The Disability Community Is Being Left Behind by Big Banks — Again

Big banks love to talk about innovation: smarter budgeting tools, faster direct deposits, AI-powered insights. But if you’re on disability benefits, you’ve probably noticed something else.

Those tools aren’t made for you.

Millions of disabled Americans are excluded from the banking system — not because they don’t need help managing money, but because banks weren’t built with their needs in mind. And even now, most still aren’t.

The System Wasn’t Built for Disability Benefits

Let’s be real: SSI, SSDI, and Medicaid come with complicated rules and strict limits. Most traditional banks:

• Don’t warn you if you’re about to exceed the $2,000 asset limit

• Don’t let you monitor your income against SSA thresholds

• Don’t offer any tools to help you manage benefit-related documents

• Don’t understand what a “Qualified Disability Expense” even means

You’re expected to figure all that out on your own — with no margin for error. Make one mistake, and you risk overpayments, benefit suspensions, or months of bureaucratic delays.

Meanwhile, Fintech Is Racing Ahead — Without You

Tech-forward banking apps are adding features at record speed:

• Instant transaction notifications

• Early direct deposit

• Auto-savings rules

• Custom spending insights

But most of those tools assume one thing: you’re not receiving government benefits. They ignore the very real constraints disabled users face. Some even block users who get SSI or EBT deposits altogether.

It’s exclusion — dressed up as innovation.

We Deserve Better

People with disabilities are the largest minority group in America. And yet we’re still treated like edge cases when it comes to financial tools.

We need banking that’s designed for the reality of living on benefits — not one that punishes us for using the system we were promised.

How Purple Is Different

Purple is a modern checking account built specifically for the disability community.

With Purple, you can:

• Monitor your balance in real time and stay under the SSI limit

• Track income against SSA rules for SSDI or Medicaid

• Store paystubs, SSA letters, and receipts all in one place

• Set spending controls by category

• Receive Social Security disability benefits, which may arrive up to 4 days early¹

• Get other direct deposits, like paychecks, which may arrive up to 2 days early¹

Get started today at withpurple.com

Purple is a financial technology company, not a bank. Banking services are provided by OMB Bank, Member FDIC. The Purple Mastercard® Debit Card is issued by OMB Bank, Member FDIC, pursuant to license from Mastercard.

¹ Early access is not guaranteed, depends on payer timing, and standard processing times may apply. We generally make funds available on the day we receive the payment file, which may be up to 4 days early for government benefits like SSI or SSDI, and up to 2 days early for other deposits. Early access is available at no additional cost.