Committee advances bill creating ABLE savings accounts

BOISE — The House Health and Welfare Committee on Wednesday advanced a bill to allow Idahoans with disabilities to open up savings accounts that wouldn’t count against restrictions for public assistance.

House Bill 26 would allow eligible Idahoans with disabilities to open ABLE accounts, which stands for Achieving a Better Life Experience — money saved in these accounts is not taxed and can be used toward disability-related expenses. Idaho is one of three states without its own program. The State Independent Living Council has been pursuing this option for years.

The bill was brought by Idaho Treasurer Julie Ellsworth, who said the state would be able to join a consortium of state ABLE programs at no cost to Idaho.

Many needs-based programs, such as food assistance, Social Security Disability or housing programs, have restrictions on total savings — many as low as $2,000 in total resources.

Idahoans with disabilities can sign up for accounts in other states, per a law in 2017 that ensures they won’t lose access to state benefits if they do so.

“We worked together to pass legislation so that Idahoans could safely open an account in another state and know their Idaho benefits would be protected,” State Independent Living Council (SILC) Executive Director Mel Leviton told the Idaho Press in a phone interview.

“We knew it was just a stepping stone.”

HB 26 represents the next step.

Tara Rowe, a member of the SILC, told the Idaho Press she opened an ABLE account in Tennessee shortly after Idaho passed the 2017 law, but having an account out-of-state comes with unique challenges.

“If I have some disability-related expense and I need a check written out to pay for it, I call Tennessee ... they have to call Massachusetts, where their bank gets the check cut, then it has to be sent to me in Idaho,” Rowe said. “So it’s a really kind of messy way of having an account.”

Despite these challenges, Rowe said, she has seen a clear benefit to the program.

“It’s huge for independence, and feeling as if we are planning for our own lives and have control over our own expenses and our own lives, our own decisions,” Rowe said. “Otherwise, we’re kind of reliant on the government for absolutely everything, and there’s no reason for that to be the case if only for this one barrier of saving money.”

She said she had an event in college that “changed the trajectory of my life.” At the time she got her disability, the resource limit was $1,000 for benefits.

“It meant not having any sort of fallback plan when things got bad,” she said.

Congress created the program through the Achieving a Better Life Experience Act in 2014.

At the time, there was a significant cost to create a program in smaller states, which had a smaller pool of people who would participate, Leviton said. For Idaho, it was cost-prohibitive to start its own program at the time.

The SILC and Ellsworth worked together to look into joining existing consortiums of states in order for Idaho to have a program without the high costs of start-up.

The accounts also allow parents of children with disabilities to save for their child’s future in a manner similar to a 529 college savings account.

The accounts are currently available to those who became disabled before the age of 26, but this is set to be raised to age 46 by 2026.

Leviton said prior to ABLE accounts, people with disabilities who relied on public assistance and received any amount of funds, such as through a Social Security back payment or small inheritance, would find themselves having to spend it immediately or risk losing their benefits.

“They couldn’t do it and they knew at the time it’s a waste of money in order to retain the benefit, which was very frustrating for people,” Leviton said. “It’s just one more way to leave people stuck in poverty.”

The bill will now go to the full House for a vote. One committee member on Wednesday voted against it, Rep. Lucas Cayler, R-Caldwell, who said his “no” vote was because of his stance against growing the government.

Guido covers Idaho politics for the Lewiston Tribune, Moscow-Pullman Daily News and Idaho Press of Nampa. She may be contacted at lguido@idahopress.com and can be found on Twitter @EyeOnBoiseGuido.