Mother Jones illustration; Getty
On December 19, 2014, then-President Barack Obama signed the Achieving a Better Life Experience Act into law, establishing tax-exempt savings accounts of up to $100,000 for qualified disability expenses—including education, housing, transportation, health, and basic living expenses—for people whose disabilities began before age 26, without counting against the $2,000 Social Security Insurance asset limit.
In the decade since, ABLE accounts have meaningfully improved the lives of over 160,000 people by giving them more financial independence. It’s an underappreciated example of just how much impact a seemingly small reform can have. Still, the number of ABLE accounts is small, considering around 8 million people qualify. For its tenth anniversary, I spoke with…