Programmes run for years, and few people get through one without something breaking. The scheme was built with that in mind, which is why the breaks sit in the regulations rather than in a creditor’s goodwill.

Here are both breaks, who qualifies, how to ask, and the timing detail that catches people paying by direct debit. Our guide to how the Debt Arrangement Scheme works covers the scheme itself.

One is a variation approved by the DAS Administrator under regulation 37(1)(h). The other is a shorter deferment your money adviser can approve on the spot under regulation 39A.

Side by side

The crisis break was inserted by the Debt Arrangement Scheme (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2019 and has been available since 4 November 2019. Few pages carry both mechanisms.

What they have in common

Each is a deferment rather than a discount. The payments you miss are added to the end of the programme, and the programme is extended to match.

Both are also better than simply not paying, because arrears are a ground for revocation. Why a programme is revoked sets out that risk.

Anyone whose circumstances have cut their disposable income by 50 per cent or more, where it is envisaged the reduction will last for the period of the break. There is no longer a list of qualifying reasons.

The list was repealed, and this matters

The list of qualifying circumstances that used to sit in regulation 37(3) was removed on 6 February 2023. Any page still printing five or seven grounds is quoting a repealed provision.

That was done by the Bankruptcy and Debt Arrangement Scheme (Miscellaneous Amendment) (Scotland) Regulations 2023, which also added the words about the reduction being envisaged to last for the period of the deferment.

So the question your adviser asks is about the size and the likely length of the drop. It is not whether your situation fits a category.

Disposable income, not gross pay

The test bites on disposable income, calculated on the same basis as the figures in your application. A fall in wages partly covered by benefits may not reach half.

The reverse is also true, since a smaller drop in pay alongside a jump in essential costs can. How your payment is calculated explains where the figure comes from.

Your money adviser approves it. Regulation 39A lets an individual defer payments for a period not exceeding one month where the adviser is satisfied there has been a short term financial crisis and payments can resume.

No creditor has to agree

The Accountant in Bankruptcy’s guidance on varying a programme is explicit that creditors are not required to give prior consent, and that the definition of a crisis is at the adviser’s discretion. Its own example is a car that has broken down.

The limit is no more than two such deferments in any 12 months. Regulation 39A(8) takes these requests outside the ordinary variation machinery.

The detail nobody else prints

A crisis break can be applied retrospectively to a payment you have already missed, but only if the next payment is not yet due. That is AiB’s own guidance to advisers.

So a missed payment is worth a phone call the same week rather than the following month. Regulation 39A(7) also lets the deferred payment be left out of account for two of the revocation grounds.

The direct debit trap

Where you pay by direct debit, the money is requested three days before the agreed date. A variation approved inside those three days does not stop the collection.

AiB tells advisers to notify the payments distributor separately in that situation so the money can be returned to you. Ask your adviser to do it rather than assuming the break covers the payment.

There is no cap on the six month break. The Accountant in Bankruptcy says there is no limit to the number of times a client can apply, provided the criteria are met each time.

The crisis break is capped

Regulation 39A allows no more than two such deferments in any 12 month period. AiB describes the same allowance as up to two months’ worth of crisis break in a rolling year.

Those two formulations agree in the ordinary case of two full months. For anything shorter, ask your adviser how your own history is being counted.

Why the six month break is uncapped and the other is not

The six month break goes to creditors, who have their say through the variation process. The crisis break bypasses them, which is why it is short and limited.

Understanding that makes the choice easier. A crisis break is for a bad month, and the longer break is for a changed year.

The practical limit

Every break lengthens the programme. Repeated breaks are a signal that the payment itself is wrong rather than that the month was bad.

At that point a variation of the payment is the better tool. Varying a programme when your income changes sets out how that works.

Through your continuing money adviser, and as early as you can see the problem coming. A material change of circumstances has to be notified within 7 days of your becoming aware of it in any event.

What the process looks like

• Tell your adviser what has changed and when, before a payment is missed if possible.
• Expect to evidence a 50 per cent reduction for the six month break, because AiB requires the adviser to have seen it.
• On a six month break, creditors get 21 days to comment, and on a programme paying more than one debt one that does not respond is deemed to have consented.
• Keep paying while an application is pending, because missed payments during that window can still put the programme at risk.

What your adviser will want to know

What has changed, when it changed, and how long it is likely to last. For the six month break the last of those is part of the statutory test.

Bring the paperwork that shows it, such as a rota, a sick pay letter or a benefit award. It saves a round of questions and gets the application in sooner.

Choosing the right route

You will also need to answer a written request for information about your income, assets or liabilities within 10 days. Whether you need a money adviser explains who can act for you.

It moves payments rather than removing them. Everything else about the programme carries on, including the freeze on interest and the protection from diligence.

What changes and what does not

The freeze is the reason a break costs you time rather than money. Whether a Debt Arrangement Scheme freezes interest covers how that works and when it stops.

The one place a break is counted against you

Composition needs both twelve years from approval and seventy per cent of the debt paid, under regulation 46A(1). It is a long stop for very long programmes rather than something you can ask for.

Any period of deferment under regulation 37(1)(h) is left out of the twelve years. So a break does not bring composition any closer.

Then the payment itself needs to change. A material change in your circumstances is a ground for varying the programme at regulation 37(1)(d).

Varying rather than pausing

A material change in your financial circumstances is a ground for varying the programme, under regulation 37(1)(d).

A variation reassesses the figure with the Common Financial Tool. It can raise the payment as well as lower it, and it can change the length of the programme.

If things improve instead

Since 4 November 2019 the DAS Administrator must approve a variation that shortens a programme, under regulation 38(1A)(b).

Paying the outstanding balance also finishes it. Paying a programme off early deals with that, and what happens when a programme ends covers the finish line.

If it is going wrong

The Accountant in Bankruptcy’s 2025-26 figures show 2,402 programmes completed in the year, and a programme approved in the last three financial years is expected to run between 5.1 and 6.1 years.

Over that long, a break used early is worth more than a good intention. Our Debt Arrangement Scheme page sets out how we help, and the disadvantages of the scheme gives the other side of it.