This study proposes to identify demographic and socioeconomic profiles of new potential users of Achieving Better Life Experience (ABLE) savings accounts as the eligibility criteria expands in 2026 to include Supplemental Security Insurance (SSI) recipients who experienced disability onset before age of 46 (currently age 26). Savings can be an important resource for people with disabilities particularly when extraordinary healthcare expenses occur.
This study will identify characteristics and savings behavior of SSI recipients in three different disability onset age groups: before age 26, ages 26-45, and age 46 and older. In doing so, the focus will be on the second age group who can be potentially new ABLE account users with the age threshold adjustment in 2026. The findings can inform promotion efforts for the new prospective users as they may include people who had disabilities from work or who are veterans, while the younger onset age group may have had limited work experience. This means that these two groups may have different financial capacity and ABLE accounts may be more useful resources to the older onset age group. Therefore, the findings can inform the life-course savings and asset building behavior of SSI recipients and can spotlight the financial potential of SSI recipients and ways to help them achieve economic stability.
The 2014 Survey of Income and Program Participation merged with the 2014 Social Security Supplement Data will be used for this study. In two steps, the first analysis will identify demographic and socioeconomic characteristics of SSI recipients in three disability onset age groups and examine the savings behavior of each group. The second analysis will forecast whether the onset age 26-45 group (potential new ABLE account users) would have a higher participation rate for ABLE accounts.