What can be set out precisely is what the rules require a lender to do. That is worth more than guesswork, because whether a wage arrestment affects your credit score and whether it affects a mortgage are two different questions.

No, and the reason is structural rather than lucky. A credit file contains only what somebody supplies to it, and nobody supplies this.

Why there is no route in

The agencies publish their own list of who supplies them. It runs to lenders, utilities, mobile networks, retailers, insurers, court judgment data through Registry Trust, insolvency data from the Accountant in Bankruptcy and the Insolvency Service, and the electoral register.

A local authority appears on that list once, as the supplier of the electoral register, and for nothing else. Whether council tax arrears show on your credit report goes through the same reasoning for the debt itself.

An earnings arrestment involves the creditor, the sheriff officer and your employer. None of the three is a data contributor for this purpose, and there is no register of earnings arrestments at all.

The point most useful to a home buyer or remortgagor

Paragraph 2(3) of Schedule 8 to the Local Government Finance Act 1992 gives a closed list of the diligences a summary warrant authorises: an attachment, a money attachment, an earnings arrestment, and an arrestment with furthcoming or sale. Inhibition is not on it.

So a council recovering council tax on a summary warrant cannot inhibit you and cannot register anything against your house. Does a summary warrant show on your credit file covers the wider point, and note that an ordinary court decree is different.

What a search does turn up

Through the documents you supply. MCOB 11.6.8R requires a lender to obtain evidence of your income independent of you, and self-certification is prohibited.

Where it becomes visible

• The payslip, where the deduction is itemised alongside tax and national insurance. Does a wage arrestment show on your payslip covers what payroll has to show.
• The employer’s £1.00 administration charge, if it is taken.
• Bank statements, where the money credited is less than the salary you declared.
• Any question on the application form about deductions or debt problems, which should be answered honestly.

Your employer has no discretion about it

Section 47(1) of the Debtors (Scotland) Act 1987 puts the duty to deduct on the employer, and an employer that fails to deduct becomes liable for the sums it should have taken. What an employer’s legal duties are for a wage arrestment sets them out.

So it will run through payroll rather than being handled quietly. A payslip and a bank statement will not match a salary figure quoted without the deduction.

Not by reducing the income figure the rules require a lender to count, which is measured net of income tax and national insurance only. It bites as expenditure, because the deduction is a payment you are under a statutory obligation to make.

What the rule actually says

That distinction is worth getting right. A wage arrestment comes off after tax and national insurance, so on the face of MCOB 11.6.5R(2) it sits outside the income calculation and lands instead among the commitments a lender has to reckon with.

What the deduction is worth in real money

Deductions are taken from net earnings under Schedule 2 to the 1987 Act, on tables in force since 6 April 2025. Monthly net pay of £1,800.00 produces £172.50 a month, and £2,200.00 produces £252.50.

Monthly net pay of £750.00 or less produces a nil deduction. How much they can take from your wages in Scotland sets out every band.

On a tight application, a deduction of that size can be the difference between a yes and a no. It works the other way too, because ending the arrestment puts the money back.

What the rules do not require

MCOB 11.6 does not require a credit reference agency search, does not tell a lender to look at bank statements, and does not set a maximum loan to income. Whether a particular lender asks for payslips, and what it does when it sees a deduction on one, is that lender’s own policy.

Probably not on the wording. The FCA’s own definition is written in English legal terms and does not name council tax arrears, a wage arrestment, a Scottish decree, sequestration or a protected trust deed.

The three limbs, read against Scottish facts

• Limb (a) is arrears equivalent to three months’ payments on a mortgage or other loan within the last two years. Council tax is neither a mortgage nor a loan.
• Limb (b) is one or more county court judgments over £500 within the last three years. There are no county courts in Scotland.
• Limb (c) is an individual voluntary arrangement or a bankruptcy order in force within the last three years. The Scottish equivalents are not named.

Do not overread that

What is verified is the wording of the definition. It does not follow that a lender will ignore a Scottish decree or a sequestration, and most will plainly treat them as equivalent.

The definition also drives only certain provisions in the mortgage rules rather than lending decisions at large. The honest reading is that the label is not automatically attached to you by the rulebook.

The rules are differently shaped. CONC 5.2A requires a reasonable creditworthiness assessment, and it is explicit that a payment you are under a statutory obligation to make counts as non-discretionary expenditure.

What the consumer credit rules require

CONC 5.2A.7R says the assessment must be based on sufficient information obtained from the customer, and where necessary from a credit reference agency. A credit search is therefore not compulsory in every case.

CONC 5.2A.15R requires the firm to determine or estimate your current income and to allow for reasonably foreseeable reductions during the term. CONC 5.2A.17R does the same for non-discretionary expenditure.

Where the arrestment lands

CONC 5.2A.18G describes non-discretionary expenditure as including payments needed to meet priority debts and essential living expenses, and payments the customer has a contractual or statutory obligation to make. A wage arrestment is squarely the second of those.

So it will not show up in a credit search. The moment a lender asks what you spend, or looks at a payslip, it is there.

They cut both ways. A solution can end the arrestment and restore your monthly figures, and the formal ones leave a public record a lender will take into account.

What each one does, and what it leaves

An approved programme under the Debt Arrangement Scheme freezes interest and charges as well, and whether a Debt Arrangement Scheme shows on your credit file deals with what is visible.

A time to pay order is competent against summary warrant debt where the balance is £25,000 or less excluding interest, a limit in force since 10 July 2000. What a time to pay order is sets out the conditions, and whether one is competent on your facts is a question for a money adviser or the sheriff clerk.

Both sequestration and a protected trust deed are on the Register of Insolvencies and reach the agencies through the Accountant in Bankruptcy’s daily feed, so they are visible on a file for years. That is a reason to take advice on the choice rather than to make it quickly with a mortgage in mind.

Deal with the arrestment first where you can, then give the paperwork time to settle. Get your file from each agency and check the recorded default dates before anybody else looks at them.

Practical steps

• Get your file from each of the main agencies, because the three do not hold identical data. How long debt information stays on your credit file explains what you are looking at.
• Note the recorded default date on every defaulted account, because that is the date the retention period runs from.
• Take free money advice about ending the arrestment. How do you stop a wage arrestment in Scotland sets out the routes.
• Keep every payslip and statement covering the period, so a broker can see the whole picture.
• Confirm the balance with the creditor, because fees added during recovery mean the figure may not be the one you remember.

Money already taken

Deductions made before a solution takes effect are credited against the debt rather than refunded, so do not build a deposit plan around getting them back. What happens to money already taken when a wage arrestment stops covers it.

The rules themselves are moving

The FCA is part way through rewriting its mortgage rules. PS25/11, published on 2 October 2025, already eased remortgaging to a new lender through a modified affordability assessment.

CP26/18 then consulted between 9 June and 28 July 2026 on changes for borrowers with variable income and for consumers with past credit difficulties, with a policy statement expected in the second half of 2026. A consultation is not a rule, so check the position before relying on anything written earlier.