By statute, administrative salary offsets under section 5 of the Debt Collection Act of 1982 are limited to no more than 15 percent of an employee’s disposable pay during any one pay period — whether the deductions are made to satisfy a debt owed the Postal Service, another federal agency, or some combination of these. Generally, priority among competing administrative salary offset requests is determined by the order in which they are received.
However, a request to collect a debt due the Postal Service must be given priority over other government agency offset requests, regardless of the date the postal offset request is received. If a collection request cannot be honored upon receipt, or can be honored only in part, the postmaster or installation head must notify the requesting postal or other government official, in writing, of the reasons for the delay or for the collection of a lesser amount than that requested, and the approximate date the requested offsets can be implemented.
No more than 25 percent of an employee’s current pay may be withheld to satisfy a debt that a federal court determined to be due the United States — whether the deductions are made to satisfy a debt owed the Postal Service, another federal agency, or some combination of these. Generally, priority among competing court judgment salary offset requests is determined by the order in which they are received.
However, a request to collect a debt due the Postal Service must be given priority over other government agency offset requests regardless of the date the postal offset request is received. If a collection request cannot be honored upon receipt, or can be honored only in part, the postmaster or installation head must notify the requesting postal or other government official, in writing, of the reasons for the delay or for the collection of a lesser amount than that requested, and the approximate date the requested offsets can be implemented.
If the salary of a postal employee is the target of one or more of both types of offsets — administrative and court judgment — a combined total of no more than 25 percent will be withheld during any one pay period. However, in no case may the amount withheld in accordance with administrative salary offsets exceed 15 percent of current pay. As is generally the case with competing offsets of the same type and subject to 464.4, priority between administrative salary offsets and court judgment salary offsets is determined by the order in which they are received.
If a postal employee is indebted to the Postal Service, that debt takes priority over any debt he or she may owe another federal agency, even if the other agency’s request for salary offsets was received first. Accordingly, if both the Postal Service and another agency request the maximum allowable deductions, collection of the other agency’s debt must be interrupted or postponed until the entire postal debt is recovered.
However, if an amount less than that requested by the other agency can be deducted in addition to the offsets the Postal Service requests without exceeding the appropriate percentage ceiling, deductions for the lesser amount must be withheld and forwarded to the requesting agency, along with an explanation for the smaller offsets.
Administrative salary offsets based on section 5 of the Debt Collection Act of 1982 and court judgment salary offsets based on section 124 of Public Law 97–276 are not, as a matter of law, considered garnishments. For purposes of determining an employee’s disposable earnings under the Federal Consumer Credit Protection Act, 15 U.S.C. 1671, et seq., these withholdings are considered to be amounts required by law to be deducted. Accordingly, they should be deducted before the applicable garnishment ceilings are imposed and before deductions for garnishments are made.
