<prompt> Human: My employer has informed me that my wages will be garnished beginning with my next paycheck due to my student loans defaulting and passing on to a collection agency West Asset Management. According to my employer, a law was passed in 1996 that permits federal agencies to garnish wages without a court order.I dont know what my options are to do from here. Everything I read here about collection agencies is dont talk to collection agencies, but the garnishment amount is more than I am comfortable paying each paycheck.I have done a little research and from what I have read I can halt the garnishment by submitting for a hearing to challenge the garnishment, but I need to do that within 30 days of receiving the Notice of Intent to Garnish. Unfortunately I have not received any sort of written information about this, so Im not sure if that went to my employer or to me.One thing that does seem a little off to me is the amount that I am being garnished. I know that my tax return this year was withheld by the IRS due to my student loan and it went towards that. I feel like the amount owed is lower than what I am being garnished for, but I will have to see if I have any of that paperwork somewhere at home.  <response>: You need to figure out things like: How much you owe, and at what interest rates? How far behind are you? What percentage of your income is being garnished? as first asked by uwhiteraven4 What sort of savings do you have at this time that could be used to alleviate the situation?At this point, it seems you are missing a lot of information. To remedy and eventually move on from this situation, you need to fully understand it. 