Earnings arrestment (wage arrestment)
An earnings arrestment means your employer takes money from your pay for a creditor. There are firm limits on how much they can take, and several ways it can end.
An earnings arrestment (often called a wage arrestment) is a legal order that makes your employer take money from your net pay every payday and send it to a creditor until the debt is paid. It can only start after a charge for payment has expired unpaid. How much is taken depends on your pay: from 6 April 2025, nothing is taken if your net pay is £750 a month or less.
Deductions start from your next payday after the arrestment schedule reaches your employer. If the debt is not already covered by time to pay, you may be able to apply for a time to pay order, which would recall the arrestment. Get free debt advice as soon as you can.
How does an earnings arrestment work?
- The creditor gets a decree (court order) or summary warrant.
- Sheriff officers serve a charge for payment on you, giving you 14 days to pay.
- The creditor must give you a Debt Advice and Information Package, a booklet from the Accountant in Bankruptcy (AiB) about your rights, no earlier than 12 weeks before the arrestment is served.
- Sheriff officers serve an earnings arrestment schedule on your employer.
- Your employer deducts a set amount from your net pay every payday and pays it to the creditor.
It stays in place until the debt is paid, you leave that job, or the arrestment is recalled or dropped.
Who it applies to
Anyone employed can have their earnings arrested, apart from serving members of the armed forces. It cannot be used if you are self-employed. Citizens Advice Scotland says the following cannot be arrested: benefits, disablement pensions or allowances, many public sector pensions, and redundancy pay. Once that money reaches your bank account, though, it could be caught by a bank arrestment.
Some bodies can take money from earnings without going to court: the Child Maintenance Service (a deduction from earnings order) and the DWP for benefit overpayments (a direct earnings attachment). Different rules apply to those.
How much can be taken from my wages?
The amounts are set by law and are based on your net earnings (after tax, National Insurance and pension contributions). New tables came in on 6 April 2025.
| How often you are paid | Nothing taken if net pay is up to | Highest band |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly | £750.00 | £625 plus 50% of pay over £3,750 |
| Weekly | £172.61 | £143.84 plus 50% of pay over £863.06 |
| Daily | £24.66 | £20.55 plus 50% of pay over £123.29 |
Between the protected amount and the highest band, the deduction rises in steps of 15%, 20% and 25% of the pay above each threshold, plus fixed sums. The full tables are in the Diligence against Earnings (Variation) (Scotland) Regulations 2024.
Example: if your net monthly pay is £1,200, the first band applies. The deduction is £10 or 15% of the pay over £750, whichever is greater. 15% of £450 is £67.50, so £67.50 is taken that month.
Commission, bonuses and Statutory Sick Pay count as earnings. If your pay goes up and down, the deduction changes with it.
Maintenance arrestments and conjoined arrestment orders
Two related types of diligence also take money from wages:
- A current maintenance arrestment enforces ongoing maintenance payments. From 6 April 2025 the law uses a daily figure of £24.66 when working out these deductions. One earnings arrestment and one current maintenance arrestment can run at the same time.
- A conjoined arrestment order is used when more than one creditor wants to arrest the same wages, because only one earnings arrestment can be in effect against the same employer at a time. A creditor asks the sheriff for the order. It replaces the existing arrestments, and your employer pays the deductions to the sheriff clerk, who shares them between the creditors.
Can an earnings arrestment be stopped?
Time to pay
If you have not had time to pay for the same debt before, you can apply to the sheriff for a time to pay order. When the sheriff grants one, they must recall any existing earnings arrestment for that debt. You then pay the agreed instalments instead. Some debts, such as money owed to HMRC, cannot get time to pay; the guide to charges for payment explains the limits.
Check the procedure
Citizens Advice Scotland says that if the creditor did not serve a charge for payment and give you a Debt Advice and Information Package, they have not followed the correct procedure and you can argue the arrestment is not valid. Get specialist advice if you think this applies.
A moratorium on diligence
A moratorium stops creditors starting new diligence for 6 months. It does not stop an earnings arrestment that was already in effect before the moratorium began.
