Student Loan Wage Garnishment: 15 or 30 Days to Request a Hearing?

Nearly every article about the coming return of student loan garnishment gives borrowers the same deadline: 30 days. That number is real, and it is written into the Education Department’s own regulations. But the two statutes behind wage garnishment use a shorter clock, Treasury’s general garnishment rule uses another one, and Treasury is the agency now taking over defaulted federal student loans. A borrower who treats day 30 as the only date that matters could lose the one thing a prompt request buys, which is a hearing before the money starts leaving the paycheck.

Where the pause stands

The Education Department announced a delay of involuntary collections on January 16, 2026, and has not set a restart date. For an article published October 29, it told Yahoo Finance: “Involuntary collections remain paused.” Meanwhile, Credit and Collection News, citing The Washington Sun and unnamed sources, reported on October 20 that Treasury could begin hiring collection firms as soon as November, with an announcement unlikely before the midterm elections. Treasury and the Office of Management and Budget declined to comment on that report, and its timetable is unconfirmed. We keep the running status in our collections restart tracker.

Three rules, three clocks

The disagreement over deadlines is on the face of the law. Here is what each source says, read directly rather than through summaries.

Those differences are larger than they look. For a notice mailed and dated Monday, February 1, 2027, the 15th calendar day is February 16, the 15th business day is February 22, because Treasury’s rule defines a business day as Monday through Friday and so counts Presidents’ Day in between, and the 30th day is March 3. Treasury’s rule also asks when the request was received, not when you mailed it, so a request dropped in the mail on the last day can miss.

Which clock will apply to a defaulted student loan after the handoff? No one can say for certain yet, because we have found no published sample of a post-transfer notice. The Education Department has its own garnishment regulations, and those are the rules a notice from the Department should follow. But under the March 19, 2026 agreement, The College Investor reports, Treasury’s Bureau of the Fiscal Service is to gradually take over defaulted loans through its Cross-Servicing Program, and Treasury’s rule states that it applies to any agency that pursues recovery of a delinquent nontax debt. Our practical reading is simple: the notice controls, and it must state the time frame for exercising your rights, so go by that date. If you are able to act sooner, treat 15 days after mailing as the safe target, and use a delivery method that gives you proof of the date.

What the hearing covers

Under 34 CFR 34.6, you may inspect and copy the records on the debt, propose a written repayment agreement, and request a hearing on three things: the existence, amount or current enforceability of the debt; the rate of withholding; and whether you have been continuously employed for less than 12 months after an involuntary separation. The regulation does not require a special form. It asks for a written request, sent to the office designated in the notice.

The Department chooses whether the hearing is oral or on paper. You get an oral hearing only if you ask for one and show that the dispute turns on the credibility of witness testimony. It can then be by phone or, for student loan debts, in person at the regional service centers in Atlanta, Chicago or San Francisco, at your own travel expense. Ignoring the follow-up matters: no reply within five business days of a phone message, or within 15 days of a written notice to make contact, counts as withdrawing the oral request.

The burden of proof is split. The Department must put records in the file showing that the debt exists in the stated amount and is delinquent. You must then prove your side by a preponderance of the credible evidence, whether you are disputing the debt, claiming hardship, or arguing that a law such as the bankruptcy automatic stay bars collection.

The hearing official has 60 days from the date the Department receives your request. If that deadline passes with no decision, no order can issue until there is one, and an order already in place is suspended from the 61st day. If you never requested a hearing in time, the Department issues the order within 30 days after the deadline.

What 15% actually takes

The 15% applies to disposable pay, not gross pay. 34 CFR 34.3 defines disposable pay as what remains after health insurance premiums and amounts required by law to be withheld, such as Social Security and income taxes. It includes bonuses, commissions and vacation pay.

There is also a floor that news coverage usually skips. 34 CFR 34.19 makes the employer withhold the lesser of the order amount or whatever disposable pay exceeds 30 times the federal minimum wage. With the federal minimum at $7.25, that protects $217.50 a week, and the Labor Department’s multipliers extend it to $435 biweekly, $471.25 semimonthly and $942.50 monthly. A higher state minimum wage does not change this federal calculation.

The floor stops mattering at about $255.88 a week, where the two limits meet. Your employer applies it on its own, and 34 CFR 34.7 says it is not a ground for a hearing objection. If other orders are already in place, or a family support order arrives, the total is further limited by 34 CFR 34.20, which caps the student loan share at the amount left after subtracting prior orders from 25% of disposable pay. Money collected also goes to collection costs first, then interest, then principal, which is one reason a garnished balance can fall so slowly.

Three defenses people miss

Recent involuntary job loss. Under 34 CFR 34.23, the Department does not garnish if it has credible evidence that you were involuntarily separated and have not yet been reemployed continuously for 12 months. The burden of telling the Department falls on you, so raise it in writing.

Financial hardship. You can object that the proposed rate would leave you unable to meet basic living expenses. 34 CFR 34.24 compares your documented costs with the IRS National Standards, and you must justify anything above them. Timing is the trap: once an order is in place, a hardship hearing is generally available only after six months, unless an event such as injury, divorce or catastrophic illness substantially changed your finances. Any reduction lasts no longer than six months before the Department may review it.

Wrong debt. If a hearing official finds that you do not owe the debt, or that the law barred the garnishment, the Department refunds what it collected, generally without interest. Your employer, meanwhile, may not fire you, refuse to hire you or discipline you because of the order.

How to stop it for good

A hearing can correct an error, but it does not end a valid debt. Only leaving default does, and the two exits behave very differently around a garnishment.

Consolidation works only before the order. 34 CFR 685.220 bars a Direct Consolidation Loan on loans subject to a wage garnishment order unless the order has been lifted. So the time between the notice and the order is the last chance to use the faster route. As we read the rules, a timely hearing request also keeps that window open, since it holds off the order. That is no reason to file a baseless request, because the hearing must address a real dispute.

Rehabilitation works after the order, slowly. Under 34 CFR 685.211(f), the garnishment continues while you make your voluntary rehabilitation payments. After the fifth qualifying payment, the Department rescinds the order unless you direct otherwise. Garnished money does not count toward the nine required payments, so for several months you can be paying twice. You can use that suspension once before July 1, 2027, and up to twice per loan after that date.

Both routes can now start online. Treasury and the Education Department launched the Defaulted Loans Support Center on September 30, 2026, at studentaid.gov/default-support, where borrowers can compare the paths, apply to rehabilitate or consolidate, and make a payment. Our guide to getting out of default compares them in detail, and tax refunds run on a separate, longer timetable covered in the 65-day refund offset notice.

This page explains published rules, not your individual case. If a notice reaches you, the date and address on that notice control, and a legal aid office or student loan attorney can review a real dispute.

Sources

• 20 U.S.C. 1095a, wage garnishment requirement and 31 U.S.C. 3720D, garnishment.
• 34 CFR Part 34, administrative wage garnishment and 31 CFR 285.11.
• 34 CFR 685.211 and 34 CFR 685.220.
• 29 CFR 870.10 and U.S. Department of Labor, minimum wage.
• U.S. Treasury, Defaulted Loans Support Center release, September 30, 2026.
• Yahoo Finance, October 29, 2026, and Credit and Collection News, October 20, 2026, for current status.