Hardship Distribution from ESOP

[Guest hami8859]

Need advice on how to be approved for a Hardship Distribution from my ESOP account. My employer is giving me a difficult time about approving a Hardship Distribution from my ESOP account. Our Plan summary does allow Hardship Distributions. Does anyone know who gives the final approval for the distribution...the Administrator or the Trustee? My wife has been unable to go back to work, she has been home taking care of our autistic son. We had charged up our credit cards paying for medical bills that the insurance co. did not pay because of the autism diagnosis and also for many types of therapies, speech, occupational, private tutors etc...... After 5 years of expensive therapies and hard work he is doing very well and has just entered a regular school. It was worth every penny to us. However, we are now over 100k in credit card debt. We have been struggling for these 5 years but have managed to make the minimum payments. Most recently, interest rates have risen and minimum payments have increased and the company I work for which had been thriving for over 10 years is now doing badly and my income has decreased about 30 to 40 % and the future looks bad. I have held out until now to request the hardship distribution but my company is giving me a hard time. He says the Trustee will not approve the Distribution based on our situation. I want to pay off these bills before I am unable to make the payments any longer. I do not want to ruin my credit, file bankruptcy or get anywhere near foreclosure. Any advice is appreciated.

[masteff]

Duplicate thread, see here: http://benefitslink.com/boards/index.php?s...c=36490&hl=