A formal debt solution
- Protected trust deed: on the date a trust deed becomes protected, any current earnings arrestment, maintenance arrestment or conjoined arrestment order stops having effect. After that, a creditor who can claim in the trust deed cannot start a new one. A trust deed has fees, affects your credit rating for 6 years, puts your name on the public Register of Insolvencies, and if it fails creditors can pursue you again. See how a trust deed becomes protected.
- Debt Arrangement Scheme (DAS): once a debt payment programme is approved, creditors cannot start or carry out diligence for the debts in it. AiB guidance says that if you have a conjoined arrestment order or a time to pay order, the court clerk is notified, which in effect recalls it. See the Debt Arrangement Scheme.
- Sequestration (bankruptcy) is another formal route, and informal plans are possible too.
None of these is right for everyone. An adviser needs to look at your income, household costs, assets and all your debts before you choose.
Want to talk through what could replace the arrestment? Tell us a little about your situation and a licensed insolvency practitioner firm will call you to go through every option, including ones that are not a trust deed.
May not be suitable in all circumstances. Fees apply. Your credit rating may be affected. Free, impartial advice is available from MoneyHelper and other services.
Will my employer be told?
Yes. Your employer is served with the arrestment schedule and has to make the deductions. Citizens Advice Scotland notes that some employment contracts treat an earnings arrestment as a disciplinary matter, which is more common in some sectors such as finance. If that worries you, get employment advice as well as debt advice.
What should I do now?
- Check your payslip against the tables above. If too much is being taken, raise it with your employer and an adviser.
- Check the paperwork: was a charge for payment served, and did you get a Debt Advice and Information Package?
- Ask about time to pay if you have not had it for this debt.
- Look at the whole picture. If you have other debts too, an adviser can explain every option, from informal plans to DAS, a trust deed or sequestration.
- Keep paying priority bills such as rent, mortgage and council tax.
Official sources
- Diligence against Earnings (Variation) (Scotland) Regulations 2024 (SSI 2024/293)
- Debtors (Scotland) Act 1987, including sections 46 to 73 (diligence against earnings) and section 9 (time to pay orders)
- Citizens Advice Scotland: if a creditor takes money from your earnings
- Bankruptcy (Scotland) Act 2016, including section 173 (protected trust deeds) and section 197 (moratorium)
- Accountant in Bankruptcy: Notes for Guidance for creditors, approval of a DPP
Common questions
How much can be taken from my wages in Scotland?
It depends on your net pay and how often you are paid. From 6 April 2025, nothing is taken if your net pay is £750 a month or less, or £172.61 a week or less. Above that, the deduction rises in bands, from 15% of the amount over the protected sum up to 50% of pay above £3,750 a month. The full tables are in SSI 2024/293.
Can more than one creditor arrest my wages at once?
Only one ordinary earnings arrestment can be in effect against the same employer at a time, although one earnings arrestment and one current maintenance arrestment can run together. If another creditor wants to arrest the same wages, they can ask the sheriff for a conjoined arrestment order, which replaces the existing arrestments and shares the deductions between creditors.
Can I be sacked for having an earnings arrestment?
Your employer will know about it, because they have to make the deductions. Citizens Advice Scotland says some employment contracts treat an earnings arrestment as a disciplinary matter, and this is more common in areas such as finance. If you are worried, you may need employment advice as well as debt advice.
Does a moratorium stop an earnings arrestment?
Not one that is already running. A moratorium on diligence stops creditors starting new diligence for 6 months, but an earnings arrestment, current maintenance arrestment or conjoined arrestment order that came into effect before the moratorium began can carry on. Ask an adviser whether time to pay or a debt solution could end it instead.
Related guides
- What is a charge for payment? The 14-day demand from sheriff officers, what can follow and how to use the time.
- Bank arrestment in Scotland Frozen account? The £1,000 protected balance, the 14-week rule and how to act fast.
- The Debt Arrangement Scheme (DAS) Repay your debts in full through one payment, with interest and charges frozen.
- How a trust deed becomes protected The register notice, the five-week objection period, and what happens if protection is refused.