That happens because the earnings arrestment schedule is served on your employer rather than handed to you. Payroll can know before you do.

Here is how to confirm what you are looking at, work out who is taking the money, and check the amount is right.

Look in the deductions column, below the tax and National Insurance lines. The reliable test is where the deduction sits and how it moves rather than the name on the line.

It is taken from net earnings after income tax and National Insurance, and it is worked out again on every pay day, so it changes as your pay changes. Payroll can confirm what paperwork they hold.

The six signs worth checking

Why the movement is the strongest clue

The sum comes from the tables in Schedule 2 to the Debtors (Scotland) Act 1987, applied to your net earnings for that period, so a pay rise, a bonus or a quiet month all move it.

Nothing at all is taken from monthly net earnings of £750.00 or less or weekly net earnings of £172.61 or less. How much they can take from your wages sets out the bands above those floors.

Ask in writing, and ask five specific things. The schedule is served on your employer rather than on you, so your employer is the first place the paperwork lands.

The five questions

Why writing beats a conversation

A written answer is easier to take to a money adviser, and it dates the file.

The document payroll holds is the earnings arrestment schedule, and what an earnings arrestment schedule is covers what it instructs them to do.

Save every payslip from the first affected pay date onwards. If a dispute about how the arrestment is being operated comes up later, that record does the work.

When a wage arrestment starts after the paperwork arrives sets out how the date of service and the first affected pay date fit together.

Ask payroll what paperwork they were served with and who it came from. The sheriff officer firm named on any letter you have had can also confirm which creditor it is acting for.

For council tax the money goes to your local council, collected by a sheriff officer firm acting under a summary warrant.

Who to ask for the balance

The firms instructed by Scottish councils include Scott & Co, Stirling Park, Walker Love and Alex M Adamson, and each has a page in our sheriff officer advice section.

Ask the firm or the creditor for a full written breakdown of the balance. Which documents you should receive before a wage arrestment sets out exactly what to request.

What that balance will include

For council tax it carries a 10% statutory surcharge added when the summary warrant was granted, plus sheriff officer fees, which are set by an Act of Sederunt and added to what you owe.

How much the 10% surcharge comes to covers that addition, and whether sheriff officer fees are added to your balance covers the rest.

Why it may have started without warning

For council tax collected under a summary warrant the council can move to an earnings arrestment without first serving a charge for payment. Whether you can get a wage arrestment without going to court covers that route.

Where the debt came from an ordinary court decree, a charge for payment has to be served and expire first. What warning you get before a wage arrestment sets out each stage.

An earnings arrestment is one of seven forms of wage deduction used in Scotland. They come from different bodies and are calculated differently, so identifying the right one matters before you act.

The seven, and how each shows itself

The seven types of wage arrestment in Scotland goes through each one in full.

The quickest test of all

A deduction expressed as a percentage of net earnings, rather than the cash figures the arrestment tables produce, points at a direct earnings attachment or a child maintenance order instead.

One deduction paid over to the sheriff clerk points at a conjoined arrestment order, which consolidates several creditors into a single deduction.

Compare it against the statutory table for your own pay frequency, applied to your net earnings for that period. Two checks are worth making first: the right base, and the right table.

The right base

Net earnings is a defined figure rather than take-home pay. Income tax, National Insurance, pension scheme contributions and a priority child maintenance deduction come off first, and what counts as net earnings sets out that closed list.

A child maintenance deduction from earnings order can outrank an earnings arrestment. Section 73(1)(d) takes off, before net earnings are worked out, any deduction from earnings order that the child support regulations give priority over diligences against earnings, so the tables are then applied to what is left.

Student loan repayments, union dues and the £1.00 administration charge are taken after the deduction has been worked out. They do not reduce the figure the table produces.

The right table

On monthly net pay of £1,800.00 the sum is £172.50, and on £2,200.00 it is £252.50. Weekly net pay of £400.00 produces £36.85, and how a wage arrestment is calculated on weekly pay works through the weekly bands.

The current rates come from SSI 2024/293, in force since 6 April 2025 and still current in August 2026.

If you are paid fortnightly

There is no fortnightly table. Fortnightly pay is normally handled using the daily table, which has a nil band of £24.66, or by applying the weekly table to each week in the period.

Payroll guidance rather than the Act decides which method is used, so ask which one yours applies. The answer changes the arithmetic you should be checking against.

Because the nil band bites on that period’s net earnings. Where they sit at or below the threshold for your pay frequency, the deduction for that period is nil.

The arrestment does not end

It stays in place and picks up again on a pay day where you earn more. What happens if you earn below the threshold covers a run of nil periods.

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.

Where a figure changes without warning

Overtime, a bonus or a change in your pension contributions all move the net earnings the table is applied to. Why your wage arrestment may be taking more than you expected works through each cause.

Raise it with payroll first, with the payslip and your own calculation beside it. A difference of a few pence can be rounding rather than error.

The rounding rule

Calculations are worked to two decimal places of a penny and rounded to the nearest whole penny, with an exact half penny rounded down. That alone can move a figure by a penny or two.

A difference of pounds is a different matter. Put the figures side by side in writing and ask payroll to show their working.

Where it goes if payroll cannot resolve it

Section 50(3) of the 1987 Act allows an application to determine a dispute about how an arrestment is operating, and section 50(1) covers a declarator that it is invalid or has ceased to have effect. Challenging a wage arrestment you think is wrong sets out both.

Applications are lodged at the sheriff court, and it is worth taking advice before lodging anything.

What no route reaches

There is no hardship or affordability application against an earnings arrestment, and a sheriff cannot reduce a Schedule 2 deduction because you cannot afford it. The unduly harsh test reaches funds and moveable property rather than wages, as an unduly harsh application explains.

Get the balance in writing, then look at the statutory routes. Those change the arrestment rather than the arithmetic, which is the only thing that actually moves.

The options worth asking a money adviser about

• An approved Debt Payment Programme under the Debt Arrangement Scheme, which freezes interest, fees and charges and blocks new diligence.
• A statutory moratorium, six months long and one per rolling 12 months.
• Sequestration, the Minimal Asset Process or a protected trust deed, where the debt level and your circumstances fit.
• A payment arrangement direct with the council or creditor, covered in council tax debt advice.
• A Time to Pay Order, where the debt outstanding is £25,000 or less excluding interest and 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.

One clear next step

Email payroll today for the creditor’s name and the date the schedule was received, then take that to a free adviser. What to do the day you receive a wage arrestment notice sets out the rest of the checks in order.

Citizens Advice Scotland, StepChange, Money Advice Scotland and National Debtline all cover Scottish diligence, official guidance sits on mygov.scot, and the statutory schemes are run by the Accountant in Bankruptcy.

Money already taken is credited against the debt and is not usually refunded. Check the position with the creditor.