Not may. Shall.

For a bank arrestment the same section says only that the sheriff may recall it. Your wages are the thing the statute deals with outright.

That contrast is the practical answer for anyone watching money come off their pay while they keep up a plan. The plan is an agreement about payments, not protection from enforcement.

Because it is a contract rather than a legal process. The Financial Conduct Authority’s own definition calls a debt management plan a non-statutory agreement.

Diligence is statutory and a plan is not

A debt management plan is an informal arrangement rather than a statutory scheme. No Act of Parliament creates it, nothing prescribes its form, and it binds nobody by force of law.

Every form of diligence in Scotland is created and controlled by statute. Nothing in any of those statutes mentions a debt management plan.

The providers say so themselves

StepChange puts it plainly on its page about interest and creditor contact: a plan is not based on Government legislation, so it does not protect you from legal action by your creditors.

Its own client agreement says creditors may continue collection activity including taking legal action, and that the charity will try to but cannot prevent it.

That is not a criticism of the plan

It is what an informal arrangement is. What a debt management plan is sets out what it does do.

The question worth asking is a different one. It is whether any creditor of yours is close enough to enforcement that you need statutory protection instead.

A plan does not stop enforcement. It has no statutory effect on diligence at all.

The route to a deduction in Scotland

Council tax is the debt most likely to reach your wages, because a council uses a summary warrant rather than an ordinary court action, and whether council tax arrears can go into a plan explains why they are usually left outside it.

The charge for payment, and one open question

On an ordinary court decree the position is settled. Section 90(1) of the Debtors (Scotland) Act 1987 makes a charge for payment, served and expired unpaid, a precondition of an earnings arrestment, and section 90(3) sets the period at 14 days in the United Kingdom.

On a summary warrant it is not settled. Schedule 8 to the Local Government Finance Act 1992 authorises an earnings arrestment directly and says nothing about a charge, while section 90(1) carries no summary warrant exception on its face.

No website should tell you the answer either way, so ask a money adviser or the sheriff clerk about your own paperwork. What a charge for payment is covers the rest.

The one precondition worth checking

Under section 47(3) an earnings arrestment does not take effect unless the creditor gave you a debt advice and information package no earlier than 12 weeks before the schedule was served.

The package has to be recent rather than old. Some guidance states that test the wrong way round, so check the dates on your own paperwork.

A time to pay order, and the recall is mandatory. Section 9(2)(a) says the sheriff shall recall any existing earnings arrestment.

Shall, not may

Not may. Shall.

For a bank arrestment the same section says only that the sheriff may recall it, so the wage arrestment is the one the law makes automatic.

The same section makes recall of an attachment, and of any other arrestment, a matter for the sheriff’s discretion. The deduction from your wages is the one the statute deals with outright.

What the four statutory routes do

On the Debt Arrangement Scheme route, regulation 33(1)(a) does the recalling, and whether a Debt Arrangement Scheme stops a wage arrestment sets out the mechanics.

Since 29 October 2018 the continuing money adviser sends that notice, or the DAS Administrator where there is no continuing money adviser.

The limits on a time to pay order

A time to pay order is available where the debt is no more than £25,000 excluding interest, a figure substituted by SSI 2000/189 with effect from 10 July 2000.

HMRC and Revenue Scotland debts are excluded. Council tax is not, and a time to pay order is competent against a summary warrant debt even though a time to pay direction is not.

What a time to pay order is and how to stop a wage arrestment both go through the application itself.

Not one that is already running. A statutory moratorium stops new diligence and lets a creditor carry on executing an earnings arrestment that came into effect before it began.

What it does and how long it lasts

A statutory moratorium lasts six months. The period was six weeks until section 23(2) of the Coronavirus (Recovery and Reform) (Scotland) Act 2022 substituted six months in section 198 of the Bankruptcy (Scotland) Act 2016, with effect from 1 October 2022.

Section 197(5)(d) is the provision that lets an existing earnings arrestment carry on, and whether a moratorium stops a wage arrestment deals with the point in full.

So what is it worth here?

It buys time against everything else while a money adviser puts a solution together. On money already leaving your pay, only one of the statutory routes ends it.

The plan has to be rebuilt around the deduction. The amount taken is fixed by statutory tables rather than by what you can afford.

The monthly table

These are the figures in Schedule 2 to the Debtors (Scotland) Act 1987 as substituted by SSI 2024/293, in force from 6 April 2025, and how much they can take from your wages works through examples.

There is no affordability route against it

Section 50 lets a sheriff deal with whether an arrestment is valid, or with a dispute about how it is operating.

It is not a hardship application. A sheriff cannot reduce an ordinary earnings arrestment because the deduction is more than you can manage.

Tell your provider the same week

Your net income has changed, so the budget the plan rests on has changed with it. CONC 8.8.1 is a rule, and it requires a review as soon as the firm becomes aware of a material change.

Changing a plan payment covers how that is done.

Nothing stops one. A creditor that accepted the plan is not bound by it and can change its mind, and a creditor that never agreed was never restrained at all.

Acceptance is a commercial decision rather than protection. The route that actually recalls an arrestment is a time to pay order.

Nothing binds a creditor to the plan

No creditor has to accept a debt management plan, and nothing requires one to give a reason for refusing.

National Debtline’s Scottish guidance says a debt management company cannot force creditors to accept offers or freeze interest, and that creditors may still take court action against you.

And debts move

A creditor can sell the debt during the plan, and the buyer takes the rights the seller had. The payments are redirected and the plan carries on.

Whether creditors can still take court action covers what proceedings look like in Scotland, where the outcome is a decree rather than a county court judgment.

Your early warning is the provider’s own reporting

The firm running your plan must tell you the outcome of its dealings with each creditor, including refusals. A creditor that has refused to deal is the one to watch.

Get advice inside the 14 days rather than after them. That period is usually the last step before deductions can begin.

The order to do things in

• Tell your plan provider the same day, so the creditor can be contacted and the budget reworked.
• Ask a money adviser whether a time to pay order is competent on your debt.
• Check the dates on the debt advice and information package you were given.
• Keep paying what you can, because money paid is credited to the debt whatever happens next.

Money already taken does not come back

Sums already deducted are credited against the debt rather than refunded. Sequestration ends an earnings arrestment under section 72(2) and a protected trust deed does the same under section 173, and neither of those provisions reverses what has already been paid over.

Getting money back is a separate question that arises where too much was taken, and whether you can get a refund after an over-deduction deals with it.

Where to get it done free

Citizens Advice Scotland, StepChange, National Debtline and Advice Direct Scotland all do this work at no charge. Where to go for help to stop a wage arrestment lists the options, and whether a plan or the Debt Arrangement Scheme fits better compares the two routes.