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- How is the deduction worked out when your hours change every week?
- What happens in a week with little or no work?
- What if you are paid at intervals that are not a week or a month?
- Does a run of nil deductions end the arrestment?
- Which two questions can nobody answer for you from a web page?
- What if you work through an agency or for more than one payroll?
- How do you plan around a deduction that moves every week?
- Related guides
- Frequently asked questions
The deduction is worked out afresh from your actual net earnings in every single pay period, so it rises and falls with your hours. A period below the nil band produces nothing at all, and nothing is averaged, smoothed or carried over.
The fear with irregular hours is usually the same one. It is that a fixed sum will come off a week when you barely worked.
Part of your pay is protected by law
The deduction is set by statutory tables, not the creditor
An arrestment can be stopped or replaced
Hours different every week? Check what should be coming off each payslip.
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It does not work that way. Payroll is not applying an agreed monthly figure, it is running a statutory table against whatever it is paying you this time.
That is protective on a bad week and expensive on a busy one. How a wage arrestment is calculated on weekly pay covers the arithmetic, and this page covers what happens when the number underneath it keeps moving.
How is the deduction worked out when your hours change every week?
Section 47(1) of the Debtors (Scotland) Act 1987 requires your employer to deduct on every pay-day. It takes your net earnings for that period and applies the Schedule 2 table that matches how often you are paid.
Nothing is averaged and nothing is carried over
The rates in force were substituted into Schedule 2 by the Diligence against Earnings (Variation) (Scotland) Regulations 2024, which came into force on 6 April 2025.
There is no annual reconciliation and no smoothing provision anywhere in Part III. A quiet week is not set off against a busy one.
The weekly table, which most variable-hours workers land on
| Weekly net earnings | Deduction |
|---|---|
| Not exceeding £172.61 | Nil |
| Over £172.61 but not over £345.22 | £2.30 or 15% of the excess over £172.61, whichever is greater |
| Over £345.22 but not over £575.37 | £25.89 plus 20% of the excess over £345.22 |
| Over £575.37 but not over £863.06 | £71.92 plus 25% of the excess over £575.37 |
| Over £863.06 | £143.84 plus 50% of the excess over £863.06 |
A four-week example on shifting hours
| Week | Net earnings | Deduction |
|---|---|---|
| Week 1, one short shift | £150.00 | £0.00 |
| Week 2, two shifts | £220.00 | £7.11 |
| Week 3, a full week | £400.00 | £36.85 |
| Week 4, extra cover | £600.00 | £78.08 |
| Four-week total | £1,370.00 | £122.04 |
Read that top to bottom and the pattern is obvious. The quiet week costs nothing and the busy week does the heavy lifting, which our wage arrestment calculator will reproduce on your own figures.
What happens in a week with little or no work?
Below £172.61 net in a week, £750.00 in a month or £24.66 in a day, the table produces nil. Nothing comes off, you do not have to apply for it, and nobody has to be told.
The protection lives in the arithmetic
This is the single most reassuring feature of the Scottish system for anyone on irregular hours, and the protected earnings limits for a wage arrestment sets out the three nil bands in full.
A period with no earnings has nothing for the table to be applied to, so nothing is deducted. Your employer is not doing you a favour and is not breaking a rule.
No deduction means no charge either
The £1.00 administration charge an employer may take goes with a deduction. A period without a deduction should carry no charge, and one that appears anyway is worth querying.
Watch the lumpy weeks
Holiday pay, a run of overtime, or two weeks of shifts paid in one run all lift the net figure for that period. The table reads the total for the period rather than the reason for it.
The bands step up sharply, so those weeks bite. Above £863.06 net in a week the top band takes half of everything over the line.
Working irregular hours with money coming off your pay? Get free help in 60 seconds
What if you are paid at intervals that are not a week or a month?
It depends on the interval. Section 49(2) covers a regular interval that is not a whole number of weeks or months, such as a ten-day cycle, and section 49(3) covers pay at irregular intervals.
Where the daily table actually applies
Both of those routes work out notional daily net earnings and read the daily table against them, then multiply by the number of days. Under section 49(3) the count runs from the day earnings were last paid.
| Daily net earnings | Deduction |
|---|---|
| Not exceeding £24.66 | Nil |
| Over £24.66 but not over £49.32 | £0.33 or 15% of the excess over £24.66, whichever is greater |
| Over £49.32 but not over £82.19 | £3.70 plus 20% of the excess over £49.32 |
| Over £82.19 but not over £123.29 | £10.27 plus 25% of the excess over £82.19 |
| Over £123.29 | £20.55 plus 50% of the excess over £123.29 |
A fortnight is not one of those cases, because two weeks is a whole number of weeks and section 49(1)(c) halves the net pay, reads the weekly table and doubles the answer. What happens to a wage arrestment if you are paid fortnightly goes through the mechanics.
The irregular payment rule people miss
Section 49(5) sets a flat 20 per cent of net earnings on a pay-day that carries only irregular earnings, where your regular earnings are paid on a different day. Section 49(6) applies the same 20 per cent to the longer series where there are two series of different lengths.
If a one-off payment has been taxed at that rate rather than run through a band, that is probably why. Ask payroll which subsection they used, and what happens if your employer deducts the wrong amount covers what to do if the answer does not add up.
Does a run of nil deductions end the arrestment?
No, because section 47(2)(b) says an earnings arrestment remains in effect until the debt is paid or extinguished, you cease to be employed by that employer, or it is recalled or abandoned. A pay period with no pay is not on that list.
It sits dormant and revives on its own
Your employer needs no fresh paperwork to start deducting again. The schedule it already holds instructs it to run the table every pay period, whatever answer that produces.
Nor can it catch up. Section 69(3) stops an employer including anything in respect of a skipped pay-day in a later deduction, so each pay-day stands on its own.
