It is the charge for the Accountant in Bankruptcy considering a full administration debtor application, set by item 22 of the Schedule to the Bankruptcy Fees (Scotland) Regulations 2018.

Who it is paid to

The Accountant in Bankruptcy, as part of the application. It is not a court fee and it is not a payment to a debt firm.

Scotland does not use a court petition for your own bankruptcy. You apply administratively under section 2 and the Accountant in Bankruptcy decides it.

The current wording, and its date

Item 22 was substituted in its entirety by regulation 4(3)(c) of the 2023 Regulations, in force 6 February 2023, so that it applies only to a debtor to whom section 2(2) does not apply.

Section 2(2) is the Minimal Asset Process. That is why there is no fee on that route rather than a fee that is always excused.

Two groups, under two regulations. Regulation 7A covers prescribed benefits and regulation 7B covers a nil surplus assessment.

The prescribed benefits, in full

The income-related limb points at section 191 of the Social Security Administration Act 1992, which is where that phrase is defined.

The last row is the one nobody mentions. Assistance under the Welfare Funds (Scotland) Act 2015 received in the three months before the application counts.

The working tax credit limb has conditions on it

Working tax credit on its own is not enough. Either child tax credit must be in payment to you, or on a joint claim including you, or the award must include a disability or severe disability element.

There is an income test as well. The gross annual income taken into account for the working tax credit calculation must be £18,000 or less.

What the date of the application means here

The benefit has to be in payment on the day the application is made. A claim that ended the week before does not meet regulation 7A, and one that starts the week after is too late.

The Welfare Funds limb is the exception, because it looks back three months. Tell your adviser about a crisis grant or a community care grant received in that window.

The two exemptions side by side

Citizens Advice Scotland is the one consumer page in this market that dates the changes correctly.

It is the assessment your adviser runs anyway. Regulation 15(1) prescribes the common financial tool, and regulation 7B exempts a debtor assessed by it as having no surplus income at the date of the application.

Which tool, and why the name matters

The prescribed tool is the Common Financial Statement, under regulation 15(1) of the Bankruptcy (Scotland) Regulations 2016.

Most sources name the Standard Financial Statement, which is the tool used elsewhere in the United Kingdom. Regulations that would have moved Scotland to it were drafted in 2018 and never made.

How the assessment works

Regulation 15(2) takes your whole surplus income above the lower of the published trigger figures for reasonable expenditure and your actual expenditure. It is subject to qualifications in the same regulation.

Regulation 15(7) is the clearest of them: no contribution is due where your income is solely social security benefits and tax credits. How a contribution is calculated goes through the whole calculation.

Why this test does two jobs

The same assessment decides whether a fee is payable and what your monthly contribution would be. A nil result means no fee and no contribution.

That is also why the figures behind it matter more than the fee itself. An assessment that overstates your surplus costs you every month, not once.

If you are told the fee is payable

Ask which exemption was considered and on what figures. Understated expenditure produces a surplus you do not actually have, and the same assessment sets your monthly contribution.

That makes it worth getting right twice over. Whether you need a money adviser covers what the appointment involves.

There is no fee to apply for Minimal Asset Process bankruptcy. The fee that used to apply was removed on 6 February 2023, and the Accountant in Bankruptcy’s own guidance lists no application fee.

Removed, not waived

Item 22 now reaches only a debtor to whom section 2(2) does not apply, so a Minimal Asset Process applicant is outside it entirely. The Minimal Asset Process fee question sets out the whole history.

That distinction is why five different figures are still in circulation. A fee that has been removed cannot be exempted, and pages describing an exemption keep the old figure alive.

What the route requires instead

The conditions in section 2(2) are narrow: debts of no more than £25,000 since 29 March 2021, assets of no more than £2,000, no single asset over £1,000, and no land. Whether you are eligible runs through each.

A vehicle you reasonably require and worth no more than £3,000 is disregarded under section 2(3)(b), and how the route works covers the rest.

Because each was right once, somewhere, and the pages carrying them have not been updated. Only one of the figures below is current in Scotland.

What each figure actually was

The fee history runs through three instruments: the 2018 Regulations as made, SSI 2021/148 from 29 March 2021, and SSI 2023/9 from 6 February 2023.

How to date any figure you read

Look for the instrument and the commencement date rather than the number. A fee page without either is telling you what was true when it was written.

Three moments matter here: the 2018 Regulations as originally made, the reduction on 29 March 2021, and the substitution on 6 February 2023. Every figure in circulation belongs to one of those periods.

One trap for anyone checking it themselves

The consolidated Schedule on the legislation website does not display item 22 correctly and reads as though a Minimal Asset Process fee still exists. Read the amending instrument instead of the consolidated page.

Its explanatory note is express: the fee is removed. That is the sentence the wrong figures have survived by nobody reading.

The advice and the certificate are free. The trustee’s costs and your contribution are real costs, but neither is paid up front.

The costs of a case, in order

Regulation 9 of the Bankruptcy (Scotland) Regulations 2016 says no fee is chargeable for granting a certificate for sequestration, and what that certificate is explains why you may need one.

The contribution is the one that lasts

It normally runs for 48 months, which is longer than the twelve months to discharge. The payments carry on after you are discharged.

Where the assessment shows no surplus there is no contribution and no fee, which is the same test doing both jobs. How long a sequestration lasts sets out the periods involved.

Then the £150 is payable, and the better question is whether sequestration is the right route at all on figures that show a surplus.

A surplus changes the comparison

Income that supports a contribution may also support a repayment programme, and the Debt Arrangement Scheme freezes interest and charges while you repay in full.

Bankruptcy against the Debt Arrangement Scheme sets out where that choice turns, and it is a conversation worth having before the fee is paid.

And check the Minimal Asset Process first

If your debts and assets fall inside the section 2(2) limits, cost stops being a question at all. Whether you are eligible is worth working through before anything is paid.

Student loan debt is left out of the £25,000 calculation, which brings some people inside the limit who assume they are outside it. That change has applied since 29 March 2021.

Ask before you assume

The Accountant in Bankruptcy is the body that takes the fee, so ask it or your adviser what applies in your case. National Debtline’s Scottish bankruptcy guide covers the fee position too, though it is not consistent on the exemptions.

How you apply and how much debt you need set out the conditions the application has to meet in any event.