The conditions in section 2(2) of the Bankruptcy (Scotland) Act 2016 rule most people in or out before preference gets a look in.

So this compares them fairly and starts with eligibility rather than pretending both doors are open. Choosing between MAP and a plan generally covers the wider comparison.

Every condition has to be met, not just the headline figures. Missing any one of them closes the route.

The gateway, condition by condition

You must not own land. Section 2(2)(e) rules out a MAP for anyone who does, whatever it is worth.

The two that catch people out

Owning any land at all is an absolute bar under section 2(2)(e), with no carve-out for a share.

Ten years must have passed since any previous MAP, and five years since any other award of sequestration.

Both repeat bars run from the date of the previous award rather than from discharge. That is a different date and it matters.

The floor was made prescribable, not abolished

No minimum debt is currently prescribed. The £1,500 floor stopped applying on 6 February 2023 by SSI 2023/9, and the power to set one again survives.

Student loans sit oddly in the arithmetic

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.

A student loan is left out of the £25,000 test on the way in and is still owed on the way out.

The £25,000 debt limit for MAP goes through what counts towards it, and whether you are eligible runs through each test.

Nothing, on the way in. There is no threshold, no assessment you can fail and no application to refuse.

The absence of any gateway is the plan’s advantage

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.

Anyone can propose an arrangement to anyone. Owning a house, owning land, having £30,000 of debt or having been sequestrated last year makes no difference to whether you can offer one.

And it is also the plan’s limit

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

Nothing is approved, so nothing binds anyone. Whether a plan freezes interest sets out what that means for the balance.

You repay in full, over an open-ended period

A plan has no term. It runs until the balances are cleared, which depends on the debt, the payment and whether interest was frozen, and how long a plan lasts sets out the arithmetic.

Less than the comparison articles suggest. The overlap is narrow, and it is the group the question is really about.

Who has a real choice

• Debts under £25,000, and very little in the way of assets.
• No land of any kind, and no vehicle worth more than £3,000.
• Enough surplus income to make an arrangement realistic, but not so much that the Minimal Asset Process assessment fails.
• No previous award inside the ten-year or five-year bars.

Who has no choice at all

Anyone who owns land, has meaningful savings or has more than £25,000 of debt cannot use the Minimal Asset Process. For them the question is a plan against the other statutory routes.

A protected trust deed needs debts of at least £5,000, and full administration sequestration at least £3,000. When to move to a statutory solution sets out which route fits which situation.

A previous trust deed is not a previous award

The bars in section 2(2)(g) and (h) are keyed to a previous award of sequestration, and a protected trust deed is not an award of sequestration.

A trust deed that converts to sequestration is a different matter, because that produces an award and the ten-year and five-year bars then bite. That is the case people get wrong.

No published guidance addresses either point, so this is the statute speaking rather than anybody’s stated position. Ask your money adviser before relying on it.

And the two routes in are different too

There are two ways in. Either the common financial tool shows you can pay nothing towards your debts, or you have been receiving certain benefits for at least six months.

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.

Six months against an open-ended commitment. On a smaller debt that difference usually decides the question.

The Minimal Asset Process is short by design

Discharge normally comes six months after the award, under section 140 of the Bankruptcy (Scotland) Act 2016, and how long a MAP lasts covers what happens in the meantime.

There is no debtor contribution in a Minimal Asset Process, because the route in is that you cannot afford one. That is why the six months is realistic.

A plan runs until the money is repaid

A £15,000 balance at £100 a month is over twelve years before any interest is counted. A creditor that keeps charging makes it longer than that.

That is the arithmetic to do before anything else. How long a plan lasts sets out how to do it.

But discharge is not the end of everything

For six months from 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.

The Minimal Asset Process has no application fee and a public register entry. A plan has no register entry and, from a commercial provider, no cap on the fee.

The money

There is no fee to apply for Minimal Asset Process bankruptcy. The fee that used to apply was removed on 6 February 2023, and the Accountant in Bankruptcy’s own guidance lists no application fee.

A commercial provider may charge, and there is no cap on what it may charge.

StepChange and Christians Against Poverty set plans up and run them free of charge.

The record

A Minimal Asset Process appears on the Register of Insolvencies, which the Accountant in Bankruptcy keeps and anyone may inspect.

A debt management plan appears on no register in Scotland. That privacy is the one thing it does better than any statutory route.

The full comparison

The Accountant in Bankruptcy’s own guide for MAP debtors sets out what the process asks of you, and National Debtline’s Scottish bankruptcy guide is a free second opinion.

And a Debt Relief Order is not an option here

A Debt Relief Order is not available in Scotland and the Minimal Asset Process is not a Scottish version of one. They are separate schemes with different limits and different administrators.

Whether MAP is the Scottish version of a Debt Relief Order deals with the comparison properly.

Only the Minimal Asset Process. A plan has no statutory effect on diligence at all.

What the award does

Section 72(2) of the Debtors (Scotland) Act 1987 ends an earnings arrestment, a current maintenance arrestment and a conjoined arrestment order on the date of sequestration, by operation of law.

What a plan does

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

That is a checked absence rather than an oversight, and whether a plan stops a wage arrestment sets out what does.

So if money is already coming off your pay

The comparison stops being about preference. A route that reaches the deduction is worth more than one that does not.

A plan is flexible and a Minimal Asset Process is not. That cuts both ways, and it is the last thing to weigh.

On a plan

The payment can be rebuilt from a new budget, and you can stop whenever you choose. Nothing is protected either, so a change in circumstances can leave you exposed.

In a Minimal Asset Process

An improvement in your income can be reported and the case moved out of the Minimal Asset Process into a full administration, and the Accountant in Bankruptcy’s guide sets out the duties that come with the award.

Reporting is not optional. A change you keep quiet about is a problem rather than an advantage.

Deciding between them

• Do you meet every condition in section 2(2)?
• Can you clear the balances in a period you can live with?
• Is anything already being enforced against you?
• Does a public register entry matter to you, and why?

And get it checked free

Only an approved money adviser can grant the certificate for sequestration and submit the application, so the eligibility question gets answered properly in one appointment. Whether you are eligible sets out what they will look at.

Citizens Advice Scotland, StepChange, Advice Direct Scotland and council money advice teams have approved money advisers and charge nothing, and the difference between a plan and sequestration covers the full administration end of the same scale.