That condition sits in the regulations rather than the Act, which is why almost nobody prints it. It is also the point on which readers most often work out the wrong answer.

There is a second way in that reaches everyone the first one misses. How a MAP works covers the process, and what follows is which door you go through.

Only where it is your whole income. Section 2(2)(a)(ii) asks for receipt of prescribed payments for at least six months, and regulation 13 adds that you must have no other income.

The condition in the regulation’s own words

Regulation 13 is in two paragraphs. Paragraph (2) opens with the words where the debtor has no other income, than from any of these payments, at the date of making his or her debtor application.

The benefits route only works if those payments are your only income. Someone receiving universal credit alongside wages goes through the common financial tool assessment instead.

How the six months is measured

Section 2(2)(a)(ii) asks for a period of at least six months ending with the day the debtor application is made. The clock runs backwards from the application rather than forwards from the date you claimed.

So a gap in the claim matters more than an early start date. Your adviser will check the six months immediately before the application goes in.

Why the condition exists at all

The Minimal Asset Process was built for people with nothing to realise and nothing to pay. The benefits route is a shortcut past the arithmetic for the clearest cases.

Once there is other income coming in, the arithmetic has to be done properly. That is what the second route is for.

It is one condition out of eight

Satisfying the income condition does nothing for the debt ceiling, the asset tests or the land condition. Whether you are eligible for a MAP runs through all eight.

Six categories, all in regulation 13(2) of the Bankruptcy (Scotland) Regulations 2016, with universal credit first on the list.

The list in full

Paragraph (b) is the one that needs an adviser

Regulation 13(2)(b) picks up another income-related benefit as defined in section 191 of the Social Security Administration Act 1992. It works by reference to a definition in a different Act rather than by naming benefits.

Whether a particular payment falls inside that definition is a social security question rather than a bankruptcy one. Ask your money adviser to check the one you receive.

The list is closed

Regulation 13(1) prescribes the payments in paragraph (2) for the purposes of section 2(2)(a)(ii). Nothing outside that paragraph counts for this route.

The regulation has stood unamended since 30 November 2016. No later instrument has added to the list or taken anything off it.

The benefits route is closed to you, and the other one is not. Section 2(2)(a)(i) lets you in where the common financial tool assesses you as needing to make no contribution.

Why this is worth getting right

A page that gives the six-month rule without the no-other-income condition tells a working claimant they qualify by a route that is shut. The application then fails on a condition nobody mentioned.

It also works the other way, because plenty of people read the benefits rule, see that they do not fit it and give up. Whether you can get a MAP while working covers that case in full.

A universal credit award that includes earnings

Universal credit is a single payment that can be made up of several elements, and a claim can run alongside a job. The regulation looks at your income, not at the name of the benefit.

So the question your adviser asks is whether anything other than the prescribed payments comes in. Wages, self-employed profit and a private pension all answer it.

The two routes side by side

You only need one of them

Someone three months into a universal credit claim with nothing spare each month goes through the financial assessment instead. Nothing about that route is second best.

Not for the six-month route. Personal independence payment, adult disability payment, attendance allowance, the contributory benefits and working tax credit are not among the prescribed payments.

What is outside the list, and what to do about it

It is not a refusal

If a disability benefit is your only income, an assessment showing no contribution gets you in through section 2(2)(a)(i) instead. The outcome is the same Minimal Asset Process.

Costs associated with a Motability vehicle are handled through the disability allowance in the financial assessment rather than through the asset test.

Do not confuse the two benefit lists

A different list of benefits appears in the fee regulations, and it is longer. It has nothing to do with getting into a MAP, and since 6 February 2023 there has been no MAP application fee for it to affect.

It compares your income against essential spending. Regulation 15 prescribes the common financial tool, and the assessment either produces a contribution figure or it produces nil.

What the tool is

The Accountant in Bankruptcy uses it across Scottish debt solutions, and it works from trigger figures for everyday spending rather than from a caseworker’s opinion.

A nil result is the entry condition rather than a concession. It is the same assessment that then fixes your contribution at zero for the whole case.

What your adviser will need

The evidence checklist asks the income route for payslips or accounts, pension statements and evidence of essential expenditure, and both routes for bank statements at the date of signing.

On the benefits route a full universal credit statement showing the most recent assessment period is accepted. How to apply for a MAP sets out the paperwork in order.

Getting all of it in at once is what keeps the decision quick. mygov.scot says a decision on a debtor application usually arrives within 8 working days.

All seven of them, and the asset tests catch more claimants than people expect. Being on benefits does nothing for the £25,000 ceiling or the £2,000 limit.

The tests that fail applications

• Total assets of no more than £2,000, with liabilities left out of account.
• No single asset worth more than £1,000.
• No land owned by you, with no exception for a share or for negative equity.
• Debts of no more than £25,000 including interest, with student loans left out.

Savings are the common problem

The Accountant in Bankruptcy’s evidence checklist treats savings above £1,000 across all your accounts as defeating a Minimal Asset Process application. That is its practice rather than something the Act states.

That is the Accountant in Bankruptcy’s own application practice rather than a rule in the Act, and what happens to your savings in a MAP sets out how far the published guidance goes.

The debt ceiling has a carve-out worth knowing

Student loan debt is left out of the £25,000 figure by section 2(2A), which has applied since 29 March 2021. Which debts count towards the MAP debt limit works through the calculation, and almost no other page carries the point.

What is left out of the count

A vehicle you reasonably require and which is worth no more than £3,000 is left out of the asset calculation altogether, under section 2(3)(b).

Essential household goods inside your home are outside the calculation too, and how assets are valued against the £2,000 limit explains why no valuation rules exist to measure the rest against.

It carries on, and nothing is deducted from it for the bankruptcy. Section 90(1) requires a debtor contribution order in every sequestration and section 90(4) allows the amount to be fixed at zero.

Zero, and the duty that comes with it

The Accountant in Bankruptcy’s guide for MAP debtors says the order fixes contributions at zero, and that you must report income changes, money received and inheritances.

Reporting is not optional and it is better done early. What happens if your income improves sets out what a change can lead to.

Creditors get nothing either

Paragraph 1 of Schedule 1 disapplies sections 122 and 131, so there is no claims process and no dividend, and whether you have to make payments during a MAP covers the point in full.

What discharge does to the debts

Six months after the award you are discharged from the debts you owed on the day it was made. Fines, compensation orders, debts from fraud, aliment and student loans are the exceptions.

And an existing deduction from wages stops

If you have started work and an earnings arrestment is running, the award ends it on the date of sequestration under section 72(2) of the Debtors (Scotland) Act 1987. Whether a MAP stops an existing wage arrestment covers the timing.