We are looking for advice on how to get our 401k hardship withdrawal approved. We believe we should have been approved with the information we submitted, but if there is something we dont know about how to get approved, we would appreciate the information.

I'm so sorry to hear of your situation.

Do you have a copy of the 401k plan documents? Employers are not madated to make hardship provisions, It's optional. If they do allow for hardship, it may be for very specific things. The IRS allows for the following to be hardship:

"A distribution is deemed to be on account of an immediate and heavy financial need of the employee if the distribution is for:

Costs directly related to the purchase of a principal residence for the employee (excluding mortgage payments)"

* This does't apply to first/last/deposit on a rental or temporary housing, I'm afraid.

"Payments necessary to prevent the eviction of the employee from the employee’s principal residence or foreclosure on the mortgage on that residence;"

*if the forclosure is done, it's no longer preventable. This could be your primary issue. You could have asked for payments to get your house out of forclosure before the forclosure, but only for the amount of the payments that were past due.

The items you listed as hardship do not qualify. Funds to file for bankruptcy, and moving expenses, for example, would not be considered a hardship under the rules.

Although it's most likely too late to process in time, do they allow for a loan against his 401k for some of the expenses you may incur soon?

If a widthdrawl is being denied you might want to try for a loan. This way you are repaying the money to the account over time and this is much easier to qualify for. The loan amount might be slightly lower than the widthdrawl amount but there would be no reason for you not to be approved. A hardship widthdrawl requires specific things in order to be approved. If you do not meet what the requirements are then you are not approved. It's not being unfair to your husband it's a matter of what is allowed under the plan. Go for the loan so that you can get enough money to secure a new place to live. You may have to move the stuff yourself in your cars or rent a moving van and do the move yourself but the most important thing is that you have a place to go to. Your HR person should have told your husband that this was an option as well. I realize that the person at Fidelity told him how much he would be able to widthdraw for hardship the rep couldn't tell your husband if he was eligible or not . This was a discussion that should have taken place with the HR director earlier than now. You are in a tough spot. I recommend talking to HR director to see if you can get the loan right away but it usually takes a few days to do this. I know your husband has been working and bringing in an income and since you are in foreclosure my assumption is that you have not been paying your mortgage. I have to wonder why you don't have some money in savings for this move. You knew this day would eventually come. I would call family members and see if you can borrow enough money to do the deposits for where you want to live. Transferring things like electric and phone can be added to your current account so you can delay those costs. Try to use trucks from friends for moving your belongings. Since you say filing bankruptcy will stall the foreclosure why aren't you borrowing the money from family to start that process? That would give you more time to work out a loan from your 401k plan. No matter what you need to do something now. I personally would have started the bankruptcy first especially if it delays the foreclosure.

We already have a 401k loan in repayment which they take out $126 out of each weekly paycheck my husband earns. We have one more year, then that will be paid off.

Unfortunately, I have been looking into what to do with our situation for well over a year now and like many others in our situation, fell prey to all the loan scam propaganda through hundreds of legal entities that boast they can help and that the loans are all fraudulent. Needless to say, unless you have thousands of dollars at your disposal, nobody will help. So after countless hours of trying something/anything, this is all we have.

Sadly, we have no friends or family with funds or resources to assist us. In fact everyone we know is experiencing some kind of harship these days. In addition, I have been treated for the past year for depression due to all this stress. I am a strong person but everybody has their breaking point.

Don't break, whatever you do. Breathe. Your kids need you to be as calm and strong as you possibly can be.

Have you contacted your county department of health and human services to see if they have any emergency aid you and your family may qualify for? Perhaps contact your church and made them aware of your immediate needs. They may rally to get helping hands, a pickup truck or two and enough funds to put your household items into storage at least. Don't be ashamed to ask for help that may be available.

Sometimes presenting yourself to a family shelter can accelerate you through to emergency family housing. If the shelters are full, they very well may put you up in a hotel.

If you feel comfortable in telling us your location, we may be able to look up resources in your area, or dial 211 for the United Way or visit http://www.211.org/ If they can't help, they should have a list of resources who may.