How to Fill Out and Submit the ADP Hardship Withdrawal Form

To submit an ADP hardship withdrawal form, log in to your retirement account at mykplan.com or open the ADP Retirement Services mobile app, go to the withdrawals section, select the hardship option, pick your qualifying reason, enter the amount, upload your supporting documents, self-certify the need, and sign electronically. The system generates a confirmation number as soon as you submit. Save it. Your employer’s plan document controls whether hardship withdrawals are offered at all and which money sources are available, so confirm with your plan administrator if you are not sure the option exists on your plan.¹

Before You Start the Form

You need two things ready before you open the portal: a qualifying reason that matches the IRS safe harbor list, and documentation showing the exact dollar amount you owe.

The safe harbor reasons are unreimbursed medical expenses for you, your spouse, or your dependents; costs of buying your principal residence (not monthly mortgage payments); payments needed to prevent eviction from or foreclosure on your principal residence; up to twelve months of post-secondary tuition, room and board, and related fees for you, your spouse, children, dependents, or plan beneficiary; funeral or burial expenses for a parent, spouse, child, dependent, or plan beneficiary; and repairs to your principal residence from damage that would qualify as a casualty loss.²

Match your documents to the reason you pick:

Medical: itemized provider bills or an insurance Explanation of Benefits showing patient name, date of service, and balance due after insurance.
Home purchase: signed purchase agreement listing the property address, closing date, and amount due at closing.
Eviction or foreclosure: formal notice from the landlord or lender with the total due and cure deadline.
Tuition: bill from the school showing student name, enrollment period, and amount owed.
Funeral: invoices from the funeral home plus documentation of your relationship to the deceased, such as a death certificate.
Casualty repairs: contractor estimates or an insurance adjuster report showing the damage, repair costs, and property address.

Every dollar figure on your application should match a figure in your uploads. A request for $6,000 backed by a $4,200 bill will get flagged or denied.

Filling Out the Form in mykplan

Once you are logged in, open the withdrawals or distributions menu. The portal separates loans, in-service withdrawals, and hardship distributions, so choose the hardship option first. From there:

Pick the qualifying reason from the drop-down. The choices mirror the safe harbor categories above.
Enter the dollar amount. Keep it at or below the documented need. You may add the estimated federal and state tax and penalty so the net you receive covers the actual expense, but nothing beyond that.
Complete the self-certification. Check or sign the statement confirming you have an immediate and heavy financial need, that the amount does not exceed the need, and that you cannot reasonably cover it through insurance, other assets, other plan distributions, or available loans. ADP’s system was built to accept this self-certification under the SECURE 2.0 Act.³
Upload your supporting documents as PDF or JPEG. Make sure each file is legible and the amounts are visible.
Set federal tax withholding using Form W-4R if the portal prompts you. The default is 10%; you can raise or lower it from 0% to 100%.
Sign electronically. An e-signature has the same legal effect as a handwritten one under federal law.⁴
Submit and record the confirmation number. Screenshot it. You will need it to follow up with ADP participant services.

If you cannot complete the request online, call ADP participant services and ask for a paper form. Paper submissions travel by fax or mail and add several business days to the timeline.

How Much You Can Request

The cap is the actual amount of your financial need plus the taxes and penalty the distribution itself will trigger. No buffer, no rounding up. The IRS also expects that other resources would not cover the expense, and current rules let the plan rely on your written self-certification of that fact.¹

Which money sources fund the withdrawal depends on your plan document. Some plans limit hardship distributions to your own elective deferrals; others allow employer matching contributions, safe harbor contributions, and earnings. Your Summary Plan Description or plan administrator can confirm what is on the table.

Hardship withdrawals cannot be repaid to the plan or rolled over into another retirement account. The money is permanently out of your retirement savings. If your plan offers 401(k) loans and you have enough vested balance, a loan usually makes better financial sense because you pay it back with interest instead of losing the balance for good.

Spousal Consent

Most 401(k) plans do not require your spouse’s signature on a hardship request. The exception is a plan holding assets transferred in from a pension or money purchase plan subject to joint-and-survivor annuity rules; the transferred portion keeps its spousal consent requirement. Some plans also retain a spousal consent clause voluntarily. Where it applies, the consent usually must be notarized or witnessed by a plan representative, though some plans accept remote notarization by live video.

What Happens After You Submit

ADP and your plan administrator review the request against IRS rules and your plan’s terms. A straightforward file usually clears in a few business days. Missing or mismatched paperwork stretches that out.

If the request is denied, you get a notice by email or in the portal explaining what went wrong. The usual reasons are a dollar amount larger than the documented need, an incomplete self-certification, or uploads that do not match the stated reason. Fix the issue and resubmit. There is no penalty for resubmitting.

Once approved, funds move by electronic transfer to the bank account on your retirement profile, typically within a few business days of final authorization. A paper check takes seven to ten business days.

Taxes and the 10% Penalty

Every dollar you withdraw counts as ordinary taxable income for the year you receive it and gets added to your wages and other income on your return.⁵ Because hardship distributions cannot be rolled over, the mandatory 20% withholding that applies to most other 401(k) distributions does not apply. The default federal withholding is 10%, adjustable on Form W-4R. State withholding may also apply depending on where you live. If the 10% default is lower than your actual tax rate, raise it to avoid a bill in April.

If you are under 59½, you also generally owe an additional 10% early distribution tax.⁶ On a $10,000 withdrawal, that is another $1,000. Being approved for a hardship distribution does not waive the penalty. A few exceptions can eliminate it if they happen to fit your circumstances:

Total and permanent disability as defined by the IRS.
Losses in a federally declared disaster area, up to $22,000 penalty-free.⁷
A series of substantially equal periodic payments calculated under IRS rules.
Medical expenses above 7.5% of AGI, for the portion of the withdrawal covering that excess.

Withdrawals for tuition, a home purchase, or eviction prevention do not get a penalty exception on their own.

When the $1,000 Emergency Withdrawal Fits Better

Starting in 2024, SECURE 2.0 Section 115 created a penalty-free emergency personal expense withdrawal of up to $1,000 per calendar year. You self-certify that the money is for an unforeseeable or immediate personal or family emergency, and the 10% early withdrawal penalty does not apply.⁸

You can repay this withdrawal to the plan within three years. If you repay, you can take another $1,000 the next year. If you do not, you must wait three full calendar years before another emergency withdrawal. Your vested balance must stay above $1,000 after the distribution. Not every employer has adopted this yet; plan sponsors have until December 31, 2026, to amend their plans. If the amount you need is under $1,000 and your plan offers this route, it beats a traditional hardship withdrawal on both penalty and repayment.

Contributions Continue After the Withdrawal

The old rule that suspended your 401(k) contributions for six months after a hardship distribution ended January 1, 2019. You can keep making elective deferrals immediately, which also keeps your employer match flowing.² If your plan’s paperwork still mentions a suspension period, ask HR whether the document has been updated.

1
Internal Revenue Service. Retirement Topics – Hardship Distributions
2
Internal Revenue Service. Retirement Plans FAQs Regarding Hardship Distributions
3
ADP. SECURE 2.0 Act of 2022
4
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 U.S.C. Chapter 96 – Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce
5
Internal Revenue Service. 401(k) Plan Hardship Distributions – Consider the Consequences
6
Internal Revenue Service. Retirement Topics – Exceptions to Tax on Early Distributions
7
Internal Revenue Service. Access Retirement Funds in a Disaster
8
Nationwide. SECURE 2.0 Emergency Withdrawal Provisions