Weekly pay changes the arithmetic. The same sum runs 52 times a year rather than 12.

Below are the weekly bands, the sums worked through, a ready reckoner from £172.61 of net pay to £1,000.00, and the annual cost. If you are paid monthly instead, the monthly calculation is the guide you want.

Table A protects the first £172.61 of net weekly earnings in full. Above that the deduction climbs through four bands, ending at £143.84 plus 50% of everything over £863.06 a week.

These figures 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.

The weekly deduction table, from 6 April 2025

Check any weekly figure quoted elsewhere against this table, because these bands replaced the previous set on 6 April 2025.

No April 2026 uprating was made. The tables are typically reviewed every two or three years.

What counts as net weekly earnings

Net earnings means your pay for that week after income tax, National Insurance and pension, never the gross figure.

Wages, overtime, commission and shift allowances paid through payroll all sit inside it. A bonus landing in one week lifts that week’s deduction and nothing else.

Income tax, National Insurance and pension are the deductions the statutory definition names. If your payslip carries anything else, ask payroll how it was treated, and our guide to the protected earnings limits for a wage arrestment covers the slice left alone whatever you earn.

How the five bands behave in practice

The first £172.61 is protected every single week, whatever the balance behind the arrestment. Above it the rate climbs steeply, and the top band takes half of every extra pound.

There is no percentage cap on an earnings arrestment at all. The 60% floor people quote belongs to Direct Earnings Attachments and child maintenance orders, which is one reason how much they can take from your wages is so often reported wrongly.

The table is applied once per employment rather than once per creditor. Only one diligence against earnings runs against the same job at a time.

Take your net pay for that week, find its band, subtract the bottom of the band, apply the percentage and add the fixed amount. Four moves and you have the figure payroll should be using.

The four steps in order

• Step one. Take the net pay for that week, after tax, National Insurance and pension.
• Step two. Find the row your net pay sits in on the weekly table.
• Step three. Subtract the bottom figure of that band, then apply the band percentage.
• Step four. Add the fixed amount for the band, then round to the nearest penny.

Worked example one: £400.00 net a week

This one sits in the 20% band, where the excess over £345.22 is £54.78 and 20% of that is £10.96. Add the fixed £25.89 and the deduction is £36.85 a week.

Worked example two: £950.00 net a week

A big overtime week can reach the top band, where the excess over £863.06 is £86.94 and 50% of that is £43.47. Add the fixed £143.84 and the deduction is £187.31.

The rounding rule that decides the last penny

Calculations are made to two decimal places of a penny, then rounded to the nearest whole penny. An exact half penny rounds down.

Weekly figures are small enough that a penny shows, so a penny out is rounding and anything larger is worth querying.

Find your net weekly pay in the table below, then read across for the band, the deduction and what is left. It runs from £172.61 to £1,000.00 a week, and every figure comes from the statutory table rather than an estimate.

Every row is worked from Table A, so the figure moves with your net pay rather than with the size of the balance behind it.

Weekly net pay from £172.61 to £1,000.00

The last column is net pay minus the deduction. It ignores the £1.00 your employer may take on top.

The jumps between rows repay a look. Going from £860.00 to £900.00 net costs you £19.23 more that week, because the 50% band has started.

The £2.30 minimum in the first band

The first band above the threshold reads £2.30 or 15% of the excess, whichever is greater, so a week only just over £172.61 still produces £2.30. The percentage overtakes that minimum at around £187.94 of net weekly pay.

Multiply your weekly deduction by 52, not by 12. On £400.00 net a week the deduction is £36.85, which is £1,916.20 across a year, plus up to £52.00 in employer administration charges.

The 52 week annual table

The last column takes the same annual net earnings and pays them monthly instead, using the monthly table twelve times.

Read the last two columns together. The annual totals land close to each other, so what weekly pay really changes is the rhythm rather than the size of the bill.

The £1.00 charge, taken 52 times a year

Your employer may take £1.00 for each deduction, on top of the arrested sum. On weekly pay that is up to £52.00 a year against £12.00 on a monthly payroll.

It comes out of your pay and it does not reduce the debt by a penny. Employers are not obliged to take it, so check whether your payslip shows one line or two.

