That design is deliberate. A moratorium is breathing room while you put a longer-term answer in place, not the answer itself.

Which makes the six months worth planning rather than spending. How a statutory moratorium protects you covers what it is, and this page covers how often you get one and what to do with it.

One in any rolling 12-month period. The exception is narrow and applies to certain people who were previously joint applicants to the Debt Arrangement Scheme, so it is worth checking rather than assuming.

Rolling means rolling

The clock does not reset in January or in April. It runs from your own moratorium, so the dates on your own paperwork are the ones that matter.

If you are not sure when yours ran, the Accountant in Bankruptcy holds the record and a money adviser can check it for you before you rely on a date.

Ending one early does not buy you another

A moratorium can come to an end before the six months are up, and the twelve-month rule still counts it as the one you have had. That is the trap in the design.

So do not lodge one to see what happens. How to apply for a statutory moratorium in Scotland sets out what you should have ready first.

Six months, running from the day the entry is made in the register. That length was set by section 23 of the Coronavirus (Recovery and Reform) (Scotland) Act 2022, in force on 1 October 2022.

Where the six months comes from

It was extended from six weeks by the Coronavirus (Scotland) Act 2020 and made permanent by section 23 of the 2022 Act, which amended section 198 of the Bankruptcy (Scotland) Act 2016.

Six months is a long time next to the six weeks it replaced. It is enough to complete a budget, take advice and get a formal solution applied for and approved.

Who applies for you

Applications go to the Accountant in Bankruptcy, and in practice most people apply through a money adviser rather than alone. What free debt advice is available in Scotland lists the services, and none of them charge.

Using an adviser also means the moratorium starts working alongside the rest of the plan. On its own it changes nothing about what you owe.

Both. It ends early where sequestration is awarded, a trust deed becomes protected, a Debt Payment Programme is approved or you withdraw the notice, and it runs on where one of those applications is already in.

The limbs, set out

The seven weeks is the one to know about

Where a trust deed is seeking protected status, the moratorium can run for up to seven further weeks. That matters because protection is weeks after signing, and whether a trust deed stops a wage arrestment explains the gap.

None of those extensions is a second moratorium. They are the same one running until the application it was covering is dealt with.

What the early endings have in common

Three of the four are something better taking over, which is the point of the six months. The fourth, withdrawal, leaves you with nothing and still uses up the year.

So withdraw only on advice. If a plan falls through, ask the adviser what the moratorium is still doing for you before you give it up.

It stops service of a charge for payment, stops new diligence and stops creditor petitions for sequestration. It does not stop an earnings arrestment that was already running, and it does not stop interest.

The exception that catches people out

A moratorium does not stop an earnings arrestment that was already running. Section 197(5)(d) of the Bankruptcy (Scotland) Act 2016 lets a creditor carry on executing an earnings arrestment, a current maintenance arrestment or a conjoined arrestment order that came into effect before the moratorium began.

So if the deduction has already started, expect it to continue through all six months. Whether a statutory moratorium can stop a wage arrestment deals with that head on.

Where it bites harder than people expect

A moratorium does stop arrested funds being released to the creditor under section 73J of the Debtors (Scotland) Act 1987, and the moratorium period is left out of the count for that clock.

So it reaches a bank arrestment in a way it does not reach a wage arrestment. That asymmetry is the most useful thing on this page for anyone with money frozen in an account.

Stopped and not stopped

Three other things stay competent under section 197(5): auctioning goods already attached, implementing a decree of furthcoming, and implementing a decree for the sale of a ship or cargo.

Getting a full picture of what you owe, taking free advice, and getting a longer-term solution approved before the protection lifts. The moratorium buys time and the solution changes the outcome.

A realistic order of work

• Weeks one and two: list every debt, get written balances, and separate priority debts from the rest.
• Weeks three and four: complete a full income and expenditure budget with an adviser.
• Month two: check benefit entitlement, Council Tax Reduction and any discounts you may have missed.
• Months two and three: choose between the Debt Arrangement Scheme, a protected trust deed, sequestration and an arrangement with creditors.
• Months four to six: get the application in and approved, so the protection does not lapse into a gap.

That timetable is generous on purpose. Which bills are priority debts in Scotland is the right place to start the first fortnight.

Do not lose sight of the current year

Ongoing council tax for the current year still has to be paid. It cannot go into a Debt Payment Programme, as whether council tax arrears can go into a Debt Arrangement Scheme explains, and letting it slip creates a fresh set of arrears on top of the old ones.

Check the reductions at the same time, because they change the budget the whole plan rests on. What benefits to check if you are struggling with council tax runs through them.

Protection stops. Creditors can serve a charge for payment, start or resume diligence and petition for your sequestration again, unless another form of protection is in place by then.

No taper, no grace period

The six months run out and the position reverts. That is why advisers push so hard on getting something approved before the end date rather than at it.

Interest and charges have also been accruing throughout, and a creditor who obtained a decree during the six months still has it. What a charge for payment is covers what usually arrives first.

What can carry the protection forward

An approved Debt Payment Programme under the Debt Arrangement Scheme, which stops an existing earnings arrestment and blocks new diligence.

Sequestration, including the Minimal Asset Process, where section 72(2) of the Debtors (Scotland) Act 1987 ends an existing earnings arrestment on the date of sequestration.

A trust deed, but only once it becomes protected. What a protected trust deed is explains why signing alone is not enough, and it is the reason the seven-week extension exists.

Plenty. The Debt Arrangement Scheme, a protected trust deed, sequestration and the Minimal Asset Process all give protection in their own right, and a time to pay order can recall an earnings arrestment outright.

The routes side by side

Which of those fits depends on what you owe, what you earn and what you own. Which debt solution is best if you have a wage arrestment compares them on those terms.

One route that is not available, whatever you have read

The mental health moratorium in the Bankruptcy and Diligence (Scotland) Act 2024 is a duty on Ministers to make regulations, and those regulations do not exist.

A draft was consulted on and the responses were published in July 2025, with no timetable since. The Accountant in Bankruptcy’s own page on it is the place to watch, and what the Bankruptcy and Diligence (Scotland) Act 2024 changed sets out what is and is not in force.

Where to start today

Speak to an adviser now rather than at the end of the six months. They will tell you where you stand on the twelve-month clock, and where to go for help to stop a wage arrestment lists who to call.

If council tax is the debt behind it, our council tax debt advice page sets out how we help.