JSIT23-01: Who Will Benefit from the 2024 ABLE Age Adjustment Act?

This study explores different characteristics in asset and savings behavior of Supplemental Security Income (SSI) recipients by three disability onset age groups: before age 26, ages 26–45, and age 46 and older. The focus is placed on the second age group who can be new potential users of Achieving Better Life Experience (ABLE) savings accounts as the eligibility criteria expands in 2026 to include SSI recipients who experienced disability onset before the age of 46 (currently age 26). Using the 2014 Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) merged with the 2014 Social Security Supplement Data, this study finds that the current work status is significantly associated with having any savings accounts for SSI recipients who had disability between the ages of 26 and 45. Predicted values from the linear probability models indicate that SSI recipients who report bothering, work-limiting, and work-preventing health issues between ages 26 and 45 have lower likelihoods of having savings accounts (66–80 percent) than other age groups (over 87 percent). With savings accounts as a proxy for ABLE accounts, this result suggests a low rate of participation for new eligible users of ABLE accounts as this age group becomes eligible in 2026 through the ABLE Age Adjustment Act.