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2024 marks the seventh year of the Alabama ABLE (Achieving a Better Life Experience) Savings Plan. These accounts enable people with physical, developmental, or intellectual disabilities and their families to save up to $100,000 without jeopardizing state or federal benefits including SSI, Medicaid, SNAP, housing assistance programs, and more. As of December 2023, 890 Alabama ABLE accounts have been opened with total balances of $4,027,960.
“Before the State of Alabama enacted the Alabama ABLE Savings Plan in 2017, those with disabilities in our state were limited to savings accounts of just $2,000,” said Alabama State Treasurer Young Boozer. “Now they have much more flexibility in what they can put aside for needed future expenses.”
Anyone can contribute to an Alabama ABLE account, including the account owner, friends, family, organizations, nonprofits, and employers—up to $18,000 per year. As long as funds are used for Qualified Disability Expenses (QDEs) such as health/wellness, housing, education, employment training, assistive technology, transportation and the like, earnings on these accounts are not taxable.
Alabama ABLE to Work is a provision within Alabama ABLE that allows certain individuals to contribute more than the annual limit. The lifetime balance limit for the Alabama ABLE Savings Plan is $475,000.
For Alabama taxpayers, a deduction is allowed up to $5,000 per taxpayer per year for contributions into an Alabama ABLE account.
“We encourage contributions to individual accounts,” said Anita Kelley, Savings Director for Alabama ABLE. “As we’ve seen during the last seven years, the Alabama ABLE Savings Plan can go a long way toward helping people with disabilities improve and maintain their health, independence, and quality of life.”
Those eligible for the program include any individual who has the onset of a physical or developmental disability before the age of 26 and is either eligible to receive benefits based on disability (like SSI or SSDI), or on a disability certification signed by a physician declaring that they meet the Social Security definition of disability.
More information about the Alabama ABLE Savings Plan is available at https://www.alabamaable.gov/ or at (833) 711-2253. Alabama ABLE is managed by the Bank of New York through Vestwell (https://www.vestwell.com/). Vestwell also manages over 30 state savings programs.
