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State institutions to aid the elderly have existed in varying degrees since the time of the ancient Roman Empire. England in 1601 the Poor Law, which recognized the state’s responsibility to the aged, although programs were carried out by local church parishes. An amendment to this law in 1834 instituted workhouses for the poor and aged, and in 1925 England introduced social insurance for the aged by statistical evaluations. In 1940 programs for the aged came under England’s welfare state system. In the 1880s Otto von Bismarck in Germany introduced old-age pensions whose model was followed by most other western European countries. The United States was one of the last countries to such programs. Not until the Social Security Act of 1935 was formulated to relieve hardships caused by the Great Depression were the elderly granted old-age pensions. For the most part, these state programs, while some burdens of aging, still do not bring older people to a level of income comparable to that of younger people.