Broadcast Retirement Network’s Jeffrey Snyder discusses a new toolkit to help those with disabilities (and their caregivers) maintain their financial independence with the U.S. Department of Labor’s Assistant Secretary Julie Hocker.
Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network
Joining me now is Julie Hocker. She’s the Assistant Secretary of Labor for Disability Employment Policy. Assistant Secretary, so great to see you.
Thanks for joining us this morning. Yeah, thank you for having me. I’m looking forward to our discussion today.
And, and, you know, we just, we’re entering May or we’re in May doing this interview. We just finished financial literacy. The Department of Labor continues to do an amazing job helping, in my opinion, helping individuals, workers in many different areas.
But let me ask you, how is the Department of Labor prioritizing the needs of those with disabilities today?
Julie Hocker, Assistant Secretary of Labor For Disability Employment Policy
Well, that’s a great question, Jeff. And I’ll start with this. You know, under President Trump’s leadership, our nation’s economy is strong.
And here at the U.S. Department of Labor, under the leadership of Acting Secretary Keith Sonderling, we’re turning that strength into wins for the American worker. And that means making sure that the education and training that they’re receiving is turning into real jobs. But we also want that pathway from education and training to workforce development, into the workforce development system and into work, to be accessible.
And that’s what we’re focused on as well. And sometimes that means really simple things. We’re making sure that individuals with disabilities can access the education and training that they need, that they’re developing the skills and the talents that leaders all across the industry are demanding here in the United States.
And we’re making sure that employees and employers know how to access reasonable accommodations, make their workplaces more accessible. And I think this is another important note. We’re making sure that workers and businesses know how to take the latest technology and make sure that it’s not just accessible for workers with disabilities, but that it’s helping them every day access the workplace.
But we’re not stopping there. You know, for millions of Americans with disabilities, as they go to work and they start to bring home that paycheck, they begin to wonder about the impact of earnings on their benefits. And at the Department of Labor, we want every American worker with a disability to understand that relationship and to have a plan.
That’s why last month we released the Secure Your Financial Future Toolkit. Now, I sort of like to think of this as a playbook for the American worker with disability. Because what we’re offering is one place where you can go and learn and receive basic information.
Information that helps you plan, information that helps you access the information you need, and the educational resources all in one place. So that as you bring home that paycheck, and you begin to think about your short-term and long-term plans, maybe it’s buying your first home or starting a family or thinking about retirement. Whatever it is, we want an American with a disability to have the resources they need.
And I’ll be honest, you know, if you have a disability, there’s other considerations too, right? There’s real costs associated with disabilities, including home modifications and accessible vehicles and medical costs. We’re bringing all of that together in one place.
It’s a great playbook.
Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network
Yeah, and I’ve looked at the site. It’s amazing. We’re actually probably going to show that while we’re doing this interview.
Let’s talk a little bit more about financial literacy, because let me ask you, how does that contribute to the long-term economic independence of someone that may have disabilities?
Julie Hocker, Assistant Secretary of Labor For Disability Employment Policy
Well, absolutely. It’s a great question. You know, for Americans, what we want for every American, we want people to be in pursuit of the American dream, which includes financial independence.
And we know that that starts with having the information that you need when you need it. And Jeff, I know you just mentioned that you took a look at the toolkit that we put out just a few weeks ago, and that’s exactly what we did. We brought it all into a single place for individuals and their families and their friends.
You know, financial education for so many of us starts around a kitchen table. Or, you know, financial education, maybe it starts, you get your first job out of school and mom or dad, aunt or uncle, trusted neighbor, they’re helping you start, you know, open up that 401k and choose your assets and which retirement funds you’re going to go into. That doesn’t always happen for an American with a disability.
And if it does, it’s probably, unfortunately, an incomplete conversation. But like I said, we want Americans to understand how earnings impact their benefits so that they can make a plan to bring home that paycheck. And that’s what the toolkit does.
