The mechanism is discharge, not forgiveness. How a MAP works covers the process, and what follows is what it does to each kind of debt you owe.

It ends your liability for the debts you owed on one particular day. Section 140(1) discharges you on the date six months after sequestration is awarded, and section 145 sets out what that discharge reaches.

It happens by operation of law

There is nothing to apply for and no hearing to attend. Section 140 has only two subsections and neither of them gives anyone a power to defer the date.

That is a real difference from full administration, where discharge is a decision rather than a date. How long a MAP lasts sets the two timetables side by side.

The date that fixes everything is the date of the award

Debts you take on afterwards are yours. They are not discharged at the six-month mark and a creditor can enforce them in the usual way.

Ongoing liabilities sit in the same place. Next year’s council tax, the rent falling due and this month’s electricity all carry on being payable.

What that means in practice for a typical case

Credit cards, overdrafts, personal loans, catalogue balances, doorstep lending and council tax arrears are all ordinary debts and all go. Our council tax debt advice page covers what a council can still do about the year ahead.

The list in section 145(3) is exhaustive: fines and penalties due to the Crown, compensation orders, forfeited sums, debts incurred by fraud or breach of trust, aliment and periodical allowance on divorce, and the duty to co-operate with your trustee.

The two sides of the line

Section 145(6) adds that a fine or penalty due to the Crown includes a confiscation order made under Part 2, 3 or 4 of the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002.

One carve-out inside the carve-out

Aliment is excepted by section 145(3)(f), but section 145(4) pulls part of it back. Child support maintenance under the Child Support Act 1991 that was unpaid for a period before the date of sequestration is not caught by the exception.

So child support maintenance unpaid for a period before the date of sequestration is taken out of the aliment exception by section 145(4)(b), which means those arrears are discharged.

Ongoing aliment is not. Ask your money adviser to check which category each part of yours falls into.

Secured lending

Section 145(5) preserves a secured creditor’s right to enforce the security. That rarely arises in a Minimal Asset Process, because section 2(2)(e) bars anyone who owns land from the route at all.

Student loan debt does not count towards the £25,000 limit. Section 2(2A), which has applied since 29 March 2021, leaves it out of the calculation.

Helpful going in, untouched coming out

Section 2(2A) was inserted with effect from 29 March 2021 by SSI 2021/148, and it leaves a student loan out of the £25,000 calculation. Section 145(7) then leaves the student loan regulations untouched by your discharge.

The result is a debt that helps you qualify and then stays with you afterwards. Almost every page on this subject gets one half of that wrong.

Note where the authority sits

Student loans are not in the section 145(3) list. They survive by section 145(7), which is a different provision doing a different job.

National Debtline is the only page in this market that tells readers the loan is left out of the £25,000 figure, and which debts count towards the MAP debt limit works through the entry side in full.

The asymmetry in one table

Repayment stays tied to your income in the ordinary way. Nothing about the bankruptcy changes when or how you repay.

No, and that is structural rather than a matter of luck. Paragraph 1 of Schedule 1 to the 2016 Act disapplies sections 122 and 131, so a Minimal Asset Process has no creditor claims process and no dividend at any stage.

What Schedule 1 switches off

Paragraph 1(6) disapplies sections 44, 46, 48, 49, 60, 63 to 65, 122, 131 and 210(3). Paragraph 1(2) then substitutes a version of section 42 under which the Accountant in Bankruptcy records that no claims may be submitted by creditors.

The Accountant in Bankruptcy is the trustee in every MAP because section 51(11) bars the appointment of a nominated insolvency practitioner and section 51(12) then deems AiB appointed.

Paragraph 1(6) removes sections 48 and 49 on top of that. So there is no statutory meeting and no creditors’ vote either.

So what do creditors actually get?

• Notice of the award, and an entry on the Register of Insolvencies they can see.
• The right to pursue anything in the section 145(3) list, and a student loan.
• The right to enforce a debt you take on after the date of sequestration.
• Nothing else. Enforcement for debts claimable in the sequestration stops.

Including a deduction already coming off your pay

An earnings arrestment ceases to have effect on the date of sequestration under section 72(2) of the Debtors (Scotland) Act 1987, and whether a MAP stops an existing wage arrestment covers what happens to the money already taken.

Conversion to a full administration, and nothing else. Paragraph 2 of Schedule 1 lets the Accountant in Bankruptcy decide that the MAP modifications should stop applying, and the automatic six-month discharge goes with them.

What triggers it

Paragraph 2(5) names two live triggers: an assessment under the common financial tool that you can make a contribution, and total assets rising above a prescribed figure. The Act prints £5,000 on its face, and regulation 14 prescribes £2,000 in its place, so £2,000 is the figure that bites.

Paragraphs 2(3) and 2(4) add two more: an error in the application, and a deliberate misrepresentation. Both turn on whether you were in fact a section 2(2) debtor at the time.

The point nobody else makes about the clock

The six months does not restart on conversion. It disappears, because section 140(1) only operates while paragraph 1 of Schedule 1 is in force, and section 138(2) takes over.

Section 138(2) allows a discharge at any time after twelve months from the date sequestration was awarded, not twelve months from the conversion. A case converted in month five faces a decision at month twelve.

The bigger change is one word. Discharge stops being something that happens and becomes something that may be granted, and whether a MAP can be transferred to full administration sets out what else switches on.

Windfalls are the common cause

Property acquired after the date of sequestration vests in the trustee at the date of acquisition, with no lower limit. An inheritance in month three can take you over £2,000 on its own, and what happens if your income improves covers the reporting duty that goes with it.

Anything dated after the award, and anything that was never a debt in the first place. Discharge is measured against a single day and it does not reach forward.

New borrowing

A loan taken out the week after the award is outside the bankruptcy entirely. It is not written off at month six and the lender can enforce it in full.

Bills that keep arriving

Rent, current council tax, energy and water carry on. Falling behind on those during the six months creates fresh arrears that the discharge will not touch.

The duty to co-operate

Section 145(3)(g) keeps the section 215 obligation to co-operate with your trustee outside the discharge. It carries on afterwards, and section 215(6) says so in terms.

The Accountant in Bankruptcy’s guide for MAP debtors puts the practical version of that duty plainly: report income changes, money received and inheritances.

Six months of statutory conditions, a public register entry and a credit file that outlasts both. Section 146 runs for six months from the date of discharge.

The conditions, and what breaching one does

For six months from the date of discharge you must tell anyone providing you with credit that you are required to comply with the section 146 conditions, before obtaining credit of £2,000 or more, or any amount at all while you owe £1,000 or more.

A first failure to comply extends the restriction period from six months to twelve. The offence arises only on a further failure during that extended period.

These are disclosure duties rather than bans, and which restrictions still apply after a MAP ends works through each of them.

The records

No retention period for a Register of Insolvencies entry appears anywhere in the Act or the regulations. mygov.scot gives 18 months from the date of bankruptcy for a MAP, and how long a MAP stays on the register explains why the published figures do not agree with each other.

On credit files, mygov.scot says bankruptcy can stay for at least six years, which is industry practice rather than a legal period. How long a MAP stays on your credit file deals with that separately.

The timetable, from day one to the credit file

Acting as a company director, or taking part in promoting, forming or managing one, is a criminal offence for an undischarged bankrupt without the leave of the court, under section 11 of the Company Directors Disqualification Act 1986.

That one applies whatever your job is, and four other roles are closed by statute to people already in them. Whether you are eligible for a MAP runs through the eight entry conditions before you get that far.