Your Child Can Save More

As your child makes more money, he or she can start saving for bigger goals, like college, a car, or someday buying a home. Building assets will be a key to comfort and security for your child’s entire life.

SSI and Medicaid Rules Help People Who Work and Save

Supplemental Security Income (SSI) and SSI-related Medicaid have $2,000 resource limits. However, your child can save way more money than this if he or she gets a job.

SSI resource rules for people who work:

• Not all resources are counted, so your child can own a car or get certain types of financial aid for school that won’t be counted against the resource limit.
• An ABLE account will let you and your child put money into a special account where the first $100,000 will not count against the SSI resource limit.
• Savings in a Plan to Achieve Self-Support (PASS) are not counted. This is a way for your child to save for specific expenses, like school tuition.
• Assets in certain types of trusts do not count.

Medicaid resource rules for people who work:

• The SSI resource rules also apply to Medicaid.
• None of the money in an ABLE account is counted against Medicaid resource limits.
• If your child has income from a job, your child can pay a premium to get coverage through the Freedom to Work program.
  • When applying, your child's countable income must be at or below $3,138 per month and your child's resources must be less than $9,430.
  • After coverage starts, the amount of earned income doesn't matter and your child can have up to $75,000 in resources (or more, if your child puts money into retirement accounts).
• There is no resource limit for income-based Medicaid, no matter how old your child is.