The ABLE Act and Employment: Strategies for Maximizing the Effectiveness of the Achieving a Better Life Experience (ABLE) Act as a Tool for Financial Stability and Employment Outcomes of People with Disabilities
The LEAD Center developed The ABLE Act and Employment brief to demonstrate how provisions in the ABLE Act can be combined with federal benefits to further increase competitive integrated employment for people with disabilities. The brief contains a list of the provisions of the ABLE Act, their impact on the financial self-sufficiency and employment opportunities of persons with disabilities, and recommendations on how to best utilize the ABLE Act and ABLE accounts to maximize these outcomes.
Some examples included in the brief of how an ABLE account can be combined with other supports to increase financial self-sufficiency and/or employment opportunities, include:
- Using the PASS (Plan for Achieving Self-Support) program in conjunction with ABLE account savings to maintain supported employment services.
- Using ABLE accounts to pay for Medicaid Buy-In Program premiums rather than limiting earned income to stay below Medicaid’s income limits. This enables people to continue to be eligible for Medicaid-funded supported employment services while steadily improving their financial status.
- Using state vocational rehabilitation (VR) and other programs to link people to support for setting up ABLE accounts.