To stop or reduce an administrative wage garnishment, you have to request a hearing in writing within 15 business days of the date the federal agency mailed its notice. File on time and the agency cannot order your employer to withhold anything until the hearing is decided. File late and the money starts coming out of your paycheck while you wait. What you argue at that hearing, and what you document, decides whether the garnishment gets canceled, reduced, or upheld.
The 15-Business-Day Deadline
The clock starts on the date the notice was mailed, not the date you opened it. You have 15 business days to submit a written hearing request to the agency that sent the notice. A request received inside that window blocks the agency from issuing a withholding order to your employer until the hearing official has ruled.1eCFR. 31 CFR 285.11 – Administrative Wage Garnishment
Missing the deadline does not end your right to a hearing. The agency still has to give you one. But the withholding order goes out in the meantime, and the agency will only delay it if you can show the late filing was caused by circumstances beyond your control or the agency receives information justifying a delay.2eCFR. 17 CFR Part 204 – Rules Relating to Debt Collection Winning after garnishment has started stops future withholding, but recovering money already taken from your wages is a separate and much harder fight. The deadline is the leverage. Use it.
What You Can Argue at the Hearing
Federal regulations recognize a limited set of challenges. You only need to establish one. The burden is on you to prove it by a preponderance of the evidence.
- The debt does not exist, or the balance is wrong. If you already paid, or the agency failed to credit payments, this is your ground.1eCFR. 31 CFR 285.11 – Administrative Wage Garnishment
- Collection is barred by law. A debt discharged in bankruptcy, one past the statute of limitations, or one where the agency skipped a required procedural step may be legally unenforceable.
- You have a repayment agreement in place and you are current on it. An agency generally cannot pursue garnishment on top of a voluntary plan you are honoring.1eCFR. 31 CFR 285.11 – Administrative Wage Garnishment
- Financial hardship. The garnishment would keep you or your family from meeting basic living expenses. This is the most common ground raised, and the one that lives or dies on documentation.
Hardship is not all-or-nothing. If the official finds hardship, the withholding rate can be lowered below the statutory 15% for a period the agency sets based on your financial condition.1eCFR. 31 CFR 285.11 – Administrative Wage Garnishment
How Much Can Actually Be Taken
Understanding the math helps you argue hardship credibly. The agency can withhold up to 15% of your disposable pay each pay period.1eCFR. 31 CFR 285.11 – Administrative Wage Garnishment Disposable pay is what remains after your employer deducts taxes, Social Security, and health insurance premiums. Court-ordered payments like child support do not reduce the disposable pay figure for this calculation.3eCFR. 29 CFR Part 20 Subpart F – Administrative Wage Garnishment The 15% comes off a higher base than many people expect.
A floor protects low earners. Under the Consumer Credit Protection Act, garnishment cannot exceed the amount by which your weekly disposable earnings exceed 30 times the federal minimum wage, which is $7.25 per hour and puts the protected floor at $217.50 per week. If 15% would drop you below that floor, the smaller amount applies.4GovInfo. 15 USC 1673 – Restriction on Garnishment For someone earning close to that floor, the actual withholding is much less than 15%.
Evidence to Bring
The notice will point you to a hearing request form and a financial disclosure statement. The disclosure asks for a detailed breakdown of monthly gross income, tax withholdings, insurance premiums, and living expenses. Every line needs backup. Hearing officials do not take your word on the numbers.
For income, pull at least three months of pay stubs plus your federal tax returns from the prior two years. The stubs prove current earnings and mandatory deductions; the returns show household size and income patterns. If you have self-employment or seasonal income, add bank statements covering the same period.
For expenses, gather receipts or billing statements for housing, utilities, groceries, medical costs, childcare, transportation, and any court-ordered support. Hearing officials measure your numbers against IRS Collection Financial Standards: national standards for food, clothing, and personal care, and local standards for housing, utilities, and transportation.5Internal Revenue Service. Collection Financial Standards Expenses at or below the standard are accepted without further justification. Anything above requires documentation showing why the higher figure is necessary.