It really goes back to that kitchen table. It goes back to the moment you start working or when you’re halfway through your career, and you’re really taking that health check on whether or not you’re kind of moving towards that retirement of your dreams. And it makes sure that the disability expenses and the disability-related tools and information you need are all in one place.
Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network
Well, Assistant Secretary, you’re speaking my language when it comes to retirement benefits. In what ways can this financial education maybe reduce dependency on public benefits, but also, as you were saying, improve retirement outcomes, which, as you were talking about, some of the expenses are very high for people that may have some disabilities?
Julie Hocker, Assistant Secretary of Labor For Disability Employment Policy
Yeah, that’s absolutely right. You know, let’s be honest about something. An American with a disability is more likely to live in poverty than the American without a disability.
That’s a sobering fact for all of us. And to your point just a moment ago, we need to also be honest about the fact that having a disability comes with very real and very high costs. Everything from home modifications like ramps, accessible bathrooms, or maybe a lower kitchen counter, or an accessible vehicle so that you can use your wheelchair or mobility aid to get safely in and out of your car and get to school or work.
Perhaps you need accessible technology that helps you live at home both independently and safely. And certainly, many of us living in America today with a disability have continued medical costs associated with the medical complexity that comes with our disability. And look, those aren’t easy.
And so we can understand why Americans without the right education, without the right tools, really are fearful of losing those benefits that help them, but desire and want to be a part of our nation’s great workforce. And we want to break that down for them. And that’s what this toolkit, and that’s more importantly what this toolkit offers and provides a gateway and pathway to, can help Americans with.
And I’d really be remiss if I didn’t mention something that we highlight in the toolkit, and that’s ABLE accounts. You know, probably almost everyone listening to our conversation today know what a 529 is. It’s a college and savings account that grows tax-free.
But I bet you didn’t know about 529As. Those are ABLE accounts. They work much like college and education savings accounts, except they can cover the cost of those additional expenses that we just talked about in our homes, in our schools, in our places of work, and certainly when we’re seeking medical care.
And so we want to make sure that every American, every family who has a member with a disability, and certainly every financial planner knows that an ABLE account can come alongside and help plan and save for those disability-related expenses without doing two things, without later causing a new taxable event when they withdraw. And more importantly, those ABLE accounts, assets that are being deposited and are growing, do not count against the asset limits for those critical benefits that we just talked about as well. And you know what that does?
It gives an American with a disability and their family the opportunity to thoughtfully plan that as those paychecks come in, those wages go up, they can slowly make a plan to reduce their reliance over time on those benefits, while at the same time seeing their savings and investments go up and seeing that first home or that growing family or that retirement finally with insight.
Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network
You know, the Department of Labor Assistant Secretary is taking tremendous steps putting out this information. Let me ask you, what can employers of all sizes, whether they’re small, mid-sized, large, mega corporations, what can they do to assist their employees that may have disabilities? And also, by the way, their families who may be caregivers.
Julie Hocker, Assistant Secretary of Labor For Disability Employment Policy
That’s right. I mean, I think it’s important that we talk about the fact that employers as sponsors of retirement plans are often one of the places where many of us look for financial education and resources. But you also make a great point because maybe we don’t see, you know, maybe we don’t think that we have a coworker with a disability.
Maybe that’s not evident or apparent. But, you know, the numbers don’t lie here, Jeff, right? Today in America, one in four of us is a caregiver for a person with a disability, whether that be a child or an adult.
One in four means that today 63 million Americans are caring for someone who has a disability. And that means that your colleague, your employee, your neighbor, your friend, they are people who are caregivers and know others who are. And so it’s really all of our responsibility, whether you’re an employer or a friend or a financial advisor, to be educated about the additional resources, accounts, and tools that Americans have at their disposal to plan for the expenses of a disability across a lifetime, to save and invest for those expenses that are both predictable and unpredictable, and to do that with confidence.
