Office of Community Services; Individual Development Accounts

This regulation implements a statutory requirement in the Assets for Independence Act under title IV of the Community Opportunities, Accountability, and Training and Educational Services Act of 1998. The Act provides competitive demonstration grants for projects to establish, support, and evaluate individual development accounts for low income individuals and families. The purpose of the five-year Assets for Independence Program is to encourage low-income individuals to accumulate assets by matching an individual's savings with Federal and private funds in order to determine the effects of asset accumulation incentives on the well-being, savings behavior, and stability of low-income families and their communities. The statute requires the Secretary of Health and Human Services to prescribe regulations that grantees must follow in accounting for amounts grantees deposit in the reserve fund. This final rule implements that provision of the legislation, and includes two changes from the Interim Final Rule published on February 25, 2000. Other factors in the legislation have been, or will be, addressed administratively, through other administrative policy issuances.