Coverage of Ministers Under Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance

THE 1954 amendments to the Social Security Act, which first extended the coverage of the oldage, survivors, and disability insurance program to ministers, made coverage available to them on an individual voluntary basis. Since clergymen are the only group whose coverage is on this basis, information about their participa,tion in the program is of special interest. The experience provides a unique “case history,” useful in studying the more general implications involved in individual voluntary coverage under old-age, survivors, and disability insurance. From the records of the Bureau of Old-Age and Survivors Insurance, information has been collected on the number and characteristics-age, race, location, and denomination-of the ministers electing coverage under the program. These data were then compared with available information on all full-time ministers who are eligible for coverage. The data show that, of the 200,000 full-time ministers who are eligible for coverage, about 140,000 or ‘70 percent have elected to participate in the program. About 80 percent of the Protestant clergymen and 20 percent of the Catholic clergymen are participating. There is great variation in coverage, however, among the Protestant denominations. A high proportion of the older ministers have elected coverage, but only about half the youngest ministers have done so. Relatively many more of the white ministers than of the nonwhite ministers have elected to come under the program. posals for coverage on such a% basis were made in connection with several other groups. The Senate Committee on Finance in its report on the 1954 amendments l said, with reference to the provisions applying to ministers, that individual voluntary coverage, although not generally desirable, was justified for ministers because of special circumstances. The Committee said :