There is a second question sitting behind it. Not every pound that reaches you is earnings at all, because the Act defines that word too, and it defines it closely.

Here is how the figure is built, what the Act does and does not treat as earnings, and what sits outside an arrestment altogether. Whether the deduction is taken before or after tax covers the order it all happens in.

It means the earnings that remain payable to you after your employer has deducted the four items named in section 73(1). Nothing else comes off before the tables are applied.

The four deductions, with the paragraph each sits in

The definition sits in section 73(1) of the Debtors (Scotland) Act 1987, and the tables it feeds were substituted into Schedule 2 by the Diligence against Earnings (Variation) (Scotland) Regulations 2024, in force since 6 April 2025.

Nothing else comes off first

Those four come off before the tables are applied and nothing else does. Student loan repayments, other arrestments, union dues and the employer’s own administration charge are all taken after the deduction has been worked out, not before.

That boundary is what the whole definition turns on. Why an arrestment can take more than you expected runs through what happens on the other side of it.

Why take-home pay is the wrong description

Take-home pay is what reaches your account after everything your employer takes off. Net earnings is a defined figure that stops after four items.

Use take-home pay as your input and your own sum will come out too low. Use gross pay and it will come out too high.

The fourth deduction is the one that gets missed

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.

So where the child support regulations give that order priority, the effect is built into the definition rather than being a payroll convention.

Four things, under section 73(2): wages or salary, fees and bonuses and commission and other emoluments under a contract of service, a pension or an annuity for past services or periodical compensation for lost earnings, and statutory sick pay.

The inclusion list in full

Section 73(2) says earnings ‘means’ those four things rather than ‘includes’ them, so the list is closed. Anything outside it is not earnings for this purpose.

Overtime and holiday pay are earnings by reading, not by name

Neither word appears in section 73(2). Both are ordinarily sums payable as wages or salary under paragraph (a), or as other emoluments under a contract of service under paragraph (b).

Neither appears anywhere in the exclusion list either, so treating them as earnings is secure. It is just not the Act naming them, and whether overtime increases the deduction works the consequence through.

The definition has not moved since 1987

No paragraph of section 73(2) carries an amendment marker. The list of what counts as earnings is the list Parliament enacted in 1987.

Twelve amendments to the 1987 Act are recorded as yet to be applied, all made by the Bankruptcy and Diligence (Scotland) Act 2024. None of them touches section 73.

Payments with a guide of their own

Statutory sick pay is named in the inclusion list, which whether an arrestment can be taken from sick pay covers, and pension income has its own route through whether an arrestment can reach your pension.

Section 73(3) removes a list of payments from the definition, including social security benefits, tax credits, disablement pensions and redundancy payments. If a payment is on that list it is not earnings, whatever the payslip calls it.

The exclusion list

Paragraph (c) of that subsection was repealed with effect from 1 April 2008. Paragraph (da) was inserted in 2003 to deal with tax credits.

Benefits and the state pension

The state pension falls within the exclusion for a pension, allowance or benefit payable under social security legislation, at section 73(3)(e).

Benefits sit outside the earnings arrestment regime altogether, which is why a council pursuing council tax arrears from someone on benefits uses DWP third-party deductions instead. Guidance on debt and diligence sits on mygov.scot.

Occupational pensions and the carve-out

An occupational or works pension in payment is earnings under section 73(2)(c). The pension provider counts as the employer under section 73(1), so the same earnings arrestment and the same Schedule 2 tables apply.

Section 73(3)(d) takes back out an occupational pension paid under an enactment that bars assignation or exempts it from diligence, so some statutory scheme pensions cannot be reached.

The period you are actually paid for. Weekly pay uses the weekly table, monthly pay the monthly table and daily pay the daily table.

One period at a time

The deduction is worked out from the net earnings actually paid in that period, so each period stands on its own. That is why the same annual salary can produce different figures from one month to the next.

The band arithmetic for each frequency is set out in how a wage arrestment is calculated on monthly pay, with the thresholds themselves in the protected earnings limits.

There is no fortnightly table

Fortnightly pay is normally handled using the daily table, or by applying the weekly table to each week in the period. It is a fair question to put to payroll if you are paid every two weeks.

The daily figure does double duty

The £24.66 daily figure is also the protected daily rate for a current maintenance arrestment. That is a separate deduction for ongoing maintenance and can run alongside an ordinary earnings arrestment.

Yes. The table is applied afresh each time you are paid, so the deduction rises when your net earnings rise and falls when they fall.

What that looks like in figures

Net monthly earnings of £1,800.00 produce a deduction of £172.50 for that month. Net monthly earnings of £749.00 produce nothing at all, because they sit below the protected threshold.

On the weekly table, net earnings of £400.00 produce £36.85 for that week. How much they can take from your wages sets out every band behind those figures.

A nil period does not end the arrestment

Below the threshold the deduction for that period is nil and the arrestment carries on regardless. What happens if you earn below the threshold covers what actually brings one to an end.

How the arithmetic is rounded

Calculations are worked to two decimal places of a penny and rounded to the nearest whole penny, with an exact half penny rounded down. A few pence between your figure and payroll’s is normally rounding rather than a mistake.

Money that is not payable to you by an employer. A bank balance and benefit income are reached by different processes with different rules and different protections.

Money sitting in a bank account

A bank arrestment is a separate diligence, and the protected minimum balance of £1,000 sits in section 73F(3)(a) of the 1987 Act, fixed on the face of the statute since 1 November 2022.

Arrested funds are released to the creditor 14 weeks after execution unless you sign a mandate earlier or lodge an objection. A notice of objection has to be lodged within four weeks.

Benefit income

For a third party deduction from Universal Credit the council applies to the DWP rather than you asking for it, and in Scotland the council must already hold a summary warrant or a decree. Council tax arrears rank below child maintenance, housing costs, rent and service charge arrears, and fuel costs.

A DWP deduction from wages for a benefit overpayment is different again, and the employer’s guide to direct earnings attachments sets out its own rates and its own 60% floor.

If there is no employer

An earnings arrestment is served on an employer and operated through payroll. Where there is no employer there is no payroll to serve it on.

If you are self-employed, working through your own company or moving between short contracts, take advice on your own position rather than assuming the answer either way.

Ask payroll in writing which figure the table was applied to and which table was used. If that does not resolve it, section 50(3) of the 1987 Act allows an application to determine a dispute about how the arrestment is operating.

Start with the input, not the band

Check the figure the table was applied to before you check the band. Ask for the net earnings figure used and test it against the four deductions above.

If you are not yet sure the deduction on your payslip is an earnings arrestment, whether the deduction is taken after tax sets out what the figure should look like.

What section 50 will not do

It will not reduce the deduction because you cannot afford it. There is no hardship ground against an earnings arrestment, and the unduly harsh test applies to arrested funds and moveable property rather than wages.

Where the figure is right but unmanageable

An approved Debt Payment Programme under the Debt Arrangement Scheme stops an existing earnings arrestment and freezes interest, fees and charges.

• A statutory moratorium, lasting six months, one per rolling 12 months.
• A time to pay order, where the debt outstanding is £25,000 or less excluding interest. If the sheriff grants one, 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.
• Sequestration, the Minimal Asset Process or a protected trust deed, each of which ends an existing arrestment by statute.

All of them run through or are registered with the Accountant in Bankruptcy. Money already taken is credited against the debt and is not usually refunded, so check the position with the creditor.