Families with children who are blind or disabled have a new option for investing money, without jeopardizing their federal benefits.
The National Achieving a Better Life Experience or ABLE program is a multi-state investment program that allows individuals to set up tax-free investment accounts to be used toward medical expenses. Previously, families could have no more than two-thousand dollars in assets.
“Some grandparents want to contribute, want to give to their grandchildren, and their parents have to tell them, ‘No, if you give money to our son our daughter, they may lose their benefits, State Treasurer Michael Frerichs said. “That is wrong, and this should put a stop to that.”
ABLE accounts allow individuals to save up to $100,000 dollars to be spent on disability-related expenses. It’s modeled after 529 college savings accounts.
Frerichs says the idea is for families to use ABLE accounts like a checkbook to cover medical needs like copays, wheelchairs, and even iPads, which are increasingly being used for nonverbal children with Autism.
Kelly Tanney is a social worker with the Illinois Spina Bifida Association who joined Monday’s roundtable with Frerichs. For families she sees, Tanney says the program could mean the difference between wellness and survival.
“That you know, they’ve been heard. This is a huge step forward for people living with disabilities.”
She says the costs associated with the disease, on top of copays and frequent out-of-state appointments with physicians, can be debilitating for families. Transportation is one of the approved expenses.
To be eligible, beneficiaries must have been disabled before age 26. Frerichs says that’s an “arbitrary” number he’d like to change, to accommodate cases like wounded soldiers or disorders that don’t manifest until later in life, like schizophrenia.
Illinois is one of 14 states participating in the ABLE program. Residents living in states without ABLE accounts are able to invest in states offering the program, including Illinois.