Many disabled people experience poverty. This is not a surprising fact to most people, especially given how many disabilities prevent people from working. If you can’t work, you can’t make money; simple as that.
What most people don’t realize, however, is just how many disabled people are forced into poverty not by their inability to work, but by laws and bureaucratic nonsense. These laws not only limit the amount of money disabled people can have, but they also force disabled people to choose between their passions and their health.
Medicaid, SSI, and the Asset Limit
Many disabled people rely on Medicaid to get the care they need. Medicaid provides disabled people with secondary health insurance, which covers a lot of what typical insurance doesn’t. This is absolutely vital for people like me who would otherwise have to pay tens of thousands of dollars for medical care and equipment. My power wheelchair, for example, costs around $80,000, and insurance only covers about half of it.
Many disabled people also rely on a program administered by the Social Security Administration called SSI, or Supplemental Security Income, that’s designed to provide money to people who are unable to work. It’s only around $900 a month, but for some people SSI is their only source of income.
The government naturally wants to limit programs like Medicaid to the people who really need them, but the qualification rules for the Medicaid program are strict to the point of limiting people’s quality of life. In order to qualify for Medicaid, you can’t have more than $2,000 in assets.
This means the total of all your bank accounts can’t be more than $2,000, but other things can count as assets too. Investments? Assets. Cars? Assets. Precious metals from your grandparents? Assets. If you own something the government thinks you could sell that would put you over the asset limit, it counts against you.
One mom took to Instagram to complain that her son lost his SSI eligibility because they got an RV from Make-a-Wish. Many people suggested she give the RV to his grandparents, but the government thought of this too. If they suspect you’re getting rid of an asset just to stay under the $2,000 limit, they’ll count it against you. If you sell the asset for way less than it’s worth, they’ll count the full amount against you.
No matter what, you’re screwed.
Marriage Inequality
But wait! It gets worse.
If you get married, you and your spouse’s assets are considered jointly owned. This isn’t unique to Medicaid and SSI, but what is unique is the asset limit. The asset limit increases when someone gets married, but only to $3,000.
Practically, this means many — if not most — disabled people can’t get married.
If your spouse so much as owns a car, you’re likely over the asset limit. One person can’t really live on a $2,00o asset limit, but two people absolutely can’t live on a $3,000 limit.
Even when disabled people don’t get married, they’re often still subject to this restriction. If you live with a partner for a prolonged period of time, the government can decide that you’re in a common law marriage. This doesn’t just limit disabled people’s ability to get married, but their ability to be in long term relationships.
This is a bit of a side tangent, but this is what frustrates me about discussions on marriage equality. Many people treat marriage equality as a battle that’s over, a victory that’s already been won. Marriage equality has never existed in the United States for everyone.
Marriage equality has never existed for disabled people.
The Flawed Solution of ABLE Accounts
In 2014, Congress passed the Achieving a Better Life Experience Act, or the ABLE Act. This act was meant to solve the asset limit problem by allowing disabled people to save their money in a special, tax-advantaged ABLE account.
Like another solution, the Special Needs Trust (SNT), ABLE accounts allow disabled people to save more than $2,000 in cash and investments without being penalized for going over the asset limit. Unlike SNTs, however, disabled people can contribute to and manage their own ABLE accounts. A third party representative must manage an SNT, and the beneficiary can’t directly contribute funds to it.
ABLE accounts are a step in the right direction, but they have many flaws. First, there’s still an asset limit. To keep your benefits, your ABLE account can’t exceed $100,000. There’s also an $18,000 limit on yearly contributions. This limit is increased if the disabled person works, but only to the amount they make or the poverty line (whichever is lower). While this is an improvement, it still puts a limit on disabled people that others don’t have.
Second, the programs, which vary by state are quite limited when it comes to banking and investment options. Many offer only a single bank or investment firm for participants to use, and the fees tend to be quite high. Other people get to shop around for the institution that fits their needs the best, but disabled people don’t get that choice.
Third, many programs don’t even give participants a real checking account. In Texas’ program, for example, ABLE account holders can’t use their account to wire money, write checks, or pay with a debit card. Instead, participants are given a prepaid debit card that they must load money on in order to use it. This extra step is something nondisabled people don’t have to deal with.
Finally, the money in an ABLE account can only be used for Qualified Disability Expenses, a hopelessly vague term that’s simply defined as anything that improves the health, independence, or quality of life of the account holder. While you don’t have to provide justification of every expense, you can be asked for records of what the money was spent on at any time.
What defines something as improving quality of life? Does treating yourself to ice cream count? Does buying a fancy lotion? Does buying a ticket to see your favorite band in concert?
Who decides what improves someone’s quality of life?
More importantly, why are disabled people limited in what they can spend their own savings on? Nondisabled people would have a cow if the government tried to tell them what they could and couldn’t spend their money on, but that’s life for disabled people.
Being disabled is expensive. For many people, programs like Medicaid and SSI are the only way to pay for all their needs. These programs, however, force disabled people to stay in poverty even when they’re able to work. I’ve detailed multiple ways disabled people are forced into poverty, and yet I’ve barely scratched the surface of this issue.
The solutions the government has implemented have improved things, but they fail to address the fact that disabled people don’t have the same right to save and spend their money as their nondisabled peers.
Leave a Reply