Chronically Coping with Financial Losses: 5 Ways to Save Money on a Limited Income
Back in the beginning of 2015, I was feeling pretty comfortable financially.
I transitioned to a higher paying job with fewer hours. I maintained a healthy yoga and meditation practice. Although I still experienced days of struggle with my invisible defect working in the background, my health was better in many ways and far improved from years prior as I’ve discussed in my other posts about my…
Tag: finances
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New Website To Serve As ABLE Account Clearinghouse
ABLE Accounts and Projected Usage – ABLE National Resource Center
In order to get a better idea of how many individuals might be eligible for ABLE accounts and how a potential beneficiary may use the account to save for disability related expenses, we ask you to take a moment to fill out this survey. In order to better understand if you or your family member might be qualified for the program and to better understand what a qualified beneficiary can use the fund in the ABLE account for, we encourage you to watch this “ABLE Basics” informative short video prior to taking the survey: https://youtu.be/Tv8kIdAovOQ
(Source: https://www.youtube.com/)
Some People with Disabilities ARE Prevented from Getting Married and Here’s Why
Today was a historic day for LGBT people as SCOTUS ruled to extend marriage to same-sex couples, and several transgender people born in states like Tennessee and Ohio, unable to marry because of their states refusing to change their gender marker on their birth certificates. I am celebrating for all my friends who now have the right to marry, but I cannot celebrate for myself, because I still cannot get married.
Yeah, this is becoming an issue for me.
The rules for SSI and Medicaid are set so that if you make *almost* enough to get out of poverty, they cut you off, leaving you in poverty. You can’t work or you’ll lose your benefits, but you can’t quite live on your benefits either, and you can’t work enough to make up for it, at all.
Now add in a second person’s income on top of that. They get access to your partner’s bank account records, they monitor their accounts, they count anything either of you makes against you – even money people give you so you can eat because the government doesn’t give you enough to not go hungry. They punish you for money people give you to help you get by. Just … deal with that.
They want us to starve and die young. They honestly do. No lie. And they won’t even stop penalizing us for wanting to be in a legally-recognized relationship with all the safeties that provides, such as those related to access to hospitalized people, those dealing with distribution of property after death, and so on.
It’s not *illegal* for disabled people to get married, but that doesn’t mean disabled people are not *punished* for getting married.
The whole system is fucked, and I honestly despair of it ever improving, or doing so quickly enough to help me.
Some People with Disabilities ARE Prevented from Getting Married and Here’s Why
Achieving a Better Life Experience (ABLE) Act – Signed Into Law!
The ABLE Act was introduced in the US Senate and US House of Representatives on Feb. 13, 2013. On December 3, 2014, the ABLE Act passed in the US House of Representatives (404-17). Two weeks later, on December 16, the US Senate voted to pass the ABLE Act as a part of the Tax Extenders package. On Friday, December 19, 2014, the President of the United States signed the Tax Extenders package, making the ABLE Act the law of the land.
1. What is an ABLE account?
ABLE Accounts, which are tax-advantaged savings accounts for individuals with disabilities and their families, will be created as a result of the passage of the ABLE Act of 2014. Income earned by the accounts would not be taxed. Contributions to the account made by any person (the account beneficiary, family and friends) would not be tax deductible.
2. Why the need for ABLE accounts?
Millions of individuals with disabilities and their families depend on a wide variety of public benefits for income, health care and food and housing assistance. Eligibility for these public benefits (SSI, SNAP, Medicaid) require meeting a means or resource test that limits eligibility to individuals to report more than $2,000 in cash savings, retirement funds and other items of significant value. To remain eligible for these public benefits, an individual must remain poor. For the first time in public policy, the ABLE Act recognizes the extra and significant costs of living with a disability. These include costs, related to raising a child with significant disabilities or a working age adult with disabilities, for accessible housing and transportation, personal assistance services, assistive technology and health care not covered by insurance, Medicaid or Medicare.
For the first time, eligible individuals and families will be allowed to establish ABLE savings accounts that will not affect their eligibility for SSI, Medicaid and other public benefits. The legislation explains further that an ABLE account will, with private savings, “secure funding for disability-related expenses on behalf of designated beneficiaries with disabilities that will supplement, but not supplant, benefits provided through private insurance, Medicaid, SSI, the beneficiary’s employment and other sources.”…
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Achieving a Better Life Experience (ABLE) Act – Signed Into Law!
Holding the Bowl 