(a) Coverage. This subpart applies to agencies and employees defined by §550.1103.

(b) Applicability. This subpart and 5 U.S.C. 5514 apply in recovering certain debts by administrative offset, except where the employee consents to the recovery, from the current pay account of the employee. Because salary offset is a type of administrative offset, debt collection procedures for salary offset which are not specified in 5 U.S.C. 5514 and these regulations should be consistent with the provisions of the Federal Claims Collections Standards (FCCS) (dealing with administrative offset generally) and 31 CFR part 285 (dealing with centralized administrative offset under 31 U.S.C. 3716). Section 550.1108 addresses the use of centralized administrative offset procedures to effect salary offset. Generally, the procedures under §550.1109 should apply only when centralized administrative offset cannot be accomplished.

(1) Excluded debts. The procedures contained in this subpart do not apply to—

(i) Debts arising under the Internal Revenue Code (26 U.S.C. 1 et seq.);

(ii) Debts arising under the tariff laws of the United States;

(iii) Any case where collection of a debt by salary offset is explicitly provided for or prohibited by another statute (e.g., travel advances in 5 U.S.C. 5705 and employee training expenses in 5 U.S.C. 4108); or

(iv) Any other debt excluded by the FCCS or 31 CFR part 285.

(2) Waiver requests. This subpart does not preclude an employee from requesting waiver of an erroneous payment under 5 U.S.C. 5584, 10 U.S.C. 2774, or 32 U.S.C. 716, or in any way questioning the amount or validity of a debt, in the manner prescribed by the head of the responsible agency. Similarly, this subpart does not preclude an employee from requesting waiver of the collection of a debt under any other applicable statutory authority.

(3) Compromise, suspension, or termination of collection actions. This subpart does not preclude the compromise, suspension, or termination of collection actions, where appropriate, as provided in the FCCS (31 CFR 900.4) or the use of alternative dispute resolution methods if they are not inconsistent with agency-specific laws and regulations.

[49 FR 27472, July 3, 1984, as amended at 63 FR 72099, Dec. 31, 1998; 79 FR 530, Jan. 6, 2014]