ABLE accounts (529A)

What this actually is

A tax-advantaged savings account for a person with a disability. Money grows tax-free and comes out tax-free when spent on qualified disability expenses. Its real function for someone on benefits is that it is a legal place to hold savings that the strict SSI resource limits would otherwise punish you for having. It is not free money and not income — it is your own money, sheltered. A working beneficiary may contribute their own earnings above the standard annual limit, up to the poverty line amount for a one-person household.

Who qualifies, and what trips people up

For eligible people with disabilities as the designated beneficiary; the IRS page above sets out the account rules and the annual contribution limit, which is tied to the gift tax exclusion and changes over time — confirm the current figure before contributing. The interaction with SSI resource counting is governed by SSA rather than the IRS; check SSA’s ABLE guidance before relying on it, and open the account through your state’s ABLE programme.