Should You Choose A Debt Arrangement Scheme Or A Trust Deed?
A Debt Payment Programme repays your debt in full and is not insolvency. A protected trust deed is formal insolvency, your estate conveys to a trustee, and the deed is recorded on the Register of Insolvencies.
Both take one monthly payment from your surplus income and share it out. Both end an earnings arrestment, and both are Scottish.
- 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
- Free & confidential
- No obligation
Choosing between a programme and a trust deed? Get free advice on the fit.
Free, confidential and no obligation.From there they separate sharply. One reschedules what you owe and the other deals with an estate.
Worth knowing before you read anything on this question: almost every page ranking for it is published by a firm that earns more from one of the two. How the Debt Arrangement Scheme works and what a protected trust deed is cover each on its own.
What is the structural difference between the two?
One is insolvency and the other is not. That single fact drives almost every difference that follows, including what happens to what you own.
Side by side
| Debt Payment Programme | Protected trust deed | |
|---|---|---|
| Is it insolvency? | No. It is a statutory repayment scheme | Yes. It is formal insolvency |
| What happens to your estate | Nothing transfers, and no trustee is appointed | The estate conveys to a trustee, who is a licensed insolvency practitioner |
| Do you repay in full? | Yes, over a longer period | No. What is left when you are discharged is written off |
| Minimum debt | None, and no maximum. A single debt is enough | Total debts of not less than £5,000, including interest, at the date of granting |
| Public register | The DAS Register | The Register of Insolvencies |
| Who runs it | The Accountant in Bankruptcy, through the DAS Administrator | The trustee, supervised by the Accountant in Bankruptcy |
A Debt Payment Programme is not an insolvency solution. You repay the debt in full, and what changes is the pressure rather than the balance.
The minimum that only one of them has
A trust deed has a statutory floor. Section 164(3) of the Bankruptcy (Scotland) Act 2016 requires total debts, including interest, of not less than £5,000 at the date you grant the deed.
There is no minimum debt and no maximum. A programme may be approved where it provides for the payment of one or more debts, so a single debt is enough.
Where each is recorded
A programme goes on the DAS Register, which is free to search and open to anyone. A protected trust deed goes on the Register of Insolvencies, and which is better, a trust deed or the scheme looks at the same choice from the trust deed side.
Who has to agree to each one?
The two tests run in opposite directions. A programme asks whether enough creditors have consented, and a trust deed asks whether too many have objected.
The two tests
| Debt Payment Programme | Protected trust deed | |
|---|---|---|
| The question asked | Have enough creditors consented? | Have too many creditors objected? |
| The threshold | Not less than nine tenths in value of the creditors must consent, since 4 November 2019 | Protection is prevented by written objections from a majority in number, or from creditors holding not fewer than one third in value |
| What silence means | A creditor who does not respond within 21 days is deemed to have consented, on a programme covering more than one debt | A creditor who does not object within the five weeks is deemed to have acceded |
| The window | 21 days from the request | Five weeks beginning with the date the notice is registered |
| If the threshold is not met | The application goes to the fair and reasonable test rather than failing | The deed does not become protected, and loses the statutory effects that go with protection |
That is the opposite of how it is usually described. The test is whether enough creditors object, not whether enough approve, and a creditor who never replies is counted as having accepted.
Do all your creditors have to agree?
Not all of them. Since 4 November 2019 a programme for an individual is approved where not less than nine tenths in value of the creditors consent, under regulations 23(1)(a) and 24(1) of the Debt Arrangement Scheme (Scotland) Regulations 2011.
That threshold was set by the 2019 amending regulations. Pages saying a majority in value is enough, or that creditors have no say at all, are both wrong.
On the trust deed side, section 170 of the 2016 Act deems creditors to have acceded unless enough object in the relevant period. Pages quoting a percentage that must approve have inverted the test.
What happens if the threshold is missed
An objection does not end the application. Where approval cannot be given under regulation 24, regulation 25(1) requires the DAS Administrator to approve a programme that is fair and reasonable.
That is a real second route, and whether all your creditors have to agree sets out both. A trust deed that fails the objection test simply does not become protected.
Not sure which route fits your figures? Get free help
Free, confidential and no obligation.Which one stops a wage arrestment sooner?
Both stop one, and the trigger is different. A programme recalls an arrestment on approval, and a trust deed ends it on the date of protection.
The scheme
Approval recalls any arrestment of your income or property, and notice of the recall goes to the employer or to whoever is holding the arrested funds.
Approval also makes it incompetent to serve a charge for payment or to commence or execute diligence for the debts in the programme, under section 4 of the Debt Arrangement and Attachment (Scotland) Act 2002.
The trust deed
Section 173 of the 2016 Act ends an earnings arrestment on the date of protection, automatically and with no application to any court.
Protection runs from the date of registration, under section 163(2), not from the date you sign. The weeks in between are the exposed period.
