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Hardship withdrawal rules relaxed to help victims of Hurricane Sandy

  • Published
WASHINGTON, D.C. --  The Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board announced it has made temporary changes to the Thrift Savings Plan hardship withdrawal rules to help victims of Hurricane Sandy pursuant to the guidance issued by the Internal Revenue Service on Nov. 16.

The TSP will treat any Financial Hardship In-Service Withdrawal Request (Form TSP-76) received until January 25, 2013 as qualifying for a hardship withdrawal if the participant writes "Hurricane Sandy" at the top of the form and checks the block on the form for personal casualty.

The distributions must occur before Feb. 1, 2013 to qualify for this treatment.

The participant should write Hurricane Sandy at the top of the form and check the "personal casualty" box on the TSP-76. The TSP will then waive the rule that prohibits a participant from making employee contributions for 6 months after taking a hardship withdrawal.

This will allow an employee to continue to make contributions to the TSP and receive the employer match (if eligible). These temporary changes will not be effective retroactively. For more information, please go to https://www.tsp.gov/whatsnew/plan/planNews.shtml.