Casey created the Achieving a Better Life Experience (ABLE) program in 2014 to allow people with disabilities to save money without losing eligibility for critical federal programs
Casey’s legislative package includes three bills to expand the program even further and ensure more eligible people with disabilities are able to access program benefits
Washington, D.C. - Today, U.S. Senator Bob Casey (D-PA), Chairman of the U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging, introduced a package of three bills that expand access to the Achieving a Better Life Experience (ABLE) program. The ABLE program, which Chairman Casey passed in 2014, allows people with disabilities to save money without risking access to federal assistance programs, such as Supplemental Security Income. Casey’s new legislative package includes three bills that will expand ABLE by increasing awareness of the program’s benefits and making it easier for people with disabilities to receive ABLE benefits while remaining in the workforce.
“Over the last decade, the ABLE program has been a lifeline for thousands of people with disabilities across the Nation,” said Chairman Casey (D-PA). “However, we have a lot more work to do to ensure that every person who is eligible for an ABLE account can take advantage of the opportunity to save that the program affords them. By drawing attention to ABLE and allowing employers to contribute to the ABLE accounts of employees with disabilities, the legislative package I introduced today will continue my work to remove the barriers that people with disabilities face when trying to save.”
People with disabilities are more than twice as likely to live in poverty compared to people without disabilities, yet households including a person with a disability that may limit some of their ability to work need, on average, 28 percent more income to obtain the same standard of living as people without disabilities. For a long time, people with disabilities were unable to put away significant financial savings due to asset limitations for federal assistance programs that many people with disabilities rely on. The ABLE program has helped more than 170,000 people with disabilities across the United States, who have saved an average of $11,186.
Despite the program’s positive impact, only a fraction of the eight million Americans with disabilities who are ABLE-eligible have opened an account. Today, Casey introduced the ABLE Awareness Act, which will help inform people about ABLE programs by requiring federal and state agencies to inform people about the existence of the program, its eligibility requirements, and point them towards existing resources to help them open an account when they enroll in certain benefits programs. Read more about the ABLE Awareness Act here.
Many employers offer 401k matching contributions to workers as a benefit of employment. However, people with disabilities can be precluded from benefiting from this option because contributions could count against the strict asset limits for federal benefits programs. People with disabilities who are working should have the same access to employee benefits as people without disabilities, including 401k matching contributions. Casey’s ABLE Employment Flexibility Act would fix this by allowing employers to contribute to an employee’s ABLE account in lieu of a 401k account so that employees with disabilities can safely save for retirement without fear of losing the federal benefits they rely on to thrive in their communities. Read more about the ABLE Employment Flexibility Act here.
Also included in today’s legislative package was the ABLE Direct Deposit Act, which would affirm that direct deposits from employers or government programs can be made to ABLE accounts.
As the lead sponsor of the ABLE Act, passed in 2014, Senator Casey has long been a champion of ABLE accounts and has consistently worked to improve and expand the program since its initial passage. He introduced the ABLE Age Adjustment Act to extend the eligibility of ABLE accounts from those who acquired their disability before the age of 26 to the age of 46. The bill passed in December 2022 and takes effect in 2026, when it will expand the program to 6.2 million additional Americans, including more than one million veterans. Last year, Casey introduced the ABLE Match Act, which helps people with lower incomes participate in the ABLE program by creating a federal dollar-for-dollar match for new and existing ABLE accounts held by individuals that make $28,000 annually or less. Earlier this year, Casey introduced the bipartisan Ensuring Nationwide Access to a Better Life Experience (ENABLE) Act, which would make permanent three ABLE provisions that make the program more accessible and expansive but are set to expire in 2025.
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