TINS Warrant Hold Web-Based Training
Lesson 8: Warrants on Hold
Notice of State Payment(s) Held
When a payment is issued to a payee who is 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 is mailed to the payee by the Comptroller’s office.
The notice serves as notification to the payee that a state warrant was issued and is being held due to a state debt. The notice includes:
- The statutes that authorize the warrant hold and offset programs.
- The description of the hold, liability amount, the hold source agency and contact information.
- The held warrant number, amount and the agency that issued the warrant.
The notice states that 30 days from the date of the notice, the held warrant will be automatically offset or applied to the state debt if the payee is still on hold.
During the 30 days before the automatic offset process, the payee has several options to address the state debt.
- Contact the hold source agency using the contact information on the notice to:
- Pay the full liability amount owed the agency. If paid in full, the agency must release the payee from hold, which will cause the held warrant to be released.
- Request a payment agreement with the hold source agency.
- Payment agreements are made at the discretion of the agency
- If the agency approves the payment agreement, the agency may release the hold record or keep the payee on hold but may authorize the Comptroller to release the payee’s warrants on a warrant-by-warrant basis.
- If the amount of the held warrant is more than the liability amount of the debt, the payee will be owed the difference, referred to as an overage payment. Form Section A – Voluntary Offset (VO) is available on the back of the notice; it authorizes the Comptroller’s office to perform the offset before the 30-day offset period. The payee may choose to submit the VO to expedite issuance of the overage payment.
If the payee has an active bankruptcy case that has not been set up by either the hold source agency or the Comptroller’s office:
- Form Section B – Bankruptcy Status is available on the back of the notice. The payee should complete Section B and submit it to the Comptroller’s office. When the bankruptcy record is set up, the payee’s held warrant will be excluded from the automated offset process.
- Section B is entered on the BKRUPD screen (Lesson 6) to ensure that if the payee receives future warrants that are held, an alternate Bankruptcy Notice of State Payment(s) Held is mailed to the payee. The bankruptcy notice includes the same information as the hold notice but excludes the offset process language and form Section A – Voluntary Offset.
For a sample of the notice, see Notice of State Payment(s) Held 
on TexPayment Resource.