Reports of the 1979 Advisory Council on Social Security.

The 1979 Advisory Council on Social Security, appointed in February 1978, was charged with reviewing all aspects of the social security program, particularly financing, the general benefit structure, universal coverage, disability insurance, and the treatment of women and families. After 17 meetings and six days of public hearings in Detroit, Los Angeles, Miami, New Orleans, and Washington, D.C., the Council released its findings early in December 1979. Major recommendations include a change in Medicare financing from payroll to income taxes, modification of the benefit formula to ensure that workers with a long history of low wages receive retirement incomes high enough to keep them out of poverty and that high-wage workers be assured a more generous return on their contributions, and a change in the treatment of women to account for their increasing labor-force participation and a rise in the divorce rate. Though the Council is an independent group whose recommendations are not binding upon any official body, many positions taken by previous Councils have led to changes in the law. The executive summary of the report is carried in full below, together with the major recommendations of the Council.