On May 12, 2013, the Department of the
Treasury, Social Security Administration, Department of Veterans
Affairs, Railroad Retirement Board and the Office of Personnel
Management (Agencies) published a final rule, which governed the
garnishment of certain Federal benefit payments that are directly
deposited to accounts at financial institutions. Social Security
benefits, Supplemental Security Income benefits, VA benefits,
Federal Railroad retirement benefits, Civil Service Retirement
System and Federal Employee Retirement System benefits are exempt
under Federal Law from garnishment orders. The final rule gave
force and effect to the Federal anti-garnishment statutes. The rule
also addressed the hardships that recipients of federal benefit
payments encountered when a financial institution placed a freeze
on an account containing certain types of exempt Federal benefit
payments that had been directly deposited, and the difficulties
that financial institutions had in determining whether funds
deposited into an account are exempt from garnishment. The primary
goals of the rule were (1) to ensure that benefit recipients have
full and customary access to exempt funds; (2) to protect financial
institutions from liability when, having received a garnishment
order for an account holder receiving exempt Federal benefit
payments, they allow the account holder access to exempt funds in
the account; and (3) to establish straightforward, uniform, cost
effective procedures addressing the extent to which financial
institutions may, pursuant to garnishment orders, freeze or seize
funds in accounts that contain Federal benefits. The collection of
information in the Final Rule is found in §§ 212.6 Rules and
procedures to protect benefits.
US Code:
12
USC 1786 Name of Law: Federal Credit Union Act
US Code: 12
USC 1818 Name of Law: Federal Deposit Insurance Act
On behalf of this Federal agency, I certify that
the collection of information encompassed by this request complies
with 5 CFR 1320.9 and the related provisions of 5 CFR
1320.8(b)(3).
The following is a summary of the topics, regarding
the proposed collection of information, that the certification
covers:
(i) Why the information is being collected;
(ii) Use of information;
(iii) Burden estimate;
(iv) Nature of response (voluntary, required for a
benefit, or mandatory);
(v) Nature and extent of confidentiality; and
(vi) Need to display currently valid OMB control
number;
If you are unable to certify compliance with any of
these provisions, identify the item by leaving the box unchecked
and explain the reason in the Supporting Statement.