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- How do you work out what will actually reach your bank?
- Which budget form does a Scottish money adviser actually use?
- What does the Common Financial Tool do with your figures?
- Which bills come first once the deduction is fixed?
- Can a budget reduce the amount taken from your wages?
- What can you take off the bill behind the arrestment?
- How do you keep the budget working month to month?
- Related guides
- Frequently asked questions
Build the budget from the pay that will actually reach your bank after the deduction, not from your usual net pay. Work the arrestment figure out from the statutory tables first, set the priority bills against what is left, and take the result to a free money adviser, who will put it on a Common Financial Statement.
An earnings arrestment does not care what your standing orders say. Your employer takes the money before you see it, so a budget built on last month’s take-home pay is out of date the day the schedule arrives.
Part of your pay is protected by law
The deduction is set by statutory tables, not the creditor
An arrestment can be stopped or replaced
Money coming off your wages? Get free help building a budget around it.
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The first month is usually the worst, because the deduction lands alongside bills set up for a bigger wage. None of that is a comment on how you manage money.
Here is how to rebuild the numbers, in the order that works, starting with how much they can take from your wages in Scotland.
How do you work out what will actually reach your bank?
Apply the statutory table for your pay frequency to your net earnings for that period. The tables in Schedule 2 to the Debtors (Scotland) Act 1987 have been in force in their current form since 6 April 2025.
Net earnings is a closed list, not take-home pay
Income tax, National Insurance, pension contributions and a priority child maintenance deduction come off before the table is applied. Nothing else does.
Student loan repayments, other arrestments and union dues are all taken after the deduction has been worked out. The tables themselves are in force since 6 April 2025 under SSI 2024/293.
Five monthly figures worked through
| Monthly net pay | What the table takes | What reaches your bank |
|---|---|---|
| £749 | Nil, because it sits below the £750 band | £749 |
| £900.00 | 15% of the £150 excess, which is £22.50 | £877.50 |
| £1,800.00 | £112.50 plus 20% of £300, which is £172.50 | £1,627.50 |
| £2,200.00 | £112.50 plus 20% of £700, which is £252.50 | £1,947.50 |
| £3,000.00 | £312.50 plus 25% of £500, which is £437.50 | £2,562.50 |
There is no percentage cap in the Scottish tables, only these fixed cash bands. A month with overtime produces a larger deduction and a quiet month a smaller one.
Add the pound
Your employer may take £1.00 for each deduction as an administration charge, on top of the arrested amount. It is set by section 71 of the Debtors (Scotland) Act 1987 and by regulation 3 of SSI 2006/116, in force 5 April 2006.
The charge is permissive rather than compulsory, so it may or may not appear. Budget for it anyway.
Which budget form does a Scottish money adviser actually use?
The Common Financial Statement. Regulation 15(1) of the Bankruptcy (Scotland) Regulations 2016 names it as the method to be used, and a great deal of published advice still says Standard Financial Statement, which is the form used elsewhere in the United Kingdom.
Where the tool comes from
The enabling power is section 89 of the Bankruptcy (Scotland) Act 2016, in force 30 November 2016, which lets Ministers specify a method for assessing what a debtor can afford to pay. The specified method is known as the common financial tool.
It is exercised by regulations 15 to 18 of the Bankruptcy (Scotland) Regulations 2016. Section 89 also requires an allowance for aliment, for a periodical allowance to a former spouse or civil partner, and for child support maintenance.
Why Scotland did not move to the Standard Financial Statement
It tried and stopped. The Common Financial Tool (Scotland) Regulations 2018 would have switched the tool to the Standard Financial Statement with effect from 29 October 2018.
They were laid in June 2018 and withdrawn, a second draft was laid and withdrawn in November 2018, and no instrument of that name was ever made. So the Scottish tool is still the Common Financial Statement.
Does the difference matter to you?
Only if somebody tells you the wrong one. Ask your adviser to complete the Common Financial Statement, or simply say the common financial tool, which is the statutory term and covers it either way.
What does the Common Financial Tool do with your figures?
It compares what you spend in each category against a published trigger figure, takes the lower of the two as reasonable expenditure, and treats the surplus as your contribution. It also lets you argue for more, and it lets you keep a small amount back for contingencies.