The national standards for food, clothing, and personal care allow $839 per month for a single person, $1,481 for a two-person household, $1,753 for three, and $2,129 for four, with $394 added for each additional family member.6Internal Revenue Service. National Standards – Food, Clothing and Other Items Below those figures, no receipts required. Above them, bring proof.
If your challenge is about the debt itself rather than hardship, the evidence shifts. Canceled checks and payment confirmations rebut the balance. A bankruptcy discharge order kills an unenforceable debt. Correspondence from the creditor agency showing a different balance undercuts the agency’s own numbers. Organize everything chronologically so the official can follow it without hunting.
How the Hearing Runs
Most AWG hearings are conducted by telephone. A hearing official from the creditor agency or an administrative law judge runs the call, reviews what both sides submitted, and asks questions. You present your case, the agency representative may respond, and the official weighs the evidence.
Not every hearing involves a live conversation. When the dispute turns on financial figures and documents rather than credibility, the official can decide the case on the paper record without scheduling a call.7eCFR. 38 CFR 1.923 – Administrative Wage Garnishment That makes your written submission critical. You can ask for an oral hearing, but the official decides whether the issues require one.
Whatever the format, the official is answering two questions: is this debt legally valid and correctly calculated, and if it is, can this person afford to pay at the proposed rate? Keep every argument tied to those two questions. Grievances about the agency’s conduct rarely move the outcome. Numbers and legal defenses do.
The Decision
The hearing official has to issue a written decision within 60 days of the date the agency received your hearing request.1eCFR. 31 CFR 285.11 – Administrative Wage Garnishment There are three possible outcomes.
- Garnishment sustained. The agency issues a withholding order to your employer, who must begin deducting wages and sending them to the agency.1eCFR. 31 CFR 285.11 – Administrative Wage Garnishment
- Garnishment reduced. On a hardship finding, the withholding rate is set below 15% for a period the agency defines based on your financial condition.1eCFR. 31 CFR 285.11 – Administrative Wage Garnishment
- Garnishment canceled. If the debt is invalid, already paid, or legally unenforceable, the agency withdraws the garnishment entirely.
A sustained withholding order does not expire on its own. It runs until the debt is paid off, the agency agrees to a different arrangement, or a later review changes the terms.
Asking for a Hardship Review Later
Losing the initial hearing, or accepting a reduced amount that later becomes unmanageable, is not the end. If your finances change significantly because of a disability, job loss, divorce, serious illness, or similar disruption, you can request a review at any time while the garnishment is active. Submit documentation of both the change and the resulting hardship. If the agency agrees, it will reduce the withholding for a period it considers appropriate and notify your employer.1eCFR. 31 CFR 285.11 – Administrative Wage Garnishment The relief may be temporary, but it is real.
Taking the Decision to Court
The hearing official’s decision is final agency action, which means it is subject to judicial review under the Administrative Procedure Act.8eCFR. 28 CFR 11.21 – Administrative Wage Garnishment If you believe the official misapplied the regulation, ignored evidence, or exceeded the agency’s authority, you can file in U.S. District Court. The court reviews the administrative record rather than holding a new trial, so what you submitted at the hearing is what the judge sees. Expect to need an attorney, and expect a deferential standard of review. The path is narrow but it exists.
A Note on Tax Refund Offset
The hearing process described here is for wage garnishment. If your challenge is to a tax refund or other federal payment being offset through the Treasury Offset Program, the hearing rights come from the creditor agency that referred the debt, not from Treasury, and the procedures and deadlines vary by agency.9eCFR. 31 CFR 285.4 – Offset of Federal Payments Read the offset notice for the correct contact and deadline. If a refund has already been intercepted, the post-offset notice identifies which agency asked for it.