Garnishments

A garnishment is a court order that allows creditors to take money or property to pay a debt owed to them. This is most often done by taking a portion of wages paid by an employer.

What’s important to know is that federal benefits ordinarily are exempt from garnishment. That means you should be able to protect your federal funds from being taken by your creditors, although you might have to go to court to do so.

The federal benefits that are exempt from garnishment include:

• Social Security Benefits
• Supplemental Security Income (SSI) Benefits
• Veterans’ Benefits
• Civil Service and Federal Retirement and Disability Benefits
• Military Annuities and Survivors’ Benefits
• Student Assistance
• Railroad Retirement Benefits
• Merchant Seamen Wages
• Longshoremen’s and Harbor Workers’ Death and Disability Benefits
• Foreign Service Retirement and Disability Benefits
• Compensation for Injury, Death, or Detention of Employees of U.S. Contractors Outside the U.S.
• Federal Emergency Management Agency Federal Disaster Assistance.

However, there are some situations where these funds are not protected and may be garnished. For example, some of these federal benefits may be used to pay delinquent federal taxes or student loans. Others, such as Social Security benefits, may be deducted before you receive them to pay child support or alimony.

The law varies from state to state as to what types of state benefits are subject to and exempt from garnishment. If you qualify as “low income” you can call the CLEAR LINE for help.

• 888.201.1014
• Monday – Friday 9:15am – 12:15pm

Source: www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0114-garnishing-federal-benefits