The rules, one line each
| The question | What the regulations say | Where it comes from |
|---|---|---|
| Which budget form is used | The Common Financial Statement, named in terms | Regulation 15(1) |
| How the contribution is worked out | Your surplus above the lower of the published trigger figure for a category or what you actually spend on it | Regulation 15(2) |
| Whether you can spend more than the trigger figure | Yes, where the decision maker is satisfied the expenditure is reasonable | Regulation 15(3) |
| Who has to justify it | You do. Evidence of why the expenditure is reasonable is produced on request | Regulation 15(4) |
| What happens if all your income is benefits | No contribution is due at all | Regulation 15(7) |
| What you keep back for the unexpected | Up to 10% of the contribution, capped at £4.62 a week, £9.23 a fortnight or £20 a month | Regulation 16(1) |
The full text sits at regulation 15 and regulation 16 of SSI 2016/397.
The trigger figures themselves are not public
The Accountant in Bankruptcy’s own page on the tool says there are trigger figures for telephone, travel, housekeeping and other costs, and that fixed items such as rent and mortgage payments have no trigger figure at all. The current version was published on 1 April 2025, per the Accountant in Bankruptcy.
The numbers themselves are published by the Money Advice Trust under licence to money advisers rather than on an open page. Anybody quoting you a trigger figure from a website is guessing.
If all your income is benefits
Regulation 15(7) is short and it is a rule rather than a discretion. Where a debtor has income solely from social security benefits and tax credits, no contribution is due.
That applies across sequestration, protected trust deeds and the Debt Arrangement Scheme, because all three run on the same tool. The adviser’s working document is the Notes for Guidance on the Common Financial Tool, last updated 19 June 2026.
Wages already being arrested? Get free help working out what you can afford
Which bills come first once the deduction is fixed?
Priority bills, and priority is about the enforcement power behind a debt rather than the size of the balance. Rent or mortgage, energy, water, current-year council tax, court fines and child maintenance all sit above credit cards and catalogues.
The trap nobody warns you about
An earnings arrestment enforces a fixed sum owed at the date it was executed. This year’s council tax keeps falling due on top of it.
If the current year is not paid the council can obtain a second summary warrant and a second diligence, which is the commonest way a Scottish council tax debt doubles. Which bills are priority debts in Scotland sets the ranking out in full.
Practical moves once the order is set
- Move the priority direct debits to within a day or two of payday.
- Reduce the non-priority direct debits to what you can genuinely maintain rather than cancelling everything at once.
- Write to the non-priority creditors, explain the arrestment and offer what is left.
- Keep a small buffer for the things that always turn up, such as a school trip or a boiler service.
Can a budget reduce the amount taken from your wages?
No, and this is the honest part. Section 46(2) of the Debtors (Scotland) Act 1987 abolished the old subsistence exemption outright, and a sheriff has no power to cut a Schedule 2 deduction because you cannot afford it.
Three different minimum income ideas, and they are not the same thing
| Protection | What it is | Where it bites | Where it does not |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Schedule 2 protected band | A fixed sum of net earnings below which nothing is deducted | Every earnings arrestment | It is fixed. There is no discretion to raise it |
| The £1,000 protected minimum balance | A floor left in the bank account | A bank arrestment | It does not touch earnings |
| The Common Financial Tool and the nil-contribution rule | An affordability assessment producing a contribution, possibly nil | Sequestration, protected trust deeds and the Debt Arrangement Scheme | Not an earnings arrestment. No adviser can use it to make a council reduce one |
What a budget does instead
It is the key rather than the lock. A budget shows whether a time to pay order is realistic, and section 9(2)(a) of the Debtors (Scotland) Act 1987 requires the sheriff to recall an existing earnings arrestment where an order is made.
It also produces the figures a Debt Payment Programme under the Debt Arrangement Scheme needs, and it shows whether a statutory moratorium buys the weeks needed to set one of those up.
The debt outstanding on a time to pay order must be £25,000 or less excluding interest, a limit in force since 10 July 2000. Whether an application is competent on your own facts is a question for a money adviser or the sheriff clerk.
What can you take off the bill behind the arrestment?
Often more than you expect. Council Tax Reduction can cover up to 100% of a council tax liability, and a full benefits check regularly finds income people did not know they were entitled to.
Council tax first
Council Tax Reduction is worth checking before anything else, and what Council Tax Reduction in Scotland is explains how the scheme works. It runs under the Council Tax Reduction (Scotland) Regulations 2021, with figures uprated from 1 April 2026.
- The 25% single person discount where only one adult lives in the property.
- Disregards for full-time students, apprentices, care leavers under 26, live-in carers and people who are severely mentally impaired.
- The disabled band reduction, which charges the bill at one band lower where extra space is needed.
