Alongside that, there are statutory routes that reach enforcement which has already started. A Time to Pay Order, an approved Debt Payment Programme and a statutory moratorium each do something different to it.

This page is about stopping it. Our Alex M Adamson advice page deals with getting help, and the sheriff officer hub covers the role itself.

Yes. The council is the creditor and keeps control of the underlying account, including liability, discounts, exemptions and Council Tax Reduction.

What the council still controls

Whether you are the liable person at all is a council decision, not one for the officers. So is any discount, exemption or disregard, and so is Council Tax Reduction, which can go up to 100% of the liability.

If any of those were missed for a year in the balance, the place to raise it is the council. Our council tax debt advice page covers what to put in an offer and what a council can vary on an account.

Asking for an arrangement

A special payment arrangement is an agreement to clear the arrears over time. There is no statutory maximum period for spreading them, and councils commonly work to the current financial year while considering longer where affordability is evidenced.

Reinstating instalments after a final notice is at the council’s discretion rather than a right. Put the offer in writing, with figures for what you can afford.

Different routes do different things, and the distinction that matters is between stopping new diligence and reaching one that is already running. A Time to Pay Order, an approved Debt Payment Programme, a protected trust deed and sequestration all reach an existing earnings arrestment.

What each route does

Read the middle column first. It is the one that answers the question you actually have.

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.

What is not on that list

An informal debt management plan is not a statutory solution and does not stop diligence. An earnings arrestment, a bank arrestment or a charge for payment can still proceed while one is running.

The limits on what officers can do in the meantime are set out in what sheriff officers can and cannot do.

Yes, and where the sheriff grants one the sheriff must recall any existing earnings arrestment. A Time to Pay Direction is a different thing and is not available here, because a direction responds to a court action.

Order or Direction

The two are different applications with different triggers. The table sets them side by side.

The limits on an Order

Under the Debtors (Scotland) Act 1987 the debt outstanding must be £25,000 or less, excluding interest, and the test is that the sheriff is satisfied it is reasonable in all the circumstances.

An Order is not competent once certain diligences are well advanced. HMRC and Revenue Scotland debts are excluded from the route entirely.

Whether an application is competent on your facts

The section applies where a charge for payment has been served, an arrestment has been executed, or an action of adjudication has commenced. Whether an earnings arrestment on its own is enough is not settled.

So do not treat an Order as an entitlement. A money adviser or the sheriff clerk at the sheriff court can confirm whether an application is competent before you make one.

Once a Debt Payment Programme is approved, an existing earnings arrestment stops and creditors cannot start new diligence. Interest, fees and charges are frozen and written off on completion.

How a programme works

The Debt Arrangement Scheme is a statutory scheme run by the Accountant in Bankruptcy through the DAS Administrator. You repay the debt in full over an agreed period.

It is not an insolvency solution and you do not have to be insolvent to use it. There is no minimum or maximum debt for a programme, and one creditor is enough.

Payment distributor and administrator fees are funded from creditor recoveries rather than charged to you on top. The average Debt Payment Programme runs about six years, on the Accountant in Bankruptcy’s own published statistics.

What a programme will not cover

Council tax arrears can go into a programme and current-year council tax cannot, so that has to keep being paid alongside. Our guide to whether DAS stops a wage arrestment covers what happens to a deduction already coming off your pay.

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.

What it does not do

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

It is applied for through the Accountant in Bankruptcy, usually by a money adviser. You can normally use one per rolling twelve month period.

When it earns its place

Its main use is buying time while a longer solution is put together. It also covers the gap between signing a trust deed and the deed becoming protected, which is a period when you are otherwise exposed.

It is not a solution on its own. Interest and charges keep accruing throughout the six months.

Used well, it is the thing that stops the file moving while you work out which route fits. Used as a delay on its own, it spends the one you get in the year.

A protected trust deed or sequestration may be the route, and both reach an earnings arrestment already running. A trust deed takes effect on the date of protection rather than the date you sign.

Protected trust deed

On protection, an existing earnings arrestment, current maintenance arrestment or conjoined arrestment order ceases to have effect under section 173 of the Bankruptcy (Scotland) Act 2016. A protected trust deed normally runs a minimum of four years.

Between signing and protection you are exposed, which is why a statutory moratorium is often used alongside. Council tax arrears can be included.

Sequestration

Any existing earnings arrestment, current maintenance arrestment or conjoined arrestment order ceases to have effect on the date of sequestration, automatically and with no application needed. That applies to the Minimal Asset Process too, because it is a form of sequestration.

The arrestment is replaced by a Debtor Contribution Order. Creditors cannot execute a new earnings arrestment afterwards for debts claimable in the sequestration.

A debtor’s own application for sequestration requires debts over £3,000, and the application fee is £150 or is waived for people on qualifying benefits or with no disposable income. The Minimal Asset Process has its own conditions, including total debts of no more than £25,000 and total assets not over £2,000.

The one that does not exist here

There is no such thing as an Individual Voluntary Arrangement in Scotland. It is an England and Wales product, and the Scottish route is a protected trust deed.

The same goes for a debt relief order. Scotland’s equivalent for small debts and few assets is the Minimal Asset Process.

Confirm the account with the council, get the balance broken down, then take it to a free money adviser before you agree to pay anything.

The order to do it in

• Take the letter, the council’s year by year statement and the firm’s itemised breakdown to a money adviser before you agree anything.

Our guides to checking the letter and the account and to why the balance is bigger than the bill you remember cover what to ask the council and the firm for, and the fees sheriff officers can charge sets out the charges themselves.

Where each of those actually goes

Sending the right question to the right place saves the time you have. The council, the firm, the court and an adviser each hold a different part of this.

What happens to money already taken

Money deducted before a solution takes effect is credited against the debt. It is not usually refunded, so check the position with the creditor.

Free help is available from Citizens Advice Scotland, StepChange, Money Advice Scotland, National Debtline and your council’s own money advice team. Official guidance on debt and diligence in Scotland sets out the formal routes.