The state pension sits on the other side of the line, and so do benefits generally. One narrow class of occupational pension is taken back out of the definition as well.

Here is where each kind of pension payment lands, who the paperwork goes to, and what is left open. What counts as net earnings covers the figure the tables are applied to.

An occupational or works pension in payment is earnings under section 73(2)(c). The pension provider counts as the employer under section 73(1), so the same earnings arrestment and the same Schedule 2 tables apply.

Where the Act says so

Section 73(2) of the Debtors (Scotland) Act 1987 sets out four categories of earnings, and a pension is the third of them. The paragraph also covers an annuity in respect of past services.

No paragraph of that subsection carries an amendment marker. The definition stands as it was enacted in 1987.

Why the pension provider is treated as your employer

Section 73(1) defines an employer as the person paying earnings under a contract of service or apprenticeship. For a sum payable as a pension it says something else, and it names the person paying that sum.

So a former employer’s scheme, or whoever administers it, steps into the employer’s shoes for this one purpose. That is what makes the ordinary machinery work on a pension.

What the payer then has to do

Section 47(1) obliges the person served to deduct a sum calculated under the Act on every pay day and pay it over as soon as is reasonably practicable. How much can be taken from your wages sets out the bands they apply.

No. The 1987 Act creates no special diligence for pension income, so what reaches a pension in payment is the ordinary earnings arrestment, served on whoever pays it.

The same schedule, the same tables

The nil bands are net earnings of £750.00 a month, £172.61 a week or £24.66 a day, in force since 6 April 2025 under the Diligence against Earnings (Variation) (Scotland) Regulations 2024. The protected earnings limits carry each band with its date.

Nothing in those tables mentions pensions. They read one number, which is net earnings.

The same wage and pension mechanics, side by side

The only moving part is who the schedule lands on.

The advance paperwork rule applies here too

An earnings arrestment does not take effect unless the creditor gave you a debt advice and information package no earlier than 12 weeks before the schedule was served, under section 47(3).

That precondition does not change because the payment is a pension. How long a wage arrestment lasts covers the timing from service onwards.

No. The state pension falls within the exclusion for a pension, allowance or benefit payable under social security legislation, at section 73(3)(e).

How the exclusion is worded

Section 73(3) lists payments that are not to be treated as earnings, and paragraph (e) covers a pension, allowance or benefit payable under any enactment relating to social security. The state pension is paid under that legislation.

The section does not use the words state pension anywhere. It works by describing the class of payment rather than by naming individual ones.

Benefits sit outside the regime as well

Benefits sit outside the earnings arrestment regime altogether, which is why a council pursuing council tax arrears from someone on benefits uses DWP third-party deductions instead.

A tax credit is excluded separately at section 73(3)(da), and a pension or allowance for disablement or disability at section 73(3)(a). Official guidance on debt and diligence in Scotland sets out the formal routes.

Money in an account is a different question

Once a payment has landed in your bank account it is money in an account, and a bank arrestment works on that rather than on earnings. It can attach only the balance above £1,000, under section 73F(3)(a).

Benefits and tax credits should not be arrested where they can be clearly identified in the account. Raise it with the bank and provide evidence of what the credits are.

Section 73(3)(d) takes back out an occupational pension paid under an enactment that bars assignation or exempts it from diligence, so some statutory scheme pensions cannot be reached.

What the carve-out turns on

It is the governing enactment that decides, rather than the size of the pension or who pays it. The question is whether that enactment bars assignation or exempts the pension from diligence.

We do not name any scheme as falling inside or outside it. Which enactments carry that protection was not something our sources established, so putting a list here would be guesswork.

Where each kind of pension payment lands

The right-hand column is the useful one if you are checking somebody else’s answer. Each row points at a paragraph rather than at an impression.

How to get your own scheme checked

Ask the scheme administrator in writing which enactment your pension is paid under, then take that answer to a free money adviser. The Accountant in Bankruptcy publishes guidance on each statutory debt solution.