What else lands on top of the weekly deduction

Where the debt is council tax, a 10% surcharge was added to the arrears when the summary warrant was granted, before any deduction started.

The sheriff officer firm collecting it charges expenses too, set by the court rather than by the firm. Those go on the balance, not on your weekly figure.

Ask for a written statement splitting the arrears, the surcharge and the expenses. Our council tax debt advice page sets out what a council will consider.

Why the annual figure matters

Divide the balance by the annual figure and you have the rough number of years left. How long a wage arrestment lasts is the same question asked from the other end.

Each pay period is assessed on its own net earnings, so a week at £172.61 or less produces a nil deduction. A quiet week takes nothing and a busy week takes more.

Weeks at £172.61 or less

Net weekly earnings of £170.00 give a deduction of £0.00, because that week falls below the protected threshold. A week with no pay at all produces nothing to apply the table to.

The arrestment stays in place and collects nothing that week, so the run simply gets longer.

Overtime and bonus weeks

Anything that lifts net pay lifts the deduction for that week only. Going from £400.00 to £560.00 net moves the deduction from £36.85 to £68.85.

Shift work, agency and zero hours

Irregular hours make the deduction swing from week to week.

Patchy hours also stretch the arrestment out, because less is collected overall. Knowing how a wage arrestment works in Scotland makes those swings easier to predict.

Schedule 2 contains only weekly, monthly and daily tables. Payroll normally uses the daily table, or applies the weekly table to each week within the period.

Employers should follow their own payroll guidance on which of the two methods to apply.

The daily deduction table, from 6 April 2025

Table C protects the first £24.66 of net daily earnings. Above that the same banded shape applies, rising to £20.55 plus 50% of the excess over £123.29 a day.

That daily nil figure of £24.66 does double duty, because it is also the protected daily rate used for a current maintenance arrestment.

What to ask payroll

Ask which table was used and ask for the calculation in writing. A figure given at the payroll desk is no use to you three months later.

If payroll disagrees with your own sum, the wage arrestment calculator gives you a second opinion to put in front of them, and general guidance on debt and decrees is a useful backstop.

Your employer cannot lower it and a sheriff cannot reduce a Schedule 2 deduction because you cannot afford it. Change has to come from a Time to Pay Order, the Debt Arrangement Scheme, a trust deed or sequestration.

Why there is no hardship ground

Operating the arrestment is a legal duty. An employer who refuses to comply becomes liable for the sums that should have been deducted.

The review routes are a s.50(1) declarator that the arrestment is invalid or has ceased to have effect, and a s.50(3) determination of a dispute about how it is being operated. Neither of those is an affordability ground.

What can be done instead is set out in whether an arrestment can be stopped once it has started.

Time to Pay Orders

A Time to Pay Order is applied for after decree, and it is competent against a summary warrant. Where the sheriff grants one, the sheriff must recall any existing earnings arrestment.

The debt has to be £25,000 or less excluding interest. It is not settled whether an earnings arrestment on its own satisfies the statutory test, so a money adviser or the sheriff clerk at your local sheriff court should confirm whether an application is competent on your facts.

A Time to Pay Direction is the pre decree version, and it is not available against a summary warrant because a direction responds to a court action.

The Debt Arrangement Scheme and the insolvency routes

Once a Debt Payment Programme is approved under the Debt Arrangement Scheme, an existing earnings arrestment stops and creditors cannot start new diligence. It runs through the Accountant in Bankruptcy and the DAS Administrator.

You repay in full over an agreed period, with interest, fees and charges frozen and written off on completion. The average programme runs about six years.

A protected trust deed ends an earnings arrestment on the date of protection, under s.173 of the Bankruptcy (Scotland) Act 2016. Between signing and protection you are still exposed.

Sequestration does the same on the date of sequestration under s.72(2) of the 1987 Act, and Minimal Asset Process counts as sequestration. The arrestment is replaced by a Debtor Contribution Order.

Money already deducted before any of those dates is credited against the debt rather than refunded.

A statutory moratorium gives six months of protection and you get one per rolling 12 months. It stops service of a charge for payment, stops new diligence and stops creditor petitions for sequestration.

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