How to Fill Out and Submit the Empower Hardship Withdrawal Request Form

To take a hardship withdrawal from a 401(k) held at Empower, you complete the Empower Hardship Withdrawal Request Form through the participant portal, choose a qualifying reason, attach documentation of the expense, and submit it for review. The form is only available if your employer’s plan includes a hardship provision, so confirm that first. Hardship withdrawals are taxable, generally carry a 10% early withdrawal penalty if you’re under 59½, and cannot be repaid or rolled over.

Confirm Your Plan Allows Hardship Withdrawals

Federal law does not require employers to include a hardship withdrawal provision. Your plan document controls whether the option exists and which contribution types are eligible.¹ Some plans limit hardship distributions to your own elective deferrals; others also make employer matching contributions and earnings available. Log into the Empower participant portal or call the number on your statement to check what your plan permits before filling anything out.

Pick a Qualifying Reason

The IRS lists safe harbor reasons that automatically qualify as an “immediate and heavy financial need.” Your plan may recognize all of them or only some. The safe harbor categories cover expenses for you, your spouse, your dependents, or a primary beneficiary named on the account.²

Medical care costs deductible under IRC Section 213(d), whether or not they exceed the AGI threshold.¹
Costs directly tied to buying your principal residence, such as down payment and closing costs. Regular mortgage payments do not qualify.
Tuition, fees, and room and board for the next 12 months of post-secondary education.
Payments needed to prevent eviction from or foreclosure on your principal residence.
Funeral and burial expenses for a deceased parent, spouse, child, dependent, or primary beneficiary.
Repairs to your principal residence for damage that would qualify for a casualty deduction under IRC Section 165. The TCJA’s federally-declared-disaster limit on casualty deductions does not apply to this hardship category.³
Expenses and lost income from a FEMA-declared disaster, if your principal residence or workplace was in the designated zone.

How Much You Can Request

The withdrawal is capped at the amount needed to cover the financial need. You can also include the estimated federal and state income taxes and any early withdrawal penalty you expect to owe on the distribution itself. If you need $10,000 for a medical bill and expect about $3,000 in combined taxes and penalty, you can request $13,000.¹

You do not have to take a plan loan first. The Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018 removed that requirement, so your plan cannot force you to borrow as a condition of the hardship distribution.¹

Fill Out the Form

Access the Hardship Distribution Request Form through the Empower participant portal under withdrawals or distributions. It’s also available by calling Empower’s participant services line. The form itself lists the documentation required for each hardship category.⁴

Expect fields for your full legal name, Social Security Number, and the plan identification or group number, which appears on quarterly statements and your Empower dashboard. You’ll select a hardship category, enter the exact dollar amount, and choose a payment method, usually direct deposit or a mailed check.

Tax Withholding

Hardship distributions cannot be rolled over, so the 20% mandatory withholding for eligible rollover distributions does not apply.¹ A default 10% federal withholding applies unless you elect a different percentage or opt out. State withholding varies: some states set mandatory minimums, some follow your federal election, and states without income tax don’t withhold. If you opt out entirely, you’ll owe the full tax bill at filing and may face an underpayment penalty.

Spousal Consent

If your plan is subject to qualified joint and survivor annuity rules and you are married, notarized spousal consent may be required before Empower processes the distribution.⁵ Check with Empower or your plan administrator if you’re unsure.

Attach the Right Documentation

Every hardship withdrawal requires evidence of both the nature of the expense and the dollar amount. Empower reviews the documents to confirm the request meets IRS rules and plan terms.⁶ What to send by category:

Medical: itemized invoices or an Explanation of Benefits showing the balance due after insurance, with the patient’s name and amount owed.
Home purchase: a signed purchase agreement or sales contract showing price, down payment, closing costs, and expected closing date.
Education: a tuition bill or enrollment cost summary from the school for the upcoming term.
Eviction or foreclosure: a formal notice from the landlord or lender stating the past-due amount and deadline.
Funeral: invoices from the funeral home or related providers itemizing costs.
Home repairs: repair estimates or contractor invoices describing the damage and cost. Photographs and any FEMA or insurance damage assessment can strengthen the request.
Federally declared disaster: FEMA correspondence confirming your address falls within the designated zone, plus receipts or estimates for the losses claimed.

Every document should clearly show the name of the person whose expense it is and the specific dollar amount. Empower generally expects paperwork dated within the last 30 to 60 days. Outdated documents are one of the most common reasons requests get sent back.

Submit the Form

The fastest route is the Empower participant portal. Go to the documents or withdrawals section of your dashboard, upload the completed form and scanned or photographed supporting documents, and submit. Use high-resolution scans; blurry or partial uploads delay the request.

If digital submission isn’t available for your plan, the form includes a fax number and mailing address for Empower’s processing center. Mailing adds several business days for transit and manual entry. Write your plan ID on every page you send so loose documents don’t get separated.

What Happens After You Submit

Once Empower has all documents in good order, review begins. Some plans delegate review entirely to Empower; others require the employer’s plan administrator to give final approval through the Plan Service Center before funds release.⁵

Reviewers check that the hardship category qualifies under the plan, that the dollar amount matches the documented need, and that the request complies with IRS rules. If a signature is missing, a document doesn’t match the claimed amount, or the hardship category is unclear, an Empower representative will reach out by email or phone. Responding quickly keeps things moving.

After approval, Empower liquidates the necessary investments and issues payment. Direct deposits typically arrive within a few business days; paper checks take longer. The full cycle from submission to receipt can run up to 12 business days when everything goes smoothly, and longer if documentation is incomplete or plan administrator approval is required.

Taxes and the 10% Early Withdrawal Penalty

A hardship withdrawal is taxable income. The full amount, minus any after-tax or Roth contributions already taxed, gets added to your gross income for the year. If you’re under 59½, you’ll also owe a 10% additional tax on top of your regular income tax rate.⁷

A few narrow exceptions can eliminate the 10% penalty. Unreimbursed medical expenses above 7.5% of AGI qualify, as do distributions to individuals who are totally and permanently disabled. SECURE 2.0 also created an emergency personal expense exception under IRC Section 72(t)(2)(I): one penalty-free withdrawal per calendar year of up to $1,000, or your vested balance above $1,000, whichever is less.⁷

Two things make hardship distributions especially costly compared to other ways of tapping retirement funds: you cannot repay the money to the plan, and you cannot roll it over into another retirement account or IRA.¹ Once the money leaves the account, it’s gone from a retirement savings perspective.

Long-Term Cost to Your Retirement

The real cost of a hardship withdrawal is bigger than the tax hit. You’re pulling money out of an account designed to compound for decades. A $20,000 withdrawal at age 35, left invested at a 6% average annual return, would have grown to roughly $64,000 by age 55. That lost growth is money you won’t have in retirement, and increased contributions later cannot fully replace the compounding time.

One piece of good news: plans can no longer suspend your 401(k) contributions after a hardship distribution. The IRS eliminated the old six-month contribution freeze for distributions made after December 31, 2019.³ You can keep contributing and collecting any employer match without interruption.

1
Internal Revenue Service. Retirement Topics – Hardship Distributions
2
Federal Register. Hardship Distributions of Elective Contributions, Qualified Matching Contributions, Qualified Nonelective Contributions, and Earnings
3
Internal Revenue Service. Retirement Plans FAQs Regarding Hardship Distributions
4
Empower. Empower Hardship Processing Overview
5
Empower. Empower Withdrawal Processing Overview
6
Internal Revenue Service. Dos and Donts of Hardship Distributions
7
Internal Revenue Service. Retirement Topics – Exceptions to Tax on Early Distributions