If an employee goes on leave and is receiving third party payments such as third party sick pay or short term disability, can his/her 401k loan repayments still be suspended for up to a year under the unpaid leave exception? The employee is not receiving any payments from the employer - the third party sick pay is not paid directly by the employer but still shows up on the W2 from the employer. Since the employer is not actually paying the money (it's paid on their behalf) and cannot withhold from the payments, does this count as unpaid leave?