This reaches a pension already in payment. A pot you have not started drawing is a separate question to put to a money adviser.

What was actually settled, and what was not

The chain running from section 73(2)(c) through section 73(1) to section 47(1) is about a sum being paid to you. Where nothing is being paid, there are no earnings for that period.

Nothing in our sources deals with an undrawn pot, a deferred pension or a lump sum. We are not going to extend the analysis to cover them.

Why that matters if you are about to retire

Decisions about when and how to draw a pension have consequences well beyond a wage arrestment. Take them with a money adviser rather than around a deduction, and the Debt Arrangement Scheme may be the better conversation to have first.

None of the free advice organisations charges for that conversation.

It falls with the employment it was served on. The creditor has to trace whoever is paying you now and serve a fresh schedule on them.

What section 47(2) actually says

Under section 47(2) an arrestment takes effect when the schedule is served on the employer and runs until the debt is paid or extinguished, the employment ends, or it is recalled or abandoned.

Because the pension payer is the employer for this purpose, the same wording works both ways. An arrestment on a pension falls if the pension stops.

The debt does not fall with it

Leaving an employment ends that arrestment and nothing else. The balance is unchanged, and what happens if you earn below the threshold covers the same point for a nil period.

So a gap between finishing work and a pension starting is a pause rather than an ending.

Where the money comes from a different payer

Statutory sick pay is named as earnings in its own paragraph, at section 73(2)(d), and whether an arrestment can be taken from sick pay covers what happens on the way out of work.

Whatever the statutory table produces for that period, applied to net earnings in the ordinary way. A pension in payment of £700.00 a month net produces nothing at all.

Three figures, worked through

A pension of £700.00 a month net sits below the protected band, so the deduction is nil. At £1,400.00 it is £97.50, and at £2,000.00 it is £212.50.

Those are worked from the same bands every payslip in Scotland uses. Our wage arrestment calculator runs your own figure.

What comes off before the table is applied

Net earnings is a defined figure rather than take-home pay, and only four deductions come off before the tables are read. What counts as net earnings lists them with their paragraphs.

The payer may also take £1.00 per deduction as an administration charge. That comes out of your money on top of the arrested sum and does not reduce the debt.

Which routes reach which money

One floor protects income as it is paid, the other money already in an account.

Look at what a free money adviser can put in place rather than at ways of arguing the figure down. A sheriff cannot reduce a Schedule 2 deduction because you cannot afford it, so there is no hardship application to make against one.

Why there is no affordability route against earnings

Sections 73Q and 73R of the 1987 Act reach an arrestment of funds or moveable property, which means a bank or third-party arrestment. The unduly harsh application explains what that route does and does not cover.

Against an earnings arrestment the only review power is section 50, which covers validity and disputes about how the arrestment is operating. The Scottish courts publish the rules, and there is no affordability ground in it.

Other routes to raise with an adviser

• An approved Debt Payment Programme under the Debt Arrangement Scheme, which stops an existing earnings arrestment and freezes interest, fees and charges.
• A statutory moratorium, giving six months of protection from diligence, one per rolling 12 months.
• A time to pay order, where the debt outstanding is £25,000 or less excluding interest. If the sheriff grants one, the sheriff must recall any existing earnings arrestment, though it is not settled whether an earnings arrestment on its own opens the door to an application, so ask a money adviser or the sheriff clerk whether one is competent on your facts.
• Sequestration, the Minimal Asset Process or a protected trust deed, each of which ends an existing arrestment by statute.

Money already taken is credited against the debt and is not usually refunded, so check the position with the creditor. Whether an arrestment can be stopped once it has started sets out what each route does.

What to have in front of you

• Your most recent pension remittance advice or payslip, showing any deduction line in full.
• The letter from the creditor or the sheriff officer firm, with any reference number.
• An up to date balance showing the original debt and anything added to it.
• A written answer from the scheme about which enactment the pension is paid under.

Where the debt is council tax, our council tax debt advice page covers what to put in an offer to a council.