Michigan Legal Help

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Have you faced eviction or debt collection in Michigan and got a default judgment? (This means you missed court and the judge decided the case without you.)

Were you evicted by the sheriff and never went to court?

Have you had money taken from your paycheck, bank account, or tax refund for an unpaid debt?

We want to hear about your experience to try to make the process more fair. Get a $20 gift card for a 30-minute interview. Your personal details will stay private in our reports.

Click the link below to fill out the interest form.

Interest form (link is external)

Income Protected From Garnishment

If there is a judgment for money against you, and you don't pay it, your creditor might be able to take some of your money to pay the judgment.

Creditors can take money from different places:

  • Directly out of your paycheck,
  • Directly out of your bank account,
  • Taking money from your tax return,
  • Taking and selling your property or belongings

To learn more about garnishments, read An Overview of Garnishments.

To learn more about what property or belongings can be taken and sold to pay a judgment, read Seizure of Property and Real Property to Pay a Debt. To learn more about garnishment of tax returns, read Garnishment of Tax Refunds. 

Not all income is allowed to be garnished. This means that they are exempt from garnishment and your creditor can't take that money to pay off what you owe them.

This article only applies if the debt is not from child support or alimony. What income can be garnished and how much can be garnished is different for child support and alimony. If you have debt from child support or alimony payments, read I Have Child Support Debt I Can't Afford to Pay.

Income That is Protected From Garnishment

Generally, money from these sources can't be garnished:

  • Social Security benefits and disability payments
  • Supplemental Security Income (SSI) payments
  • Veterans' Benefits
  • Civil Service and Federal Retirement and Disability Benefits
  • Military Annuities and Survivors' Benefits
  • Railroad Retirement Benefits
  • Merchant Seamen Wages
  • Longshoremen’s and Harbor Workers’ Death and Disability Benefits
  • Foreign Service Retirement and Disability Benefits
  • Compensation for Injury, Death, or Detention of Employees of U.S. Contractors Outside the U.S.
  • Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Disaster Assistance
  • General Assistance Benefits
  • Family Independence Program (FIP) grants
  • Food Assistance Program (FAP)
  • Electronic Benefits Transfers (EBT)
  • State Disability Assistance
  • Student loan disbursements, grants, or work assistance, so long as the debt isn't from unpaid student loan payments
  • Unemployment Compensation benefits
  • Worker’s Compensation benefits
  • Private health or life insurance
  • Michigan Public Employee Retirement Benefits
  • Pensions covered by ERISA

There are some exceptions to that list. For example:

  • Social security disability and retirement benefits are only protected up to two times the amount that you get in a month. For example, if you get $1,000 from social security, up to $2,000 is protected from garnishment. This means that if you have more than $2,000 in your bank account from social security, the creditors can garnish the amount over $2,000.
  • Social security disability and retirement benefits can be garnished to pay federal taxes and federal student loans.
  • Pension income can be garnished once it's in your bank account.
  • In some cases, up to 10% of some State Public Assistance Benefits can be garnished to pay for a judgment from an eviction case.

The best way to protect your exempt funds is to keep them in a separate bank account. If your creditor wrongly garnishes a bank account that only has protected money, it will be easier to prove that the creditor should not have taken that money.

There is a rule banks have to follow if you get federal benefits electronically deposited. To learn more, read Electronically Deposited Exempt Federal Benefits(link is external). 

I Get Income From Something On That List and It's Being Garnished. What Can I Do?

If you have protected income that is being garnished, you can file an objection. If you file it quickly, you may be able to stop the garnishment. If the money has already been garnished, and the judge agrees with you, the creditor should return the money to you. Read Objecting to Garnishments to learn more. You can use the Do-It-Yourself Objection to Garnishment tool to prepare an objection you can file with the court. You will need to prove that the money taken was protected. If your protected money is in a separate bank account, it will be easier to prove that the money taken was protected.

To learn more about protecting SSI from garnishment, watch the video below from Lakeshore Legal Aid: