The awkward part is what is not on that list. No sheriff can lower the deduction on the ground that you cannot afford it.

Below are those routes in the order you meet them, plus the moratorium, covering council tax collected under a summary warrant as well as ordinary court debts.

Only a formal legal event: full payment, a Time to Pay Order, an approved Debt Payment Programme, a protected trust deed or sequestration. A statutory moratorium sits alongside them as cover rather than an ending, and complaints, hardship letters and phone calls do nothing at all.

The deduction is fixed by Schedule 2 to the Debtors (Scotland) Act 1987, so the only way to change it is to displace the arrestment altogether.

The routes compared, side by side

Read down to your route, then across. The last column is the one that matters, because it says what each route does to the schedule your employer is holding.

Why there is no affordability or hardship route

A sheriff cannot reduce a Schedule 2 deduction because it leaves you short.

The only review power is s.50, giving a declarator that the arrestment is invalid or has ceased to have effect, and a determination of a dispute about how it is operated. That is why challenging a wage arrestment you think is wrong is a different question from affording it.

Neither limb has a time limit, and neither is an affordability ground. The unduly harsh test in sections 73Q and 73R belongs to arrestments over funds, and never reaches wages.

What only looks like it stops the deductions

None of these switches the schedule off.

What happens to money already deducted

It is credited against the debt rather than refunded. Ask the creditor to confirm the running total in writing, because the balance should have fallen by every penny collected.

Money taken in error goes to payroll first. Where deductions are already running, stopping a wage arrestment once it has started has its own timing problems.

Yes, and it is the only route ending both the arrestment and the debt on the same day. The catch is that the figure to clear is bigger than the original bill.

A council tax balance carries a 10% statutory surcharge, added when the summary warrant was granted. The sheriff officer firm collecting it adds expenses at rates set by the court.

Ask for a settlement figure in writing

Ask for a full balance showing the debt, the surcharge and the expenses as separate lines.

A lump sum from family, a redundancy payment or a backdated benefit award can clear it outright. Knowing how long a wage arrestment lasts at your current deduction tells you whether that is worth doing.

When an arrangement persuades the creditor to call it off

Creditors can instruct sheriff officers to stop, and councils sometimes do once a special payment arrangement is agreed and being kept to. It is their decision rather than one you can insist on.

Put any offer in writing. Our council tax debt advice page covers what a council will consider.

A moratorium gives six months of protection, covering service of a charge for payment, new diligence and creditor petitions for sequestration. You can normally have one in any rolling twelve month period.

It runs from the day the entry is made in the Register of Insolvencies, and is applied for through the Accountant in Bankruptcy, usually by a money adviser.

What six months of protection covers

• Service of a charge for payment on an ordinary court decree.
• New diligence, including an earnings arrestment, a bank arrestment and an attachment.
• Creditor petitions for your sequestration.

Six months is the permanent figure, set by section 23 of the Coronavirus (Recovery and Reform) (Scotland) Act 2022.

What a moratorium does not do

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

Because you only get one in twelve months, spend it as breathing space while a longer route is arranged.

The point to check with an adviser first

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.

The safe reading is that it buys room to arrange a route that does end the arrestment.

It can. An Order is competent against council tax collected under a summary warrant, and where a sheriff grants one the sheriff must recall any existing earnings arrestment.

That recall is mandatory rather than discretionary, under s.9(2)(a) of the 1987 Act. For attachments and other arrestments the sheriff only may recall or restrict.

Why an Order reaches summary warrant debt

The definition of a decree or other document in s.15(3)(aa) includes a summary warrant, and the provisions barring time to pay on summary warrant debt were repealed with effect from 1 April 2008.

Nothing about a summary warrant puts the debt outside the Time to Pay regime. What it does remove is the pre-decree route, which is the next thing to get straight.

The Direction is the one that is not available

A Time to Pay Direction is applied for inside a court action, before decree. A summary warrant involves no court action and no hearing, so there is nothing for a Direction to respond to.

The limits, and the honest hedge

The debt outstanding must be £25,000 or less excluding interest, and the sheriff has to be satisfied an order is reasonable. HMRC and Revenue Scotland debts are excluded.

