[NFBMT] From the Disability Rights Montana Newsletter: The ABLE Act

[Bruce&Joy Breslauer]

ABLE Act

 

ABLE accounts are now available in Montana. These are accounts that people
with disabilities can use to cover various qualified expenses. These include,
but are not limited to:

Education

Health and wellness

Housing

Transportation

Legal fees

Financial management

Employment training and support

Assistive technology

Personal support services

Oversight and monitoring

Funeral and burial expenses

In the past, people with disabilities who have Supplemental Security
Insurance benefits (SSI) would have to establish trust accounts to be able to
save resources that are above and beyond the SSI resource limit, which is
only $2,000. If they had a greater amount of monetary resources than $2,000,
they would be at risk of losing not only their SSI monthly cash benefit, but
their Medicaid coverage as well. ABLE accounts, established by federal and
state law, allow the deposit of up to $100,000 for accounts. This will not
count as a resource. Only those amounts over $100,000 will count as a
resource for purposes of SSI. Even so, this will only affect the cash
benefit. A person with an account worth more than $100,000 will not lose
Medicaid eligibility. The accounts allow deposits of up to $14,000 per year
and can be up to $400,000 in total.

Click here for more information.

Joy Breslauer, President

National Federation of the Blind of Montana 

Web Site: http://www.nfbofmt.org

 

Live the life you want

 

The National Federation of the Blind knows that blindness is not the
characteristic that defines you or your future. Every day we raise the
expectations of blind people, because low expectations create obstacles
between blind people and our dreams. You can live the life you want;
blindness is not what holds you back.