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We want you to be able to make decisions about your student loans with confidence. We offer objective, independent, straightforward guidance on student loans and refinancing lenders. While our site doesn't answer every question or have every lender, we are proud to provide the information and tools you need — free of charge — to make the best decisions for yourself. So how do we make money? We get paid in two ways. First, you can hire us to develop a student loan strategy for you and implement that strategy on your behalf. Second, our partners compensate us. This may influence which refinancing lenders we write about, but it doesn't affect our recommendations or advice. Our partners cannot pay us to guarantee favorable reviews of their products or services.You can stop a federal student loan wage garnishment due to financial hardship by contacting the Department of Education’s Default Resolution Group or the collection agency listed on your notice and requesting an administrative hearing.
This hearing lets you prove that the amount being taken leaves you unable to meet basic living expenses. It’s one of the few ways to stop an active garnishment without filing bankruptcy or completing loan rehabilitation.
Current status (August 2026): The Department of Education paused its own involuntary collections — administrative wage garnishment and Treasury offset — on January 16, 2026, and has not announced a restart date. The authority is intact and collections can resume with little warning. That pause does not cover older FFEL loans held by a guaranty agency, which can still garnish wages. Check who is named on your garnishment notice before assuming the pause applies to you.
Note: If your wages haven’t started being garnished yet and you only received a Notice of Intent to Garnish, consider loan rehabilitation or consolidation instead. Those options can prevent the garnishment altogether and bring your loans back into good standing.
What Is Financial Hardship?
Under federal law (20 U.S.C. § 1095a and 34 C.F.R. §§ 34.7 and 34.24), you can challenge a federal wage garnishment if it causes financial hardship—meaning the deduction prevents you from meeting ordinary and necessary living expenses for yourself and your dependents.
To evaluate hardship, the hearing officer reviews your disposable income and essential expenses—housing, food, utilities, transportation, medical costs, and insurance. The government can’t take more than 15% of your disposable pay or reduce your income below 30 times the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour — about $217.50 per week. To see what those limits mean for your own paycheck, you can estimate your garnishment with the wage garnishment calculator.
If the evidence shows the garnishment leaves too little to cover these basics, the order can be reduced or suspended.
What a Financial Hardship Hearing Does
A financial hardship hearing gives you the chance to challenge how much the government is taking from your paycheck. When your federal loans go into default, the Department of Education can collect through Administrative Wage Garnishment (AWG)—a process that doesn’t require a court order. By law, it can take up to 15% of your disposable pay, but you have the right to show that doing so causes financial hardship.
How to Request a Hardship Hearing
Follow these steps to request a financial hardship hearing and challenge your federal wage garnishment:
1. Contact the agency handling your garnishment.
Check your Notice of Intent to Garnish or recent collection letter. It will list either the Department of Education’s Default Resolution Group (1-800-621-3115) or a specific collection agency. Call them to confirm where to send your request.
2. Complete the “Request for Hearing on Administrative Wage Garnishment” form.
Ask the agency listed on your notice to send you the hearing request form. The copy Treasury and studentaid.gov link to is currently a broken link, so request the form directly rather than hunting for the PDF online.
You do not need the form to request a hearing. You may write your own signed statement that clearly says you’re requesting a hearing because the garnishment causes financial hardship.
3. Submit your request within 30 days.
You have 30 days from the date on your notice to file the request and pause garnishment before it begins. Your request counts as on time if it is postmarked or received by the 30th day after the date on the notice. If you miss that deadline, you’ll still get a hearing—but deductions can continue while your case is reviewed.
4. Gather your supporting documents.
Include proof of your income and necessary expenses:
Last two pay stubs (within the past 90 days)
Most recent federal tax return or IRS transcript
Documentation of dependents and household income (e.g., child support, benefits)
Receipts for rent, utilities, insurance, and out-of-pocket medical costs
5. Send your full packet to the address on your notice.
Mail, fax, or email your completed form and documentation to the address listed on your Notice of Intent to Garnish or the Department of Education’s Default Resolution Group. Keep a copy of everything you send.
6. Wait for confirmation and next steps.
You should receive written acknowledgment that your hearing request was received. If you filed on time, wage deductions will pause while your hearing is scheduled and reviewed. A written decision is due within 60 days of the date your request is received.
What to Expect at the Hearing
Once you request a hearing, you’ll be asked to submit documentation showing your income, household size, and necessary expenses. The hearing may be handled by phone, video, or through a written review. The officer will compare your disposable income against federal standards to decide whether the garnishment should continue, be reduced, or be suspended.
If the reviewer agrees that the garnishment makes it impossible to cover essentials like housing, food, transportation, or medical costs, they can order the deduction lowered or temporarily stopped. The decision doesn’t erase your default—it simply relieves the immediate pressure so you can work toward a permanent fix through rehabilitation or consolidation.
How Long It Takes to Get a Decision
After you submit your hearing request and financial documents, the hearing official has 60 days from the date your request is received to issue a written decision. If that deadline passes without one, no garnishment order can be issued—and if an order is already in place, it must be suspended starting on the 61st day until you receive a decision.
Here’s what happens to your paycheck while you wait:
If you filed your request within 30 days of the date on your Notice of Intent to Garnish, the government must pause wage deductions while your case is pending.
If you filed after the 30-day window, your request will still be processed, but garnishment can continue until a decision is made.
Once the review is complete, you’ll receive a written decision stating whether the garnishment will continue as is, be reduced to a lower percentage, or be suspended temporarily because of financial hardship.
If Your Hearing Request Is Denied
The garnishment will continue until the debt is paid or another form of relief is approved. You still have options to stop or reduce the deduction:
File for bankruptcy. This immediately stops wage garnishment through the court’s automatic stay, though it’s a serious step that should be discussed with an attorney.
Enter loan rehabilitation. Garnishment continues at first but pauses after your fifth qualifying monthly payment under a rehabilitation agreement.
Reapply for a new hardship hearing. You can request another review if your financial situation changes or new evidence supports your claim.
Consolidation won’t stop the garnishment because you can’t consolidate once a wage garnishment order has been sent to your employer.
If you believe your decision was based on incomplete or incorrect information, contact the Default Resolution Group (1-800-621-3115) to confirm whether you can submit updated documentation for reconsideration.
FAQs
Yes. You can request a hearing at any time—even after deductions begin. If you file within 30 days of your notice, garnishment pauses while your case is reviewed. If you file later, deductions continue until a decision is made. One limit applies once an order is already in force: the Department generally will not consider an objection to a withholding order until that order has been outstanding for at least six months, unless you show extraordinary circumstances. That rule does not affect a hearing request you make before the order is issued.
Yes. You can reapply for a new hardship hearing if your income drops, your household size increases, or your expenses rise. Include updated pay stubs, tax records, and proof of new expenses with your request.
Call the Department of Education’s Default Resolution Group at 1-800-621-3115. They can confirm which collection agency or servicer currently holds your loan and give you the correct mailing, fax, or email address for your hearing packet.
You should get a confirmation letter or email once your request is logged. A written decision follows, explaining whether the garnishment will continue, be reduced, or be temporarily suspended. If you don’t hear back within a few weeks, contact the Default Resolution Group to verify receipt