You know, we talk a lot about investor confidence. We want every American to have that information that they need to fully participate, to go after that dream of owning a home and starting a family and certainly participating in what we consider to be the greatest retirement system in the world, the one right here in the United States. And so we’re hoping that we’re not just opening the door to career pathways for Americans with disabilities, but as they step into those jobs, as they take that promotion, they have the tools alongside of them so that they can make the best choices given their circumstances.
And you’re absolutely right that everyone around them should know about these tools so that they can share them and sit alongside and think through those trade-offs and those decisions and those plans. Very few of us want to make financial decisions alone.
Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network
Absolutely. Last question for you, Assistant Secretary. You spent, you and the team at the Department of Labor spent a lot of time putting this together.
I would imagine this is not a one-and-done thing, for lack of a better term. This is going to be an ongoing approach and toolkit that you’ll continue to revise. How do you measure success?
Is it more, are there certain metrics that you’re going to be looking at as a team to say, hey, we’re doing better, or maybe we need to adjust over here, or maybe we need to try a new approach over here?
Julie Hocker, Assistant Secretary of Labor For Disability Employment Policy
Well, the proof is in the pudding, and we look at these numbers really closely. More Americans today have an ABLE account than ever before. And I’m going to tell you this, we think that the first quarter is going to also be really strong with new enrollments and account size averages.
But the truth is this, the president’s commitment and President Trump’s leadership in this space is unwavering. And under his leadership, we have expanded the use of ABLE accounts. Let me just give you some really good numbers that just don’t lie here.
Last year, as a part of the One Big Beautiful Bill, the president made permanent work provisions. That means that for Americans with disabilities who go to work, but do not have an access to an employer-sponsored plan before L1K, they can have an additional limit on their annual contributions to their ABLE accounts. We also saw on January 1st of this year, about 8 million more Americans qualify to open ABLE accounts than in previous years.
And I’ll tell you why. What we did was we took that minimum age of opening an account, the maximum age, my apologies, the maximum age that you could be when your disability onset, we took that limit from 26 to 46. Now, this opens the door for about 8 million more Americans, as I mentioned.
And so if previously you thought that you or your neighbor or your employee or your sister or your friend didn’t qualify, go back and check again. But here’s what else that age limit going up did. It looked at the Americans service men and women, those who go to war, they go to battle on behalf of our great nation and come back disabled in the name of defending our nation.
Those disabled veterans can now qualify for ABLE accounts as well. And I’ll tell you this, here at the Department of Labor, it is our privilege and it is our honor to be spending time out in the states talking to veterans, working alongside the VA to make sure that disabled veterans have every tool and every support they need as they come home, build out their lives and plan for the expenses ahead. And so we’re doing that and the numbers are panning out.
Another thing that I wanted to point out here, today we are seeing the average size of an ABLE account to be at about $13,000. Now, maybe for some of us, we don’t think about $13,000 as really being all that big. But without an ABLE account, someone with a disability could only save up to $2,000 before they started to lose the benefits they need.
So when we take $13,000 and we look at the difference between 2,000, that means that for many of the Americans with disabilities with ABLE accounts today, they have saved $11,000 more than they previously could have. And you know what $11,000 means? It means that you can go to bed at night knowing that if your car breaks down, knowing that if you need a new wheelchair or you need a medical care at the doctor or you need new technologies, you can remain in your home safe and independent.
Money’s sitting there in the bank account and it’s growing. It means that you can look and see the beginning of perhaps a down payment on a home or the future family that you want to build or help save for. That’s what security means and that’s what we’re building for millions of Americans.
And with that security, we know that we’re going to come alongside of Americans with disabilities. We’re going to help them see the future in the nation’s workforce and help them plan for that future.
Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network
Very well said, Assistant Secretary. You and the team are doing amazing work and look, there’s a lot going on and this is going to be a continuous enhancement and augmentation over time. Thank you so much for joining us this morning and we look forward to having you back again very soon.
Julie Hocker, Assistant Secretary of Labor For Disability Employment Policy
Thank you so much, Jeff.