What does end it
| The event | Does it end the arrestment? |
|---|---|
| A pay period with no earnings | No. It is not one of the three events in section 47(2)(b) |
| A run of nil deductions over several months | No. The schedule stays with the employer |
| The debt and expenses being paid or otherwise extinguished | Yes, under section 47(2)(b) |
| Ceasing to be employed by that employer | Yes, under section 47(2)(b) |
| The creditor recalling or abandoning the arrestment | Yes, under section 47(2)(b) |
| A time to pay order | Yes. The sheriff must recall an existing earnings arrestment |
| An approved debt payment programme under the Debt Arrangement Scheme | Yes, on approval |
| Sequestration, including a Minimal Asset Process award | Yes, on the date of sequestration |
| A protected trust deed | Yes, on the date of protection rather than the date of signing |
If the balance is barely moving because the quiet periods outnumber the busy ones, one of those routes is usually the real answer. Which debt solution is best if you have a wage arrestment compares them.
Which two questions can nobody answer for you from a web page?
Whether a particular zero-hours arrangement is a contract of service for section 73(1), and whether a long gap between assignments amounts to ceasing to be employed for section 47(2). Neither is settled, and this page will not pretend otherwise.
Why the contract question is open
The 1987 Act hangs the definition of employer on a contract of service, and it does not define that phrase. Section 230 of the Employment Rights Act 1996 defines the term for that Act only, and the Debtors (Scotland) Act 1987 does not refer across to it.
Parliament has legislated on the footing that it can go either way. Section 27A of the 1996 Act defines a zero hours contract as a contract of employment or other worker’s contract, which is the point at which a confident answer stops being available.
Why it rarely decides anything in practice
Section 73(2)(a) makes any wages or salary payable to you earnings, with no contractual qualifier attached. An agency or employer running a payroll and issuing payslips is paying wages.
So the practical position is that pay coming through a payroll is reachable, and what protects a quiet week is the nil band rather than the label on the contract.
The second question, and who to put it to
Where a casual worker has not been offered a shift for months, whether that is a nil period or the end of the employment is a materially different outcome, and no statute answers it. Put both questions to a free money adviser with your own contract in front of you.
What if you work through an agency or for more than one payroll?
The arrestment attaches to the employment that pays you, so whoever runs the payroll operates it. The one-at-a-time rule applies to a single employment rather than to you as a person.
Questions worth asking
- Who is my employer for payroll purposes, the agency or the end client?
- Which pay frequency and which table are you applying?
- What net earnings figure did you use for this period?
- Is the £1.00 administration charge being taken, and how often?
Two jobs, two payrolls
Only one diligence against earnings can operate against the same employment at a time, so a second ordinary creditor has to apply for a conjoined arrestment order instead. Whether you can have more than one wage arrestment at the same time sets out how that works.
Where you move between agencies, an arrestment falls with the employment you leave and the creditor has to trace the new payer and serve a fresh schedule. What happens to a wage arrestment if you leave your job covers that, and it is a pause rather than a loophole.
How do you plan around a deduction that moves every week?
Work the table backwards. Once you know your rough net pay for a good week and a bad week you can predict both deductions, and you can budget on the lower one.
A practical routine
- Keep every payslip, and note the net figure and the deduction side by side.
- Work out the deduction on a typical busy week in advance, so it is expected.
- Budget on your quiet-week take-home and treat the busy weeks as the buffer.
- Check the figure against the table whenever it looks out of line with your hours.
When to stop waiting it out
Variable pay usually stretches an arrestment rather than shrinking it, because the balance stops moving in the quiet periods. How to build a budget when money is taken from your wages is the place to start if the timeline has stopped being realistic.
There is no overall percentage cap on a Scottish earnings arrestment, and the 60 per cent figure people have heard of belongs to a Direct Earnings Attachment instead. mygov.scot’s debt and decrees guidance and a free adviser will tell you which of the formal routes fits.
Frequently asked questions
Can a wage arrestment be taken from zero-hours pay?
Yes, in any period where your net earnings are above the nil band. Below £172.61 a week or £750.00 a month the table produces nothing for that period.
What happens if I earn nothing in a pay period?
Nothing is deducted, because there are no earnings for the table to be applied to. The arrestment stays in force, since a nil period is not one of the three things section 47(2)(b) says ends it.
Does the deduction average out over the year?
No. Each pay period is looked at on its own, so a quiet week is not offset against a busy one and there is no annual reconciliation.
Why was my deduction so large the week my holiday pay came through?
Holiday pay lifts your net earnings for that period and the bands step up as earnings rise. The table reads the total for the period rather than the reason for it.
Is a zero-hours worker covered by the earnings arrestment rules at all?
The 1987 Act hangs the definition of employer on a contract of service and does not define that phrase, so whether a particular arrangement is one is a question for a money adviser. What is clear is that wages or salary paid to you are earnings under section 73(2)(a).
Does a long gap between assignments end the arrestment?
That is the second question the statute does not answer. Ceasing to be employed does end an arrestment under section 47(2)(b), and where a gap in casual work crosses that line is not settled, so take your own contract to an adviser.
Does the £1 charge come off in a nil week?
The £1.00 charge goes with a deduction, so a period with no deduction should carry no charge. Check the payslip and query it with payroll if it appears anyway.
Is fortnightly pay treated as two weeks or half a month?
As two weeks. Section 49(1)(c) applies the weekly table to a notional weekly figure, which is half the fortnightly net pay, and multiplies the answer by two.
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Written as general information about Scottish debt law rather than regulated financial or legal advice, and your own circumstances may change the answer. Free, impartial help is available from Citizens Advice Scotland, StepChange, National Debtline and Advice Direct Scotland.