The power sits in sections 195 to 198 of the Bankruptcy (Scotland) Act 2016. The six months replaced six weeks on 1 October 2022.

Here is what it stops, what it leaves untouched, how often you can use it, and the two other protection windows that get mistaken for it.

A period of legal protection from diligence, given by giving notice rather than by asking a court. It is breathing space to get a debt solution prepared, not a solution in itself.

Where the six months comes from

Section 198 of the 2016 Act sets the period. It was extended from six weeks by section 23 of the Coronavirus (Recovery and Reform) (Scotland) Act 2022, in force 1 October 2022, and that change is permanent.

It is administered by the Accountant in Bankruptcy, the same agency that runs the Debt Arrangement Scheme and awards sequestration on a debtor application.

How you get one

Notice is given to the agency through the Register of Insolvencies, by you or by a money adviser. What free debt advice is available sets out who can do that for you and at what cost, which is nothing.

The protection runs from the day the entry is made in the register rather than from the day you ask. That gap is worth knowing about if a pay day is close.

Service of a charge for payment, new diligence and creditor petitions for sequestration. It does not reach the court action behind the debt, and it does not freeze interest.

What is caught and what is not

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

Why the interest point matters

Six months of interest on a large balance is real money. A moratorium buys time rather than reducing the debt.

Ask each creditor for a written statement of the balance at the start of the six months rather than at the end of them, including any enforcement expenses already added to it. Keep the replies, because they are what the figures in any application get checked against.

Interest and charges freeze on a Debt Payment Programme from the date the application is recorded, which is something a moratorium does not do. What the Debt Arrangement Scheme is covers the freeze in full.

Whether a creditor can carry on an earnings arrestment your employer is already operating is treated differently in the Accountant in Bankruptcy’s adviser guidance from the general statement of the rule. Ask a money adviser to confirm the position on your facts before relying on it.

Why this page will not give you a flat answer

The general statement of the rule and the Accountant in Bankruptcy’s adviser guidance are not worded the same way on this point. Nothing we have read resolves the difference.

So the honest position is that it should be checked on your own facts rather than assumed either way. Getting that wrong in either direction has a cost.

What to ask, and what to do meanwhile

• Ask your money adviser to confirm, in writing, what your employer should do with the next pay run.
• Ask the creditor to confirm in writing how any deductions taken are being applied to the balance.
• Keep every payslip covering the period, because the deduction line is the record.
• Ask what the moratorium is being used to reach, and by what date the application will be lodged.

The routes that do displace a running arrestment each bite on their own date, and which debt solution suits a wage arrestment sets those dates out side by side.

Six months, and one per rolling 12 months. Section 195 prevents you giving notice where you have given such notice in the immediately preceding 12 months.

The one in twelve months rule

The limit is measured from the last notice rather than from the end of the last moratorium. So a moratorium that ran from January to July does not open a fresh one in August.

There is a narrow exception. Someone leaving a joint Debt Payment Programme because of relationship breakdown or a death is not caught by the once a year limit.

That single window is the reason timing matters so much. Using a moratorium early, before an application is anywhere near ready, can leave you without cover at the point you need it.

Where the period extends

Section 198 extends the moratorium where a sequestration, a protected trust deed or a Debt Arrangement Scheme application is pending. The trust deed limb carries up to a further seven weeks.

That matters because a protected trust deed has a five-week objection window built into it before it can even be presented for protection.

What happens when the six months end

The protection stops. Where no application has been made before the six months finish, the protection against enforcement action is lost.

So treat the six months as a deadline rather than a cushion. Ask at the outset which route the time is being used to reach, whether that is a programme, a trust deed or sequestration.

No. Breathing Space is the debt respite scheme of England and Wales and it does not apply in Scotland, where the statutory moratorium is the equivalent.

English vocabulary, named so you can rule it out

The lengths do not transfer either. Check that any period you read was written for Scotland before you count from it.

The same goes for the enforcement vocabulary around it. Scotland uses diligence, sheriff officers and, for council tax, a summary warrant.

The Mental Health Moratorium

Sections 1 to 3 of the Bankruptcy and Diligence (Scotland) Act 2024 provide for a Mental Health Moratorium in Scotland. Those sections are not commenced.

So it is provided for rather than available, and the statutory moratorium under the 2016 Act is what exists now. Ask a money adviser for the current position before relying on anything else.

Two, and both are six weeks rather than six months. One follows an intimation of intention to apply for a Debt Payment Programme, and the other follows revocation of a joint programme.

The three windows, separated

The six-week windows come from regulations 20(3) and 30 of the Debt Arrangement Scheme (Scotland) Regulations 2011. They are separate from the moratorium and carry their own once a year limits.

What else the six-week window blocks

Regulation 30 also bars a warrant for sale of attached land and a satisfaction order, and it stops the automatic release of arrested funds under section 73J of the Debtors (Scotland) Act 1987.

The period is disregarded when the section 73J(3) clock is computed. So a bank arrestment that would otherwise have released funds to the creditor does not simply run on through the window.

Yes. It is entered in the Register of Insolvencies, which is a free, publicly searchable online database maintained by the Accountant in Bankruptcy.

Who can look at it

Anyone can search it. It shows whether a person is bankrupt, has a trust deed, or has a moratorium in place.

Information may be withheld where the agency considers that including it would be likely to put someone at risk of violence, or otherwise jeopardise anyone’s safety or welfare. Raise that with your adviser before the notice is given rather than after.

What being on it means in practice

The entry is what gives the protection its start date, so it is not an optional part of the process. Official guidance on debt and diligence in Scotland sets out the routes the register records.

Your employer is not told about a moratorium by the register. What your employer receives is the arrestment paperwork, and nothing here changes that.

A credit reference agency is a different thing again from a public register. Ask your adviser what each route you are considering does to your credit file before you choose between them.

Getting an application lodged. The moratorium is cover for preparation, and the route it leads to is what actually ends enforcement.

What to ask for in the six months

• Ask for every debt to be listed and each balance verified with the creditor.
• Ask for your entitlements to be checked, including Council Tax Reduction and anything else unclaimed.
• Ask for an income and expenditure statement built using the common financial tool.
• Ask which routes your debt level and assets actually leave open, and by what date the application will be lodged.

Keep paying what you can afford in the meantime. Where the route being prepared is a Debt Payment Programme, paying continuing liabilities such as the current year’s council tax as they fall due is a standard condition of that programme under regulation 27(2)(c).

How to stop a wage arrestment covers the practical steps once a route is chosen.

What to have ready

Three months of payslips or benefit statements, a list of every debt with a current balance, and any enforcement paperwork you have received. Bring the payslips showing the deduction line as well as the balance.

One conversation with a free approved money adviser turns that paperwork into a decision. For an individual’s Debt Payment Programme, no adviser can charge you a fee for it.