Section 5 applies where a charge for payment has been served, an arrestment has been executed or an action of adjudication has begun. Whether an earnings arrestment alone satisfies that middle limb is not settled.

That matters for council tax, because no charge is needed before an earnings arrestment under a summary warrant. A money adviser or the sheriff clerk at your local sheriff court can confirm whether an application is competent on your facts.

Yes. Once a Debt Payment Programme is approved, approval operates as a recall of any arrestment of your income or property, creditors cannot start new diligence, and they cannot petition for your bankruptcy.

The Debt Arrangement Scheme is a statutory scheme run by the Accountant in Bankruptcy. You repay what you owe in full over an agreed period, at a payment built from your income and expenditure.

What approval actually does to the schedule

The recall covers an earnings arrestment and a bank arrestment alike, and the DAS Administrator sends the notice of recall to your employer.

Interest, fees and charges are frozen while the programme runs, and written off when you complete it. You do not need to be insolvent to use it.

The average programme runs about six years, on the Accountant in Bankruptcy’s own statistics.

Council tax inside a Debt Payment Programme

Council tax arrears can go into a programme. Your ongoing current year liability cannot, and has to keep being paid alongside it.

Student loans, court fines and ongoing hire purchase are outside a programme, although hire purchase arrears can go in. Our council tax billing and collection guide covers the notices that should have arrived first.

The DAS Register is free and public, and records your name, date of birth and home address.

Both do, because both are formal insolvency and the debts pass to a trustee. The dates they bite on are different, and on a trust deed it is the date of protection rather than the date you sign.

Both go on the public Register of Insolvencies, under the Bankruptcy (Scotland) Act 2016. Neither is a decision to take in a hurry.

A protected trust deed, and the gap after signing

A protected trust deed ends an earnings arrestment on the date of protection, under s.173. Signing the deed does nothing to the schedule, and deductions carry on in the meantime.

Adding up the statutory steps, protection takes roughly six weeks from signing at the fastest and can run to eleven or twelve weeks. That gap is why a moratorium is normally run alongside.

A trust deed granted on or after 28 November 2013 normally runs for a minimum of four years. There must total at least £5,000 including interest at the date of granting, under s.164(3).

Sequestration and Minimal Asset Process

An existing earnings arrestment ceases to have effect on the date of sequestration, under s.72(2) of the 1987 Act. It happens automatically and is replaced by a Debtor Contribution Order.

Your own application needs debts of £3,000 or more, with a £150 fee waived for people on qualifying benefits or with no disposable income. Discharge is usually after twelve months.

Minimal Asset Process counts as sequestration here, with no fee and automatic discharge after six months. Debts must be no more than £25,000, assets no more than £2,000, and you must own no land.

Get the figures in front of you this week, then get free advice. Every payday that passes is money credited to the debt rather than money you can get back.

The five things to ask for this week

• A written breakdown from payroll showing the deduction and the table applied.
• A full up to date balance from the creditor, with expenses shown separately.
• A copy of the arrestment schedule, so you know which creditor is behind it.
• A check of whether you qualify for Council Tax Reduction or a discount.
• A second opinion from our wage arrestment calculator, to confirm payroll used the right band.

Check the deduction against the statutory table

These monthly bands were substituted into Schedule 2 by the Diligence against Earnings (Variation) (Scotland) Regulations 2024. They came into force on 6 April 2025 and were still the live figures in August 2026.

Net monthly pay of £1,800.00 produces £172.50, and £2,200.00 produces £252.50. Weekly pay has its own table, where £400.00 net produces £36.85.

A month where net pay falls to £749.00 produces £0.00, because each pay period is assessed on its own.

Where to get free help

Citizens Advice Scotland, StepChange, Money Advice Scotland and National Debtline all give free advice. Our guide to where to go for help to stop a wage arrestment compares what each of them can do.

An adviser can compare the routes against your income and what you owe. Government guidance on debt and decrees is a useful starting point beforehand.

If the deduction leaves you short of rent, food or heating, treat it as urgent. No application lowers the figure itself.