Social Security Benefits and Debt Owed
Social Security Benefits cannot be garnished like wages, however, some kinds of debt can lead to benefits being garnished to pay them off. The list of things that can affect your benefits include federal taxes, federal student loans, and child support. Outside of these specific cases, your benefits are safe if they are directly deposited in to your bank account. Direct deposit is safe because the bank is required to protect your Social Security benefits, balances made up of Social Security deposits can’t be frozen or garnished and you will have access to those funds if your other assets get frozen. If you receive a check and personally deposit that money then the bank has no way of knowing that it is from Social Security and it is eligible to be taken by collectors. For more information on this topic, visit this article with ElderLawAnswers.com.