Both answers are technically correct and both are useless. The deduction is fixed by Schedule 2 to the Debtors (Scotland) Act 1987, in the version in force since 6 April 2025, so the people closest to your payslip are the ones with the least power over it.

This guide sets out who does what, in the order that works, and what to have in front of you before you call. If you are still working out what a wage arrestment actually is, start there and come back.

Seven parties are involved and only three of them can change anything. Payroll operates the schedule, the sheriff officers enforce it, and the creditor, the council or a statutory route is what actually ends it.

The who-does-what table

Each row is one party, what they can genuinely do, and what people most often ask them for in vain.

Information sits with payroll and the officers, while the power to stop the deduction sits with the creditor and the statutory routes.

Why your employer cannot help, even if they want to

Your employer holds the schedule and must operate it every pay day. Refusing to comply makes the employer liable for the sums that should have been deducted.

Payroll has no discretion at all. They cannot agree a smaller figure with you, spread it, or skip a month because things are tight.

What they can do is give you the paperwork. Ask for a copy of the schedule, then check the figure against our wage arrestment calculator to be sure the right band has been used.

The order that saves you a week

• Free money adviser first, because they can apply for the protection that buys you time.
• Creditor second, or the council’s recovery team where the debt is council tax.
• Sheriff officers third, for the balance, the reference and what has been collected.

Citizens Advice Scotland, StepChange Debt Charity, Money Advice Scotland, National Debtline and your council’s own welfare rights or money advice team all give free, impartial debt advice. None of them charges you a penny.

Advice Direct Scotland runs a money advice service too. All of them can take the full income and expenditure assessment that everything else depends on.

Nobody has to pay for debt advice

There is nothing a fee-charging firm can apply for that a free agency cannot. A moratorium, a Debt Payment Programme and your own sequestration are all reachable through free advice.

A trust deed is the one exception to the shape of that, because your trustee has to be a licensed insolvency practitioner. A free agency refers you on for it rather than charging you to arrange it.

Where the official information sits

The Accountant in Bankruptcy is the statutory body behind moratoriums, the Debt Arrangement Scheme and sequestration. You normally reach it through an adviser rather than directly.

For plain background, the Scottish Government’s guidance on debt and decrees is worth reading before anyone tries to sell you something.

The creditor, because sheriff officers act on the creditor’s instructions. Officers can confirm the balance and the reference, but they cannot decide on their own to withdraw an arrestment.

Sheriff officers are officers of the court, appointed by and accountable to the sheriff. They are not bailiffs, and our guide to dealing with sheriff officers explains the difference in full.

What sheriff officers can and cannot do

They can tell you the balance today, the reference, who instructed them and what has already been collected. They can also pass an offer up the line.

The firms Scottish councils instruct include Scott & Co, Stirling Park, Walker Love and Alex M Adamson.

Their fees are set by the court and added to what you owe.

What is reasonable to ask them for

• The current balance, and how the debt, any surcharge and the expenses break down.
• Which creditor instructed them, and the reference to quote on everything.
• Written confirmation of what has already been deducted from your wages.
• Whether the deduction matches the statutory table, which our guide to challenging a wage arrestment you think is wrong covers step by step.

If you want to complain about conduct

Complaints go to the firm first, in writing, with the reference and the dates.

If that gets nowhere, the next step is the Society of Messengers-at-Arms and Sheriff Officers, known as SMASO. After SMASO, the complaint goes to the sheriff principal.

The profession is regulated under the Act of Sederunt (Messengers-at-Arms and Sheriff Officers Rules) 1991.

Ask for the council tax recovery team about the arrears, and separately for the welfare rights or money advice team about affordability and Council Tax Reduction. The general billing number usually cannot help with either.

Where the debt is council tax, the council instructed the sheriff officers and the council can instruct them to hold. That makes the council, rather than the officers, the conversation that matters, and our council tax debt advice page sets out what councils will and will not agree to.

The words that get you routed correctly

Saying ‘recovery team’ and ‘summary warrant’ in the first sentence usually gets you to the right desk first time. Billing staff handle instalments and cannot see enforcement.

Ask what stage the account has reached, what the 10% surcharge added with the summary warrant comes to, and what the expenses are.

Then ask about a special payment arrangement, which is sometimes enough on its own to persuade a council to call the officers off.

Holding recovery is at the council’s discretion rather than a right. An affordable offer backed by an adviser’s figures gives you the best chance.

Ask about Council Tax Reduction while you are on

Council Tax Reduction replaced Council Tax Benefit and Scotland runs its own scheme. The maximum reduction is 100% of the council tax liability.

Check the council tax discounts you may be missing at the same time, including the 25% single person discount.

Say in writing which year any payment is for, because payments are normally allocated to the oldest year of arrears first. Our council tax billing and collection guide explains the notices that should have arrived before the warrant.

An adviser can apply for a six month statutory moratorium and submit a Debt Payment Programme under the Debt Arrangement Scheme. Once a programme is approved, an existing earnings arrestment stops.

Nobody can reduce a Schedule 2 deduction, so what advice buys you is the right route rather than a smaller figure.

The routes, and the date each one bites

The dates in the last column are the ones people get wrong, because signing something is not the same as it taking effect.

Money already deducted before any of those dates is credited against the debt rather than refunded. Check the position with the creditor rather than assuming a repayment.

The moratorium is the immediate tool

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 is applied for through the Accountant in Bankruptcy, usually by an adviser.

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

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.

The Debt Arrangement Scheme route

The Debt Arrangement Scheme is run by the Accountant in Bankruptcy through 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, on the Accountant in Bankruptcy’s own statistics. Council tax arrears can go into a programme, but current-year council tax cannot and has to keep being paid.

Time to Pay Orders, trust deeds and sequestration

A Time to Pay Order is applied for after decree and is competent against a summary warrant. Whether an application works on your facts is something a money adviser or the sheriff clerk at your local sheriff court can confirm, because it is not settled that an earnings arrestment alone opens the door.

The debt has to be £25,000 or less excluding interest, and the test is what is reasonable in all the circumstances. Where the sheriff grants an order, the sheriff must recall an existing earnings arrestment.

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

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

That gap is why a moratorium normally runs alongside a trust deed. Sequestration does the same on the date of sequestration, and Minimal Asset Process counts as sequestration.

The arrestment schedule, your last three payslips, the creditor’s name and reference, and a rough list of your income and essential outgoings. An adviser moves much faster with those to hand.

It does not have to be perfect. Most advisers would rather see estimates today than a spreadsheet in three weeks.

The checklist, and why each item matters

Net pay is the figure that matters, meaning pay after tax, National Insurance and pension. Which creditor is enforcing decides what can lawfully be added to the balance.

Put the important things in writing

Ask for the balance breakdown in writing, because a figure quoted over the phone is no use to you six months later.

Keep every payslip showing the deduction and the £1.00 employer charge, because they are your evidence if the running total stops matching the creditor’s statement.

Tell the adviser at the first call. Debt advice agencies deal with this every day and it changes how they handle your case.

Protections that are being introduced

The Bankruptcy and Diligence (Scotland) Act 2024 provides for a Mental Health Moratorium for people receiving compulsory mental health treatment. It covers enforcement, interest, fees and charges.

It is being introduced rather than something to rely on today, so check the position with the Accountant in Bankruptcy. The register of mental health moratoriums is not public.

One fear you can put down now

Non-payment of council tax cannot lead to imprisonment in Scotland. It is a civil debt, not a criminal offence, and there is no criminal record.