THE UDES MISSION

 

The mission of United Disabled for Economic Security is to take the lead in assembling a suite of financial tools—some existing, many brand new— that parents and others can employ to save and invest in order to secure the financial future of people with serious disabilities.

 

THE NEED: MILLIONS OF SERIOUSLY DISABLED CHILDREN AND ADULTS LACK ADEQUATE FINANCIAL RESOURCES

 

There are about six to seven million children and adults in the United States today who are so seriously disabled that they are either unable to support themselves through work or are at great risk of being unable to do so.

 

They live with a range of disabilities which impairs their cognitive, emotional, physical and social capabilities—autism spectrum disorders, cerebral palsy, mental retardation, Down syndrome, mental illnesses, and many others.

 

Robbed of the ability to support themselves through work, people with serious disabilities may need to depend upon government benefits for their entire lives.

 

But government benefits, vital as they are, simply aren't enough to ensure that people with serious disabilities have a decent standard of living. In fact, about 27% of people with severe disabilities live in poverty. And Supplemental Security Income (SSI), the sole income for many people with serious disabilities, provides a federal monthly maximum payment of just $579. That's only $5,139 a year. The government says that's enough for a person's food and shelter.

 

Making things worse, SSI is a means-tested benefit. Meeting SSI's standard of disability isn't enough to get and keep benefits. The disabled recipient must always have limited outside income and assets— for example, never more than $2,000 in savings. He or she has to be poor and stay poor.

 

THE FINANCIAL SYSTEM FOR PEOPLE WITH SERIOUS DISABILITIES: SEPARATE AND UNEQUAL

 

The law provides some relief from this poverty trap. Government benefits can be supplemented by funds held in private trusts, called Special Needs Trusts and Pooled Trusts, which are typically set up and funded by parents.

 

But this system of trusts can cost disabled beneficiaries and their families dearly, in the form of lawyers fees, high trust tax rates, and trustee fees inflated by the need to comply with a complicated maze of rules and regulations. The system allows families to supplement government benefits, but at a steep price. And it does absolutely nothing to actually encourage the growth of private assets.

 

The system's costs, complexity and disincentives aren't its only liabilities. It's unfair. Compared to the financial opportunities given to non-disabled Americans, the system is distinctly separate and grossly unequal.

 

For example, non-disabled Americans profit from any number of tax-advantaged vehicles—IRAs and 401(k)s to save for retirement and 529 plans to save for college, for example. The non-disabled have already saved some $75 billion in 529 plans, and amassed $13 trillion in tax-advantaged retirement vehicles.

 

And how much do seriously disabled people have saved in tax-advantaged vehicles? Nothing. Not a single dollar. The seriously disabled have been left stranded outside of America's financial mainstream.

 

PROMOTING PRIVATE ASSETS FOR THE SERIOUSLY DISABLED: NEW FINANCIAL TOOLS

 

It's time to stop accepting poverty and inadequate financial resources as the unavoidable consequence of a person's serious disability.

 

Children and adults with serious disabilities deserve better. Instead of languishing as outsiders relegated to their own separate and unequal financial system, they deserve to be welcomed into the mainstream of America's private economy. They deserve a new financial arrangement that promotes savings and investments. They deserve, at last, a real opportunity to lead lives of financial security.

 

In order to create this opportunity, United Disabled for Economic Security will advocate, educate and collaborate with the private sector to assemble a suite of financial tools that are robust, equitable and address the unique needs and circumstances of people with serious disabilities.

 

This financial arrangement will center on two essential tools. The first will allow families and others to do for seriously disabled people what they're unable to do for themselves—earn and direct resources into a tax-advantaged savings and investment vehicle.

 

The second tool will be a non-profit organization that will contribute to seriously disabled beneficiaries' savings and investment accounts with funds from a wide variety of sources. These will include contributions from parents and family members, individual and corporate gifts, contributions from banks fulfilling their obligations under the Community Reinvestment Act, funds from "social investing", donations of life insurance policies, and funds remaining from the estates of seriously disabled people who have died, among other sources.