The rule comes from the way the Debt Arrangement Scheme (Scotland) Regulations 2011 treat a continuing liability, and it is a standard condition of the programme rather than a suggestion.

Here is what goes in, what stays out, what happens on 1 April each year, and what an approved programme does to a summary warrant the council has already used.

Arrears. A programme covers sums already due and unpaid, and council tax arrears sit alongside credit cards, loans, overdrafts and utility arrears on the list of debts you can include.

What the regulations count as a debt

Regulation 3(1) defines a debt widely. It covers sums due under an enactment, sums constituted by decree or document of debt, contractual or judicial interest, and sums recoverable as enforcement expenses.

Council tax is charged under the Local Government Finance Act 1992, so it is a sum due under an enactment. Official guidance on council tax sets out how the liability arises.

What the council’s balance may already contain

Where a summary warrant has been granted, a statutory addition of 10% has been made to the amount in the warrant. Sheriff officer expenses may also have been added to the account.

Ask the council for a written statement broken down by year before the application goes in. Supporting documentation has to be no more than four weeks old when the application is submitted.

A programme can carry arrears owed to more than one council. Regulation 23(1) requires each creditor to be asked to consent, so each council is dealt with separately.

Because paying continuing liabilities as they fall due is a standard condition of every programme, at regulation 27(2)(c). Ongoing council tax is a continuing liability rather than a debt in the programme.

It is a condition, not a courtesy

Regulation 27(2)(d) goes further and prohibits any other payment to a participating creditor. So you cannot pay the council extra on the arrears and let the current year slip instead.

Ask for the current year’s council tax to be counted as a household cost before the programme payment is worked out. If it is left out, the payment is set at a figure your budget cannot carry, and what happens when council tax goes unpaid starts again on the new year.

What failing the condition does

Regulation 42(1)(a) allows revocation where you fail without reasonable cause to satisfy a condition. The Accountant in Bankruptcy has to give at least four weeks’ notice of a proposal to revoke before implementing it.

Revocation also unfreezes the interest and charges that had been held back. That is the real cost of letting a current-year bill slide.

Before the figures are settled, check whether you are due Council Tax Reduction, a discount or an exemption. A smaller current-year bill is easier for a budget to carry than a bigger programme payment.

Arrears and the expenses already added to them go in. Instalments that have not fallen due, and any liability arising after approval, stay out.

The account, part by part

The third column is where the answer comes from, so you can put the question to your adviser in the council’s own terms.

One line there deserves care. Instalments in the current year that you have already missed are missed payments of council tax, which appear on the official list of arrears you can include, so raise them with your adviser rather than assuming either answer.

What cannot go in at all

Student loans, court fines and hire purchase or conditional sale agreements cannot be included, although arrears on a hire purchase agreement can be. Ongoing bills such as gas, electricity, rent, mortgage and child maintenance are continuing liabilities.

Mortgage and rent arrears are optional, so you can choose whether to include them. Official guidance on debt and diligence sets out the other statutory routes.

New credit taken during a programme sits outside it as well. Regulation 27(2)(e) makes it a standard condition not to apply for or obtain credit beyond the narrow permitted exceptions.

A new bill arrives and it is not in the programme. It is a continuing liability you pay to the council in the ordinary way, and if you fall behind on it, a variation cannot bring it in.

The year by year position

Council tax is the one debt in a programme that keeps generating a new version of itself. This is how each year sits.

So a programme built on arrears from three closed years can still fail on the bill that lands the following April. That is the trap worth planning for.

Why a variation cannot fix it

Regulation 37(2) says an application for variation shall not be made in respect of any other debt of the debtor. The two narrow exceptions are a debt that existed at approval but was omitted or wrongly assessed, and a future or contingent debt known at approval that later becomes quantified.

A liability that arises after approval is neither. Tell your money adviser as soon as you know you cannot meet a current-year instalment, and ask about a council tax payment arrangement for that year on its own.

Reinstating instalments after a final notice is at the council’s discretion rather than a right. Asking early, in writing, and with a figure attached is worth more than asking late.

Approval operates as a recall of any arrestment of your income or property, and the Accountant in Bankruptcy sends the recall notice to your employer. Nothing is required from the council for that to take effect.

Where the recall comes from

Regulation 33(1)(a) is the provision. Section 4(2) of the Debt Arrangement and Attachment (Scotland) Act 2002 separately makes it incompetent to serve a charge for payment or to commence or execute any diligence for a debt in the programme.

For council tax under a summary warrant the council can move to an earnings arrestment without first serving a charge for payment. Our guide to choosing between the debt solutions sets out what each route does to an arrestment already running.

Money already taken from your wages

Deductions made before the recall takes effect are credited against the debt and are not usually refunded. Ask the creditor to confirm in writing how they have been applied.

A summary warrant does not expire, and since 28 February 2025 executing diligence under it extends the twenty-year prescriptive period until the claim is finally disposed of rather than restarting it. So old arrears do not simply lapse while enforcement is active.

Protection under regulation 30(1)(b) runs from the moment your application is entered in the DAS Register until it is approved, rejected or withdrawn. Before that entry there is a gap.

What can cover the gap

A statutory moratorium gives six months of protection and you get one per rolling 12 months. It stops service of a charge for payment, stops new diligence and stops creditor petitions for sequestration.

It does not stop a creditor obtaining a decree, and interest and charges keep accruing throughout.

How a statutory moratorium works covers the six months in full, including the one per rolling 12 months limit.

The point the sources treat differently

It does not stop an earnings arrestment that was already running. Section 197(5)(d) of the Bankruptcy (Scotland) Act 2016 lets a creditor carry on executing an earnings arrestment, a current maintenance arrestment or a conjoined arrestment order that came into effect before the moratorium began.

A Time to Pay Order is a separate route, and since 1 April 2008 it has been competent against a summary warrant. It is worth asking a money adviser or the sheriff court whether an application is competent on your facts.

If the application is rejected, protection from enforcement continues for 14 days after the rejection notice is entered in the Register. A review can be requested inside that window.

It can be, and one creditor is enough under regulation 21(1). A programme covering a single debt does behave differently, and the differences are worth knowing before you apply.

What changes with one debt

The fair and reasonable test is not a refusal. Regulation 25(1) requires the Accountant in Bankruptcy to approve a programme that is fair and reasonable, so an objection is not a veto.

What else to ask about

Where the debt is larger than your income can clear in a reasonable period, a protected trust deed or sequestration may be the better question to ask. Both are formal insolvency and both include council tax arrears.

Check your entitlements in the same conversation, because a reduction changes the figure the programme has to carry. The Accountant in Bankruptcy runs the scheme itself, and your money adviser makes the application.

The difference between the three is not really about council tax. A programme repays the debt in full and is not insolvency, while the other two are formal insolvency and appear on the public Register of Insolvencies.