HOW TO MAKE THE MOST OF AN ABLE ACCOUNT

HELP AVOIDING THE BENEFITS CLIFF 

Valerie Rose Crisci created the website Respect the Vest to raise awareness of service dogs, and would like to create a nonprofit to do the same. 

“Trying to save the money for how much it costs to start a nonprofit is one of the reasons I opened my ABLE account,” she says. 

“Without having a CalABLE account, I had to worry about saving money — because if I were to save money, I could lose my government benefits. With a CalABLE account, I am able to save up to $100,000 without that worry.” 

Monthly SSI benefits peak at $914 for an individual and $1,371 for a couple, barely enough for many to pay rent — let alone cover food, transportation and other daily expenses.  

On top of that, if you save more than $2,000, you risk having SSI cut off. “SSI is poverty, being constantly at the brink of ruin,” Allen says.

“ABLE is a way of supporting people with disabilities, a group that is quite chronically underserved.”