Hardship Withdrawal

[Nassau]

A participant is requesting a Medical Hardship for his daughter who is blind. The hardship request is for electronic equipment which he plans to buy to aid in his daughter's mobility; braille readers, scanning devices, a GPS navigation unit, and related software totalling $11,000. The participant has provided printouts from an online catalogue outlining the function and price of each unit, but has not yet purchased any of it. The participant states that these items are not covered by insurance, but no explanation of benefits is present. My questions are as follows:

1.) Do "mobility aids" for blindness qualify for Hardship expenses.

2.) If so, are the online catalogue printouts sufficient documentation to justify the withdrawal?

3.) If so, do we also need an explanation of benefits in addition to the other docs showing that these items do not fall within coverage?

[Guest Sieve]

1) If you are using the safe harbor hardship events, then the expense must be a deductible medical expense. See IRS Pub. 502 for help (although I don't think it discusses the items you mention).

2 & 3) Depends on what your due diligence admin procedures are. For example, some TPAs require EOB's, & others do not. And, if the expenses are medical expenses, the regs specifically do not require that the hardship distribution must follow the delivery of the medical care/services.

[masteff]

You may need to break the items into two or more categories. In your short list, I see two categories: medical aids and personal use items (see page 16 of IRS Pub 502 regarding Personal Use Items). In addition to Pub 502, you might look at the instructions 1040 Sch A, which explains that medical aids are "such as eyeglasses, contact lenses, hearing aids, braces, crutches, wheelchairs, and guide dogs, including the cost of maintaining them", which would clearly include a braille reader.

[Peenionved]

On 2/2/2011 at 9:01 PM, Nassau said:

A participant is requesting a Medical Hardship for his daughter who is blind. The hardship request is for electronic equipment which he plans to buy to aid in his daughter's mobility; braille readers, scanning devices, a GPS navigation unit, and related software totalling $11,000. The participant has provided printouts from an online catalogue outlining the function and price of each unit, but has not yet purchased any of it. The participant states that these items are not covered by insurance, but no explanation of benefits is present. My questions are as follows:

1.) Do "mobility aids" for blindness qualify for Hardship expenses.

2.) If so, are the online catalogue printouts sufficient documentation to justify the withdrawal?

3.) If so, do we also need an explanation of benefits in addition to the other docs showing that these items do not fall within coverage?


Also recently began to actively study the topic of gps tracking. Namely this technology in the field of sports. It helps to improve your training performance. Quite an interesting topic.

Yes, mobility aids for blindness, such as braille readers, GPS navigation systems, and related software, can qualify for medical hardship expenses. These items are typically considered essential for improving mobility and independence, which aligns with the criteria for medical hardship requests, especially when the equipment is directly related to the participant's medical condition (in this case, blindness).