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 Medi-Cal Rules Help People who Work and Save

Supplemental Security Income (SSI) has a $2,000 resource limit and disability-based Medi-Cal has a $130,000 limit. 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.
• ABLE accounts 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) or Individual Development Account (IDA) are not counted. These special types of accounts let your child save for specific expenses, like school tuition.
• Assets in certain types of trusts do not count.

Medi-Cal resource rules for people who work:

• The SSI resource rules also apply to Medi-Cal.
• None of the money in an ABLE account is counted against Medi-Cal resource limits.
• If your child has income from a job, he or she can get coverage through Medi-Cal's Working Disabled Program (WDP). It also has a $130,000 resource limit, but with WDP, if your child saves money from earnings in a separate account or in a retirement account, that money won't count against the resource limit.
• There is no resource limit for income-based Medi-Cal, no matter how old your child is.