- Water and sewerage charges are billed alongside council tax and reduced separately, through the Water Charges Reduction Scheme. Ask about both, and see which benefits to check if you are struggling with council tax.
Income and one-off help
A Crisis Grant from the Scottish Welfare Fund is decided by the end of the next working day once the council holds everything it needs, and can cover heating in an emergency. What a Crisis Grant is and how to apply sets out the conditions.
Neither grant can be used to pay a debt. What it can do is protect the food and fuel your budget cannot stretch to.
On energy, Home Energy Scotland is free on 0808 808 2282 for impartial advice and referrals, and what help is available with energy bills in Scotland covers the Warm Home Discount and the winter heating payments.
Where Universal Credit is part of your income, check what is already being deducted from it. Council tax arrears are taken at 5% of the standard allowance, and total deductions have been capped at 15% since 30 April 2025.
How do you keep the budget working month to month?
Check it against the payslip every payday for the first three months. A budget written once and never revisited stops matching your life within weeks.
A short monthly routine
- Read the payslip and confirm the deduction matches the table for your net pay that period.
- Query anything that looks wrong with payroll in writing, and keep a copy.
- Move one small amount into a separate pot for annual costs, even if it is a few pounds.
- Tell your adviser about any change in hours, health or household straight away, and see whether a wage arrestment shows on your payslip for what to look for.
Budget on your worst month
The deduction moves with your net earnings, so plan on your lowest realistic month rather than your best one. What happens to a wage arrestment if you earn below the threshold covers the nil bands.
If you leave that job the arrestment falls with that employment. It does not follow you automatically, although the creditor can trace a new employer and serve a fresh schedule.
Where to get the budget done free
The Scottish Government’s own signposting page names Citizens Advice Scotland, including the Money Talk Team on 0800 028 1456, StepChange Debt Charity on 0800 138 1111, National Debtline on 0808 808 4000, Advice Direct Scotland and MoneyHelper. That list is at mygov.scot, last updated 12 June 2025.
The Money Talk Team line is open 9am to 5pm Monday to Friday, on mygov.scot’s council tax page as updated on 1 April 2026. Your council’s own money advice team is often the quickest route of all.
Frequently asked questions
How much will be taken from my wages each month?
It depends on your net pay for that period. Monthly net earnings of £1,800.00 produce a deduction of £172.50, and £2,200.00 produces £252.50, using the tables in force since 6 April 2025.
Is anything protected from a wage arrestment?
Yes. Nothing is taken from monthly net earnings of £750.00 or less, weekly earnings of £172.61 or less, or daily earnings of £24.66 or less, and above those levels the fixed cash bands apply with no percentage cap.
Do Scottish advisers use the Standard Financial Statement?
Not for a Scottish statutory debt solution. Regulation 15(1) of the Bankruptcy (Scotland) Regulations 2016 specifies the Common Financial Statement, and the 2018 attempt to switch Scotland to the Standard Financial Statement was withdrawn twice and never made.
Can I ask the sheriff to reduce the deduction because I cannot afford it?
No. Section 46(2) of the Debtors (Scotland) Act 1987 abolished the subsistence exemption, so there is no hardship or affordability route against an ordinary earnings arrestment and the realistic options are the Debt Arrangement Scheme, a statutory moratorium or a time to pay order.
What happens if all my income is benefits?
Under regulation 15(7) of the Bankruptcy (Scotland) Regulations 2016 no contribution is due where a debtor’s income is solely social security benefits and tax credits. That is a rule rather than a discretion, and it applies across sequestration, protected trust deeds and the Debt Arrangement Scheme.
Will my employer charge me for processing the arrestment?
It may take £1.00 for each deduction as an administration charge, on top of the arrested amount. The sum was prescribed by regulation 3 of SSI 2006/116 with effect from 5 April 2006 and has not moved since.
Should I stop paying my credit card to cover the arrestment?
Priority bills such as rent, energy and the current year’s council tax come first, because the consequences of missing them are more serious. Speak to a money adviser before stopping any payment, so that it is done in a way creditors will accept.
Can Council Tax Reduction help if the arrestment is for council tax?
It can reduce your ongoing liability by up to 100%, which stops new arrears building while the old ones are recovered. Apply through your council and ask about backdating at the same time.
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Written as general information about Scottish debt law rather than regulated financial or legal advice, and your own circumstances may change the answer. Free, impartial help is available from Citizens Advice Scotland, StepChange, Money Advice Scotland and National Debtline.