rose
Extremely helpful member
- Joined
- Mar 29, 2008
- Messages
- 2,925
- Reason
- DX MND
- Diagnosis
- 7/2008
- Country
- US
- State
- Maryland
- City
- Anytown
Maybe this is already understood by most here, and I was even more ignorant than I thought. But.... in case this helps someone else:
Shortly after I was told by my neuro not to expect to recover and return to work, I attempted to take out my 401K as a hardship withdrawal. It was a no-go. Did not matter that at that point I had no actual income (short term disability had run out, long term not kicked in, SSDI lost in translation). I could not believe it, but it was true. I did not have a qualifying specific debt to pay, I was not in danger of foreclosure, I did not have a dependent who needed college tuition or board, nor did I have unpaid medical bills, etc etc.
Fast-forward to this past December. We're going over my finances again. Once again, I called my benefits center This benefits person was more helpful. Instead of just saying how the government had strict laws governing the 401 plans, she explained that my problem was that I was on "long term" disability with my company, rather than a status of permanently disabled. If my company had me as permanently disabled, I could withdraw my 401K with no penalties. She gave me the direct phone number to the person in charge of this at my company (who even answered the phone when I called).
Its still not completely worked out. Because of the holidays, and us not having a fax at home, and the scanned documentation I sent via email failed, she only received my documentation last Thursday. I'd also asked her how changing my status from long term disabled, to permanently disabled would affect me as an employee. What if I got better and was able to work again, what would happen then? Would I lose system seniority (in the airline industry seniority is absolutely everything) How would it affect my retirement if I should be around long enough to collect it, what would happen to my gazillion unused vacation flight passes? So, she said she would get me answers to my questions before my status was changed, and that is where I'm at now.
Shortly after I was told by my neuro not to expect to recover and return to work, I attempted to take out my 401K as a hardship withdrawal. It was a no-go. Did not matter that at that point I had no actual income (short term disability had run out, long term not kicked in, SSDI lost in translation). I could not believe it, but it was true. I did not have a qualifying specific debt to pay, I was not in danger of foreclosure, I did not have a dependent who needed college tuition or board, nor did I have unpaid medical bills, etc etc.
Fast-forward to this past December. We're going over my finances again. Once again, I called my benefits center This benefits person was more helpful. Instead of just saying how the government had strict laws governing the 401 plans, she explained that my problem was that I was on "long term" disability with my company, rather than a status of permanently disabled. If my company had me as permanently disabled, I could withdraw my 401K with no penalties. She gave me the direct phone number to the person in charge of this at my company (who even answered the phone when I called).
Its still not completely worked out. Because of the holidays, and us not having a fax at home, and the scanned documentation I sent via email failed, she only received my documentation last Thursday. I'd also asked her how changing my status from long term disabled, to permanently disabled would affect me as an employee. What if I got better and was able to work again, what would happen then? Would I lose system seniority (in the airline industry seniority is absolutely everything) How would it affect my retirement if I should be around long enough to collect it, what would happen to my gazillion unused vacation flight passes? So, she said she would get me answers to my questions before my status was changed, and that is where I'm at now.