This page is a diagnosis rather than an explanation of the tables. Work down it until something matches your payslip.

One thing to settle at the outset. A sheriff cannot reduce a Schedule 2 deduction because you cannot afford it, so whether an arrestment can take more than half your wages is the honest place to start on the arithmetic.

Because it is banded rather than a flat percentage, and it is applied to net earnings for that period rather than to your usual pay. Every period is calculated on its own.

What section 47(1) requires on every pay day

Your employer is not instructed to take a set sum. Section 47(1) of the Debtors (Scotland) Act 1987 requires them to deduct a sum calculated under the Act from your net earnings on every pay day, so the figure comes from the Schedule 2 tables.

Those tables have applied since 6 April 2025 under the Diligence against Earnings (Variation) (Scotland) Regulations 2024.

The figure they apply the table to is net earnings, which is a defined figure rather than take-home pay. What counts as net earnings lists exactly what comes off first.

Start with the diagnosis

Not every row there points to an error, and several are the tables behaving normally. Whether the deduction is taken before or after tax settles the second row on its own.

A period with overtime, commission or a bonus in it is a bigger period on the same table, so it produces a bigger deduction for that period alone. The calculation looks at the period rather than at your annual average.

What one busy month costs

Net earnings of £1,900.00 a month give £192.50. Add £500.00 of overtime to the same month and the deduction is £292.50, which is £100.00 more.

The effect is sharpest at the top, where half of every extra pound above £3,750.00 net a month goes to the arrestment. Whether overtime increases the deduction works through the mechanics.

It comes back down again

A quieter period produces a smaller deduction, and net earnings below the protected threshold produce none at all. What happens if you earn below the threshold covers that period.

The deduction is worked out from the net earnings actually paid in that period, so each period stands on its own.

It can be, lawfully. Only one diligence against earnings can operate against the same employment at a time, but a current maintenance arrestment can run alongside an earnings arrestment, and other orders sit outside that rule entirely.

Which deduction is which

The 60% floor belongs to a Direct Earnings Attachment and a child maintenance order, and the employer guide to Direct Earnings Attachments sets it out. It does not apply to a Scottish earnings arrestment.

How a child maintenance order can outrank an arrestment

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.

That is a statutory mechanism rather than a payroll convention. What a Direct Earnings Attachment is sets out where each order sits.

A second ordinary creditor cannot simply join in

They have to apply for a conjoined arrestment order, which the sheriff clerk administers. Whether you can have more than one arrestment covers how that works.

The employer’s administration charge. Your employer may take £1.00 per deduction, and it comes out of your pay on top of the arrested amount rather than out of it.

Where it goes

It goes to your employer for operating the arrestment. It does not reduce your debt and the creditor never sees it.

It is charged per deduction, so a weekly payroll carries it more often than a monthly one. In a period with no deduction there is nothing to charge it against.

Keep it separate when you check your figures

Compare the arrested sum against the table, and treat the pound as a separate line. How much can be taken from your wages sets out the bands.

Because a debt that reaches enforcement picks up additions along the way. For council tax that starts with a 10% statutory addition applied by the council on grant of the summary warrant.

The 10% is not a sheriff officer charge

It attaches when the summary warrant is granted, before any firm is instructed, and the same addition applies to non-domestic rates. How much the 10% is sets out how it is worked out.

Fees are a separate layer on top

Section 93(1) of the 1987 Act makes the expenses of the charge and of serving the earnings arrestment schedule recoverable by that diligence rather than by any other legal process. Whether sheriff officer fees are added to your balance explains the mechanism.

That page also carries what changes on 25 September 2026, when a new Act of Sederunt replaces the current table of fees. Whether the arrestment tables change every April date stamps every other figure in this area.

Ask for the breakdown in writing

• The original sum and the account or period it relates to.
• Any statutory addition, and the date it went on.
• Each fee, the step it relates to, and the date it was charged.
• Every deduction credited, and the date it was credited.

Keep your payslips and compare them against what the creditor says has been received. If a deduction you can see on a payslip is not credited, ask for it to be accounted for.

It is possible, and it is worth ruling out. Applying the wrong table for a pay frequency, or working from a gross figure, would each produce the wrong answer.

What to put to payroll, in writing

Set out the net figure you have, the table you have applied and the deduction you calculate should have been taken. Ask them for the net earnings figure they used and the band they applied.

Your employer is obliged to operate the arrestment, and refusing makes them liable for the sums they should have deducted. Our wage arrestment calculator runs your own figure so you can compare.

If payroll will not move

Section 50 of the 1987 Act allows an application to the sheriff for a declarator that an arrestment is invalid or has ceased to have effect, and for a determination of a dispute about how it is operating. The Scottish courts publish the rules.

Applying the wrong table, or deducting from a gross figure, is a dispute about operation. There is no time limit on either application.

No. The amount is set by the tables, and a sheriff cannot reduce a Schedule 2 deduction on the ground that the debtor cannot afford it.

Sections 73Q and 73R of the 1987 Act reach funds and moveable property rather than wages, which the unduly harsh application sets out in full.

Section 50 has no affordability ground

Section 50 covers validity and disputes about operation. Neither limb asks what you can afford, and neither can lower the figure the table produces.

Asking a creditor to recall an arrestment in favour of an arrangement is a request rather than a right. A statutory route gives you a footing instead of relying on goodwill.

Changing the situation rather than the sum. A Debt Payment Programme, sequestration and a protected trust deed each end an earnings arrestment by operation of law.

Other routes to raise with an adviser

• An approved Debt Payment Programme under the Debt Arrangement Scheme, which stops an existing earnings arrestment and freezes interest, fees and charges.
• A statutory moratorium, giving six months of protection from diligence, 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.

Money already taken is credited against the debt and is not usually refunded, so check the position with the creditor. Whether an arrestment can be stopped once it has started compares the routes.

Where to get it looked at

Free advice is available from Citizens Advice Scotland, StepChange, Money Advice Scotland and National Debtline. The Accountant in Bankruptcy publishes guidance on each statutory solution, and general guidance sits on mygov.scot.

Where the debt is council tax, our council tax debt advice page covers what to put in an offer to a council.