Individual Development Accounts (IDA)

If you are working and have limited income, you may be eligible for an IDA through the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) program or an Assets for Independence Act (AFIA) grant. An IDA is a trust-like bank account that helps you save your earnings to go to school, buy a home, or start a business. When you make a deposit to the account, a participating non-profit organization matches your deposit. The typical match is $1 for each dollar that you deposit. The federal government adds an additional match, limited to $2,000 for an individual or $4,000 for a household over the life of the program (usually 5 years).

If you have an IDA through TANF or an AFIA grant, we do not count any earnings you deposit into your account, any matching deposits, or any interest earned as SSI income or resources. As a result, your SSI payments may increase.

Note: IDAs that are not federally funded are not exempt from SSI and will be counted under the income and resource rules of SSI.

We do not determine whether you are eligible to have an IDA. For more information about IDAs and to locate a program in your area, visit: acf.gov/ofa/faq/q-individual-development-accounts-idas

Achieving a Better Life Experience (ABLE) Account

An Achieving a Better Life Experience (ABLE) account is a tax-advantaged savings account for an individual with a disability. You can use an ABLE account to save funds for many disability-related expenses. Anyone, including the account owner, family, and friends can contribute to the ABLE account. The account owner of an ABLE account must meet one of the following:

• Be receiving SSI based on disability or blindness that began before age 46.
• Be in SSI suspense due solely to excess income or resources and otherwise be eligible for SSI based on disability or blindness that began before age 46.
• Be receiving disability insurance benefits, childhood disability benefits, or surviving spouse's benefits, based on disability or blindness that occurred before age 46.
• Have a certification that disability or blindness occurred before age 46.
• Have conditions on Social Security's "List of Compassionate Allowances Conditions" which are deemed to meet the requirements for a disability certification if the condition was present and produced marked and severe functional limitations before the date on which the individual attained age 46.

The money that you have in your ABLE account (up to and including $100,000) does not count as a resource under SSI rules. You can use money in an ABLE account to pay for certain qualified disability expenses, such as those for education, housing, transportation, employment training, employment support, assistive technology, and related services.

To learn more about ABLE accounts, please visit the Internal Revenue Services' website at www.irs.gov/government-entities/federal-state-local-governments/able-accounts-tax-benefit-forpeople-with-disabilities.

Note: Social Security provides this section as a courtesy to help notify you of ABLE accounts. However, Social Security is not affiliated with and does not endorse any ABLE account provider or its services..

AmeriCorps

AmeriCorps is a national network of service programs that engage Americans to meet the nation's needs in priority areas. These include disaster services, economic opportunities, education, environmental stewardship, healthy futures, and veterans and military families. We exclude the stipend that AmeriCorps members receive in the determination of SSI payments. For SSDI beneficiaries, the income exclusion only applies to the AmeriCorps VISTA program. For more information, go to the AmeriCorps website at www.americorps.gov.