As someone who has a son with down syndrome, this law was one of the best things that's happened in the disability community in a very long time.
In 2014, Congress passed the ABLE Act to help families with disabilities save for life.
The ABLE Act is a game changer for Americans living with disabilities. But there's a problem.
Only 50,000 Americans are currently using ABLE accounts to save.
And more than 14 million are eligible.
An ABLE account is a savings plan that people with disabilities or their families can use to save for someone with a disability the same way that people can save for someone without a disability.
Ethan has needed extensive dental work, which has cost thousands and thousands of dollars. You can go down the list, and pretty much every part of his life took on an added expense.
ABLE allows people with disabilities to put money away that they can use in the future to cover essential life costs.
Without the risk of losing government disability benefits.
We save for Audrey through an ABLE account the same way that we save for my other daughter with a 529 college plan.
Before ABLE, people with disabilities who are dependent upon government benefits to cover the high cost of living with a disability couldn't have savings of more than $2,000 without risk of losing their benefits.