Independence offered to those with disabilities

A new program in Pennsylvania called Achieving a Better Life Experience — or PA ABLE — allows residents with disabilities to save up to $14,000 a year without losing government benefits such as Supplemental Security Income, Social Security Disability Insurance or Medicaid. They can then use the money for qualified expenses, including education, housing and transportation.

Gridlock and partisan bickering get the lion’s share of attention these days, so when both major political parties work to produce common-sense legislation, that should be recognized and lauded.

The PA ABLE Act — designed to support greater independence for people with disabilities — is one such law.

“It is a major gamechanger,” Maureen Westcott, executive director of The Arc of Lancaster County, a nonprofit that advocates for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, told LNP Newspapers.

In the past, any savings in excess of $2,000 would jeopardize benefits for people like her daughter, who has an intellectual disability, Westcott said.

With the new program, that limit is now $14,000 annually.

Westcott told LNP that her 31-year-old daughter, Elise, will be able to use her account to pay for assistive technologies, including the iPhone she relies on for textto-speech capabilities and which was not covered by her government benefits.

Westcott said she previously helped her daughter with those kinds of expenses, allowing her to pay her back over time. “But what about when I’m not here to do that?”

With PA ABLE, Westcott has one fewer worry.

In addition to housing, education, transportation and assistive technology expenses, PA ABLE accounts cover employment support, health and wellness costs, and a miscellaneous category that can include home modifications, legal fees and funeral expenses.

The PA ABLE Act comes on the heels of Congress’ authorizing states to create ABLE programs; Ohio, Nebraska, Tennessee and Florida were the first four states to do so.

The federal law, the Stephen Beck Jr. Achieving a Better Life Experience Act of 2014, passed overwhelmingly with bipartisan support and was the first major piece of legislation concerning disability since the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act.

Modeled after college savings accounts, PA ABLE accounts feature seven savings and investment choices. Six are asset-allocation options with varying blends of stocks, bonds and cash; the seventh is a Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.-insured interest-bearing checking account with a debit card.

Earnings grow tax free, and withdrawals are tax free, too. The entire account is exempt from Pennsylvania inheritance tax as well.

To qualify, the owner of the account must have had a disability before age 26.

The program is the kind of smart, practical initiative that government ought to deliver, and we hope it will be well-administered by the state Treasury Department.

“It was incredibly empowering to be a part of this,” Melissa Hawkins, a member of the advisory committee that developed PA ABLE, said in an email message to LNP.

Hawkins, who is deaf and serves as executive director of the Disability Empowerment Center in Lancaster, said the center’s clients have a lot of questions about the program and want to make sure they don’t jeopardize what they already receive.

“It’s a tough system to navigate to even get assistance for people with disabilities,” she wrote. “The fear of losing these services could be enough to prevent those who would benefit from an account to open one.

“Therefore, we need to really educate and reassure the community and our consumers this is a good and positive thing.”

And the more people who know about this program the better, because PA ABLE is a major step forward for persons with disabilities.