Introduction
Constant human demands from the citizens and their inability to provide for the essential needs have challenges that any governments undergo as a country. Any government would use all the powers to develop ways and legislation that champions better living for all its citizens. Due to this regard, the United States Government passed landmark legislation in 1995 in Bill 1863 that gave rise to the Texas Workforce Commission. As an agency, the Texas Workforce Commission focuses on developing workforce solutions that help Texas achieve and further sustain economic success (GARRETSON, 2019). The commission achieves the set goals by providing advanced data analysis, policy research, development, and technical assistance. Being a state agency, it is charged with ensuring that they oversee and provide the necessary development services to employers and the job seekers of Texas.
Further, the agency is an asset to the state. Its activities and events facilitate the Texas economy's strengthening by providing workforce development component of the Governor's economic development strategy. The mission is to promote and support the workforce system that shall create a value that can offer employers, individuals, and communities an opportunity to achieve and systems their economic prosperity ("Laws & rules," n.d.). Therefore, this final paper discusses social security as a policy and legislation that the Texas Workforce Commission uses to achieve its objective and mission.
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Background
Since its creation, the Social Security Act of 1935 has been continuously growing from its initial status to the current one, where it is now covering nearly all workers. However, the Act has specifically exempted the state and local government workers. Even though the enactment of the social security act in 1935 formed its initial step, the legislation has since undergone a continuous process. The commission considers social insurance a primary sector whose impacts may spread up hence calling for further adjustments to facilitate its effect on the administration, social, economic, and financial, which the Act is championing to bring up.
The Act brings the state and local government workers and allows the commission to reach their goal to ensure that all retired workers earn their entitlement security. Further, the fact that it is mandatory coverage makes it fairer—the other workers pay for the cots through their payroll taxes, also known as legacy costs ("Laws & rules," n.d.). However, despite the plan achieving its set objective, some issues concerning the state and local pensions concerning mandatory coverage have gone up. For instance, the program is undergoing a significant underfunding problem to facilitate the promised pension benefits (Gale et al., 2015). The fact that there are ever new employees being registered with the pension plan calls for the government to pay their shares the policy demands, creating additional overall costs for them to meet. However, new entrants in the plan also increase the funding as their claims are also submitted. Through the government, the commission should there venture in other ways to help them raise funds that can help the workforce idea be successful.
Effectiveness, Diverse Clientele, and Urgency
Even before the original Act came to full use, the program was already in full action though there are still underlying principles to the Act. For instance, there was a provision in the Act that provided retirement benefits to the people who reached 65 years old and above and were going for their retirement. There was also the provision of old-age assistance that catered for the disabled, elderly, and survivors who were of generous support to those workers who insured themselves and came to a time where they could not support themselves due to either accidents or mental illness.
According to the Texas Workforce Commission, which entirely depended on the Social Security Act 1935, they based the formula for issuing the benefits on a cumulative wage on those earned since 1937. Benefits were calculated on monthly benefits where beneficiaries were entitled to a half of 1 percent for the first $3,000 income, followed by half of the subsequent $42,000. Therefore, it shows that the whole country and world were struggling with the effects of depression due to the small benefits that were initially envisioned by the Act and were not payable for many years. Following the amendments of 1939, the formula got implemented even though its purpose was to show and offer guidance of a critical principle acting as a guide for payments currently in use today. It is beneficial since it has led to high earnings for those who used to earn low and such benefits are strictly dependent on the work as it is covered in their employment.
Finally, on the urgency of the legislative Act, a rapid increase in population has made the funds available for the action limited. With the increased number of program dependents, the federal government's money to benefit the beneficiaries also decreases since they strictly rely on beneficiaries and general funds.
References
Gale, W. G., Holmes, S. E., & John, D. C. (2015). Social Security coverage for state and local government workers: a reconsideration. The Journal of Retirement , 3 (2), 123-135. https://doi.org/10.3905/jor.2015.3.2.123
GARRETSON, S. (2019). Workforce housing in Texas, USA. The Sustainable City XIII . https://doi.org/10.2495/sc190141
Laws & rules . (n.d.). Texas Workforce Commission | Welcome, we're here to help. Resources, tips and tools to build a stronger Texas workforce. https://www.twc.texas.gov/agency/laws-rules-policy
