The deduction is not a fixed sum agreed at the outset. Payroll reads the table against whatever your net pay happens to be that period, every time the payroll runs.

A cut in hours, a quiet week, a move to part time or a spell of reduced shifts all feed straight through. What happens to a wage arrestment if you earn below the threshold covers the point where the deduction reaches nil.

Here is when the change shows up, how much smaller the deduction gets, why nobody has any discretion over it, and what to do when a payslip does not reflect the drop.

Yes. The duty in section 47(1) is to deduct a sum calculated in accordance with section 49 from the debtor’s net earnings on every pay-day, so the table is read afresh each time.

Nothing is averaged

Payroll does not smooth your income across the year and does not work from a historic figure. Each period is assessed on its own net figure.

The same rule works in the other direction, so a busy period with overtime or a bonus produces a larger deduction for that period alone. Does a bonus affect how much a wage arrestment takes goes through that case.

Which table gets read

Section 49 ties each pay interval to a table. Weekly pay uses Table A, monthly pay uses Table B, and a regular interval of a whole number of weeks or months is divided down, read against Table A or Table B, and multiplied back up.

An irregular interval is handled on a daily basis under Table C, dividing by the number of days since earnings were last paid. How are zero-hours workers affected by a wage arrestment deals with variable patterns in detail.

When the smaller deduction shows up

In the next pay period that actually reflects the lower hours. The recalculation is part of the payroll run, so there is no waiting period and no review.

There is a lag only where your employer pays a week or a month in arrears, because the lower hours have to reach a payslip before the table can see them.

It depends which band the new net figure lands in. Between £750.00 and £1,500.00 of monthly net earnings the table takes 15% of the excess, so every £100 drop in net pay is £15 less taken.

Monthly pay, worked down the bands

Someone dropping from £2,200 to £1,400 net a month sees the deduction fall from £252.50 to £97.50. That is £155 a month back without a single form being filled in.

Weekly pay, worked down the bands

The daily equivalent of the nil band is £24.66. All of these figures come from the Diligence against Earnings (Variation) (Scotland) Regulations 2024, SSI 2024/293, in force since 6 April 2025 and still in force in August 2026.

The percentages step down as you fall

The bands are not a flat rate. The excess is taken at 15%, then 20%, then 25%, and only above £3,750.00 a month at 50%.

So the table gets gentler the further your income falls. That is the design working as intended rather than a concession anyone has made.

Nothing is deducted for that period. Net earnings not exceeding £750.00 a month, £172.61 a week or £24.66 a day sit in the nil band, and your employer takes nothing at all.

A nil deduction is not the end of the arrestment

Section 47(2) gives three ways an earnings arrestment ends: the debt is paid or otherwise extinguished, the employment ends, or it is recalled or abandoned. A pay period that produces nothing is not on that list.

The schedule stays with your employer and the calculation keeps being run. The first time your net pay rises above the threshold the deduction reappears, with no fresh paperwork and no warning, and does a wage arrestment expire if the debt is not paid off covers what does end one.

Your employer cannot catch up later

Section 69(3) is the protection people never hear about. Where a pay-day produced no deduction, the employer may not add that period’s worth to a later one.

So a run of quiet months is not a debt that builds up inside the arrestment. Each pay-day stands alone in both directions.

The balance is another matter

Nothing is paid towards the debt in a nil period, so the arrestment simply runs for longer. The balance itself does not shrink while nothing is being collected.

On council tax that balance includes the 10 per cent statutory addition made when the summary warrant was granted, and the sheriff officer expenses. How much does a wage arrestment cost you in total itemises the layers.

No, and the reason is a specific provision rather than an oversight. Section 46(2) of the 1987 Act abolished the old rule exempting a reasonable amount for subsistence and replaced it with the fixed bands in Schedule 2.

Nobody in the chain has discretion

Payroll reads the table and applies it. The creditor cannot vary the figure and the sheriff cannot reduce it because the deduction is more than you can live on.

