Legal Question in Credit and Debt Law in California

A non-governmental entity cannot garnish Social Security benefits, but they could get access to your bank account if you are not careful.

If you bank with this credit union, close the account and have your SS deposited elsewhere. Most credit unions have something in their account agreements allow them to dip into your accounts to make payments on money that you owe them. It is never a good idea to bank where you owe if you are in financial trouble.

Direct deposit social security accounts are supposed to be automatically exempt from levy by a judgment creditor, but you can lose that exemption be commingling the SS benefits with other sources of money like paycheck income or gifts form family. Also, your bank might not necessarily know that your account consists solely of SS benefits at the time of the levy.

Before a creditor can get to your bank accounts, they need to sue you and age a judgment. With a judgment, the creditor can get a Writ of Execution and tell the Sheriff to go to places where you bank and levy on the accounts. The creditor does not need an order from a judge to try and seize your bank accounts.

if the creditor does attempt to go after an account with SS benefits, the money might be tied up for a few weeks. You won't know about the levy until the bank or the sheriff sends you copy of the paperwork. You might need to file paperwork called a Claim of Exemption to get the freeze caused by the levy to be released. if you ignore the levy, the funds might be released to the creditor.

With respect to the business account, there is no special protection just because the balance is low. If you need the money to live, you'll need to file a claim of exemption after the levy occurs.