Speed matters more than anything else here. You have 7 days to report a material change, and a programme that falls two months behind can be revoked.

Here is when a variation is needed, the grounds, the sequence with its deadlines, and what the DAS Administrator weighs. Our guide to how the Debt Arrangement Scheme works covers the scheme itself.

Whenever the change is material. The regulations put no percentage or pound figure on that, so the practical test is whether it moves the surplus income your programme was built on.

The duties that run alongside

• Report a change of address, and a material change of circumstances, within 7 days of becoming aware of it.
• Provide information or evidence about your income, assets or liabilities within 10 days of a written request.
• Keep making payments as they fall due while a variation is being considered.

Telling your adviser is not the same as being granted a change. The old payment stands until a variation is approved.

What is not a material change

A month where the money ran short is not the same as a change in your circumstances. That is what the payment breaks are for.

Nor is a new assessment producing a different figure, which the regulations deal with expressly. Both points are covered further down.

Changes that usually qualify

Reduced hours, the end of a fixed term contract, a move onto statutory sick pay, a partner losing work, a new child in the household, or a rise in the rent or mortgage you have to meet alongside the programme.

A pay rise counts too, and advisers often pick that up at the review the Accountant in Bankruptcy expects them to carry out. How your payment is calculated sets out what the figure is made of.

Regulation 37(1) lists them, and the list is wider than the affordability question most people have in mind. A change of income is ground (d).

The list as it now stands

Three of those grounds are later additions, from the 2013 amendment regulations and the 2018 and 2019 instruments, which is why older pages show a shorter list.

Who can apply

The Accountant in Bankruptcy’s guidance on varying a programme says the client, the money adviser or a creditor can apply, and that what changes may be the amount of each instalment, the frequency of payments, the length of the programme, or the conditions attached to it.

A creditor has 120 days from approval to correct a balance that is wrong. After that it has to show good cause for the delay.

Through your continuing money adviser, who submits the application to the DAS Administrator. The deadlines attach to each stage rather than to the process as a whole.

The sequence

There is no statutory timescale for the decision itself. The 21 day creditor window is the part of it you can count on.

How long it takes

No regulation fixes a period for the decision itself. What is fixed is the 21 days creditors get, so plan on the change taking at least that long to land.

That is another reason to raise it early rather than at the point where a payment is already at risk. Your adviser can tell you what the current turnaround looks like.

On a joint programme

Both people have to apply. AiB is explicit that an application to vary a joint programme must be made by both clients, and joint programmes covers how those work.

After it is approved

Make the varied payment at the next regular scheduled payment, and within one month of approval. That is AiB’s instruction to advisers unless a break was approved or the frequency changed.

Usually nothing. Silence counts as consent on a programme paying more than one debt, and since 4 November 2019 the DAS Administrator must approve certain variations for an individual outright.

The duty to approve

Regulation 38(1A), inserted by the 2019 amendment regulations, requires the DAS Administrator, where the debtor is an individual, to approve a variation applied for on one of the grounds at regulation 37(1)(d) to (i) where all participating creditors have consented, or which will have the effect of reducing the period of the programme.

Since 4 November 2019 the DAS Administrator must approve a variation that shortens a programme, under regulation 38(1A)(b).

Why the duty matters

It removes the fear that a creditor can trap you in a payment you can no longer manage by simply refusing. Consent shapes the process rather than controlling the outcome.

Programmes applied for before 4 November 2019 sit under the older rules. Your adviser will know which set applies to yours.

Where consent falls short

The DAS Administrator decides on the merits, and can attach a condition under regulation 28 instead of refusing. A previous payment break is one of the things weighed.

That assessment is the same fair and reasonable exercise used on approval, which the fair and reasonable test goes through.

If the answer is no

You ask the DAS Administrator to review the decision first. Only once that review is decided does an appeal lie to the sheriff, under regulation 47C.

A variation decision can be reviewed on a written application within 14 days of notification. The appeal to the sheriff is on a point of law and the sheriff’s decision is final.

The Common Financial Tool first. Since 1 April 2015 the DAS Administrator must have regard to it on a material change variation, and may also look at other factors including the payments you have made so far.

The rule people miss

The same provision in the 2014 amendment regulations says the Common Financial Tool is not itself a material change in the circumstances of the debtor.

So a fresh assessment producing a different number is not a ground on its own. Something in your circumstances has to have moved.

What the assessment does

It reworks the surplus income figure against your current income and expenditure. The Accountant in Bankruptcy’s guidance on the tool sets out how the contribution is worked out.

In this scheme you may propose a proportion of your surplus rather than all of it. That is worth remembering on the way back up as well as on the way down.

If the problem is temporary, yes. A break defers payments and extends the programme by the same period, where a variation changes the payment itself.

Which route fits which change

A payment break is available where your circumstances change, and the Accountant in Bankruptcy puts no limit on how many times you may apply provided you meet the criteria each time.

There are two breaks and they work differently. The payment break rules sets them side by side.

What neither route does

Nothing is written off by a variation or a break. A Debt Payment Programme repays the principal in full, and what a change alters is the size or the timing of the payments.

If your circumstances have improved rather than worsened, the shorter routes are worth asking about. Paying a programme off early covers those, and what happens when a programme ends covers the finish.

The programme can be revoked. Arrears of not less than the aggregate of payments due in a period of two months are a ground under regulation 42(1)(c).

The warning you get first

The DAS Administrator must give written notice of a proposal to revoke, to you and to every participating creditor. It cannot be implemented until at least 4 weeks after that notice.

That window is the moment to talk about a variation instead. Why a programme is revoked sets out every ground.

What to do on the day you know

Ring the adviser who submitted your application rather than the creditor. They can apply for the variation, approve a crisis break themselves, or both.

If you no longer have a continuing money adviser, the DAS Administrator is the party to notify. Do it inside the 7 days either way.

What revocation costs you

The freeze on interest, fees and charges falls away, and creditors can apply what would have been payable had you never started. Enforcement can begin once 14 days have elapsed, or a further 28 days where a review is requested.

The entry comes off the DAS Register 14 days after revocation, which the DAS Register explains, and our Debt Arrangement Scheme page sets out how we help.