The unduly harsh route in sections 73Q and 73R of the Debtors (Scotland) Act 1987 reaches arrestments over funds and moveable property, which means bank arrestments. It does not reach wages.

What does and does not move the figure

That is not a reflection on your circumstances, it is how the diligence is built. Is there a time limit for challenging a wage arrestment sets out what a sheriff can and cannot be asked to do.

Not for the arrestment. Payroll applies the table automatically and nobody reviews your circumstances, but telling other people about the drop is still worth doing.

Where it does matter

• The DWP, if you claim Universal Credit or another benefit affected by earnings.
• Your council, because a lower income may mean Council Tax Reduction, which in Scotland can cover the whole of the liability.
• A free money adviser, who can run a benefits check alongside the debt itself.
• The creditor, if you want to discuss the debt rather than only the deduction.

The council tax point is the one people skip, and what is Council Tax Reduction in Scotland explains what it covers.

Put it in writing

Where you do contact a creditor or the council, do it in writing and keep a copy. It costs nothing and it saves arguments later about what was said and when.

Check the net figure on the payslip first, then run it through the table yourself. Most cases where the deduction looks stuck come down to net pay not having dropped as far as expected.

Gross and net move differently

A cut in hours reduces tax and National Insurance as well, so the net figure often falls by less than the hours suggest. The band may not have changed at all.

Net earnings is a defined figure rather than take-home pay, and section 73(1) allows exactly four deductions before the table is applied. What counts as net earnings for a wage arrestment lists them.

Work the sum yourself

• Find net pay for the period, after tax, National Insurance and pension contributions.
• Find the band that figure sits in on the monthly, weekly or daily table.
• Apply the fixed amount for the band plus the percentage of the excess.
• Compare your answer with the deduction line on the payslip.

If it still does not match

Ask payroll which net figure they used and which table they applied. They are operating an instruction they did not choose, and an employer that fails to deduct becomes liable for the sums it should have taken.

Where a real dispute remains, section 50(3) allows an application to the sheriff to determine a dispute about how the arrestment is being operated, on Form 33 under rule 41(1). Section 50(1) covers a declarator that it is invalid or has ceased to have effect, on Form 32, and the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service publishes the rules.

Neither route deals with affordability and neither has a deadline. Why is your wage arrestment taking more than you expected goes through the usual explanations first.

Deal with the debt rather than the deduction. Where lower income is permanent, the routes that change your position are the Debt Arrangement Scheme, a statutory moratorium, a time to pay order, or a formal insolvency solution.

The Debt Arrangement Scheme

An approved Debt Payment Programme stops an existing earnings arrestment, freezes interest, fees and charges, and does not require you to be insolvent. The Debt Arrangement Scheme page sets out how it works.

Council tax arrears can go in, though the current year’s bill has to keep being paid alongside. The Accountant in Bankruptcy reported an average programme length of around six years in its statutory debt solutions statistics published in July 2026.

Insolvency, a moratorium and time to pay

• Sequestration, including the Minimal Asset Process, ends an existing arrestment on the date of sequestration under section 72(2) of the 1987 Act.
• A protected trust deed ends it on the date of protection under section 173 of the Bankruptcy (Scotland) Act 2016, not on the date of signing.
• Where a sheriff makes a time to pay order, the sheriff shall recall any existing earnings arrestment, and the debt outstanding must be £25,000 or less excluding interest.

A statutory moratorium gives six months of protection and you get one per rolling 12 months. It stops service of a charge for payment, stops new diligence and stops creditor petitions for sequestration.

A statutory moratorium is the exception worth understanding. It does not stop an earnings arrestment that was already running, because section 197(5)(d) of the Bankruptcy (Scotland) Act 2016 lets a creditor carry on executing one that began before the moratorium.

A smaller payment is relief, not a solution

The debt underneath does not change, so a lower deduction means a longer arrestment. How do you cope financially after a sudden drop in income covers the wider picture, and our solutions page sets out how we help.