent, in actual fact, there isn't that much left in it, so something needs to be done to increase the amount of money available.

The debate between the Republicans and the Democrats is over how to fix the system that some people see as broken. Even those who want to drastically change the system however, emphasize that Social Security benefits are safe for those millions of Americans who have paid into the system. They say that these benefits will be there one day when people need this safety net but because of the Baby Boomer generation, the generations to follow just won't have any money left for them. This argument is still being debated, however.