Lesson 4: Notice of State Payment(s) Held Letter

The Letter

When a payment is issued to a payee on hold, a warrant is printed and held at the Comptroller’s office on behalf of the hold source agency. At the same time, a Notice of State Payment(s) Held letter is printed and mailed to the payee.

The Notice of State Payment(s) Held letter:

• Notifies a payee that a state payment issued to them is on hold
• Further outlines the payee’s options
• Provides the statutes supporting the state warrant hold program

Details in the letter include:

• Liability amount and description
• Warrant number, amount and issuing agency name
• Hold source agency and contact information

The back of the letter is comprised of two sections:

• SECTION A ― Voluntary Offset  
• SECTION B — Bankruptcy Status

Voluntary offsets and bankruptcy status are covered later in this training.

There are two versions of the Notice of State Payment(s) Held letter:

• One for payees on hold
• One for payees on hold who have an active bankruptcy

Note: The bankruptcy version does not contain the information on the voluntary offset process as payments on hold with a federal bankruptcy cannot be offset against a state debt.

Next: Payments Options