What is the ABLE Act?

Category: Disability Law
- 22 Jan 2025
- Posted By WebSiteAdmin
Ten years ago, the ABLE act was signed into law. As you may have guessed, ABLE is an acronym which stands for Achieving a Better Life Experience. The actual full and legal name of the Act is the Stephen Beck, Jr. Achieving a Better Life Experience (ABLE) Act.
“The law aims to ease financial strains faced by individuals with disabilities by making tax-free saving accounts available to cover qualified disability expenses.” reads the description page at SSA.gov. Basically it boils down to people with disabilities are legally entitled to a tax-free savings account which will not affect the amount they receive from the SSA.
Even with these savings, these folks are still entitled to Supplemental Security Income (SSI) and Medicaid. Since the ABLE program launched there have been over $2B put into these accounts. ABLE accounts allow SSI recipients to hold significantly more resources (up to $100,000), which are not subject to the SSI asset limit.
A disappointing fact is that many people with disabilities don’t even know this program exists. One of the primary reasons for SSI overpayments, according to the Social Security Administration (SSA), is going over the resource limit. Many SSI recipients could avoid overpayments when their resources surpass $2,000 if more of them used ABLE accounts. Additionally, fewer recipients would be suspended, terminated, and require reinstatement after using up their excess resources.
If this is something you would like to discuss with a professional attorney, please feel free to reach out to us. These programs should be fully utilized along with those benefits offered by the Social Security Administration.