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Individual Development Account Question and Answer Sheet: A Guide for IDA Consumers with Disabilities

Individual Development Accounts, also known as “IDAs”, are a savings account. What makes it special is you receive an additional deposit each time you add to your savings. It is called a match and is usually one to four times the size of each deposit you make. For example, if you receive a 2:1 match, each time you deposit $25, you will get an additional $50 toward your savings goal.

IDA Participants Speak Out

The Individual Development Account (IDA) Pilot Project for People with Disabilities aims to increase opportunities for disabled individuals to participate in IDA programs through the provision of technical assistance and training to IDA providers. The project will yield insight on how to best maximize participation in IDAs by people with disabilities and will provide best practice strategies to modify national IDA programs.

Individual Development Accounts (IDAs) and People with Disabilities: What IDA Providers Need to Know

People with disabilities are among the poorest in our nation. About 1 in 5 Americans has a disability, and 1 in 10 has a severe disability. People with severe disabilities have an unemployment rate of 70% and account for only 2.9% of this country's total income. The unemployment rate for people with disabilities is more than twice that of people without disabilities and has remained at that level for many years. This is the poorest rate of participation in the work force and the highest rate of unemployment of any group in American society.

Use of Individual Development Accounts by People with Disabilities: Barriers and Solutions

Asset development tools are a key element of economic development programs that have been created by Congress – with strong bipartisan support – over the last few years. Individual Development Accounts (IDAs), the grandparent of savings programs for the poor, were initiated as part of the welfare reform movement. The original concept of providing savings incentives through a matching program was developed as part of the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program, which replaced Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC).

IDA Fact Sheet: Policy Implications

Assets are a key factor in opening doors for the disability community—with assets the purchase of a home, postsecondary education and business capitalization can become a reality for economically marginalized populations such as persons with disabilities. Approximately 19.7% of the United States population (or 52.6 million) live with some level of disability. Over one-third of adults with disabilities live in households with income of $15,000 or less compared to only 12% of those without disabilities.

Individual Development Accounts: A Golden Opportunity for Persons with Disabilities

Oppressive poverty persists among people with disabilities in the United States. According to the 1995 Current Population Survey, 39.7 percent of working-age persons with disabilities live in poverty. Sadly, as disability advocates, this statistic may not surprise us. What is surprising is the scarcity of effective new programs addressing economic inequity. Be that as it may, there is one new rising star in the mainstream antipoverty movement; it is called the Individual Development Account (IDA) savings program.

New Beginnings: Making homeownership a reality for people with disabilities

When Barbara Pesante lost her sight five years ago after a staph infection injured her optic nerve, she tried unsuccessfully to obtain assistance in her homeland, Puerto Rico. Only after moving to Florida did she begin receiving Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits, which qualified her for job search assistance through Vocational Rehabilitation (VR).

Asset Accumulation and Tax Policy Project (AATPP)

AATPP unites organizations serving persons with disabilities with credit unions and other financial institutions to produce groundbreaking research on barriers and opportunities of tax and public policies. The research and accompanying policy recommendations will improve the economic independence, social empowerment, and community integration of persons with disabilities.

Integrating Universal Design Principles in Asset Building Programs

We are only beginning to understand the applicability of Universal Design approaches in diverse arenas. Universal Design began largely as physical accommodation practices that revolutionized the way people thought about access issues. This paper proposes ways of expanding Universal Design concepts to Asset Building programs, using concrete examples for implementation. Opening Universal Design principles up to challenging ways of thinking, presenting information, as well as physical accommodation is a major step toward a more inclusive world.

Asking About Disability: A Guide for Individual Development Account Administrators

Many Individual Development Account (IDA) administrators are unaware that they currently serve a large number of persons with disabilities in their programs. Disabled participants go unnoticed because disabilities may be non-visible, such as learning disabilities, chronic illness and psychiatric disability. Furthermore, few people with disabilities voluntarily self disclose their condition. IDA providers help all participants in their programs when providing universal program accessibility. IDA providers can likely improve overall success rates of participants in meeting their goals, by assessing disability status during intake as a matter of practice and by providing support services accordingly.