From NY Times:
Two large retirement plan administrators, Fidelity and Vanguard, have observed increases in hardship withdrawals, which may be taken only if there is “an immediate and heavy financial need,” according to the Internal Revenue Service. Fidelity found that 2.4 percent of 22 million people with retirement accounts in its system took hardship withdrawals in the final quarter of 2022, up half a percentage point from a year earlier. A similar analysis by Vanguard found that 2.8 percent of five million people with retirement accounts made a hardship withdrawal last year, up from 2.1 percent a year earlier.