So the gap between signing and protection is the exposed period, which whether a trust deed stops a wage arrestment covers in detail.
What neither of them settles
There is no equivalent section for a bank arrestment anywhere in Part 14. What protects you instead is accession: every creditor either accedes or, under section 172(1)(a), has no higher right than one who did, and an acceding creditor cannot enforce.
Inhibition is not named anywhere in the recall provisions, and no source settles whether one already registered is recalled on approval. Ask your money adviser what applies to yours.
What happens to what you own?
In a programme, nothing transfers. In a trust deed the estate conveys to the trustee, and your interest in your home is part of what they deal with.
Item by item
| Debt Payment Programme | Protected trust deed | |
|---|---|---|
| Your home | An excepted asset. A condition cannot require you to sell it, though since 29 October 2018 you may opt in to that condition yourself | Your interest in it is part of what the trustee deals with |
| Your car | Nothing is handed over. A vehicle you reasonably require worth no more than £1,000 is exempt from attachment and so outside any realisation condition | The estate conveys except what would be excluded on sequestration, which routes to the same £1,000 vehicle figure |
| An existing earnings arrestment | Recalled on approval of the programme, and notice goes to your employer | Ceases on the date of protection, under section 173 |
| An approved pension you have not drawn | Nothing transfers | Does not pass to the trustee |
| Your monthly payment | The median monthly contribution in 2025-26 was £260 | The median monthly contribution in 2025-26 was £150 |
Those contribution figures are published outcomes rather than a quote for your case. They come from the Accountant in Bankruptcy’s 2025-26 annual statistics.
The home, which decides it for a lot of people
In a programme the home is an excepted asset that a condition cannot require you to sell. Will you lose your home in a Debt Arrangement Scheme sets out the provisions and the opt-in that was added in 2018.
In a trust deed it is part of the estate. The scheme against sequestration for a homeowner deals with the insolvency side of the same question.
The vehicle figure, and the one it gets confused with
The figure is £1,000, not the £3,000 most pages print. A trust deed conveys the estate except what would be excluded on sequestration, which routes through section 88(1)(a) of the 2016 Act to section 11(1)(b) of the Debt Arrangement and Attachment (Scotland) Act 2002: a vehicle reasonably required by the debtor and not exceeding £1,000 in value.
The £3,000 belongs to a different test. Section 2(3)(b) of the 2016 Act opens with the words for the purposes of subsection (2)(c) and (d), which is Minimal Asset Process eligibility, and it has been generalised into advice about trust deeds where it does not apply.
So a page giving £3,000 as the trust deed car figure is quoting a disregard that sits inside the Minimal Asset Process asset calculation. The figure that applies to a trust deed is £1,000.
What happens to the balance, and what does each cost?
A programme repays everything. A trust deed writes off what is left when you are discharged, and nobody can tell you at the outset what that will be.
The scheme
A Debt Arrangement Scheme writes off none of the money you owe. Interest, fees, penalties and charges stop, so the balance stops growing, but the principal is repaid to the last penny.
Interest, fees, penalties and other charges stop being owed on the debts in an approved programme, under the Debt Arrangement Scheme (Interest, Fees, Penalties and Other Charges) (Scotland) Regulations 2011.
It also costs the individual nothing. Whether a Debt Arrangement Scheme writes off any of your debt deals with the percentages advertised across this market.
Where a page advertises a percentage written off by a Debt Arrangement Scheme, it is describing a different solution. The scheme has no write-off mechanism except composition, which needs twelve years and seventy per cent first.
The trust deed
No percentage can honestly be promised at the outset. What is written off is whatever is left unpaid when you are discharged, which depends on what you can afford over the term and what your estate realises.
What is published is the outcome. The 2025-26 annual statistics record a mean dividend to ordinary creditors of 18.1 pence in the pound across protected trust deeds concluded that year, against 16.3 the year before.
The trustee’s remuneration is limited by section 183 of the 2016 Act to a fixed fee, a percentage of the estate realised and outlays, and there is no statutory tariff for the fixed fee.
Section 183(6) puts anyone who advised you before the deed was granted behind the creditors in the order of payment.
Which is worse for your credit file and your job?
Less is published about the credit file than either side’s marketing suggests. On employment the answer is clearer, because neither makes you an undischarged bankrupt.
The credit file
No credit reference agency publishes a retention rule for a Debt Arrangement Scheme. Experian, Equifax and TransUnion all publish what they hold and for how long, and none of them lists a Debt Arrangement Scheme at all.
The widely quoted six years is the rule for insolvency entries, and a Debt Arrangement Scheme is not an insolvency. What your creditors report is the state of each account, so ask them and check your own file.
A protected trust deed is insolvency and does reach the agencies through their published insolvency data feed, which is the structural difference between the two. How to rebuild your credit after a programme sets out what you can actually do about a file.
Public registers are not credit files
The DAS Register and the Register of Insolvencies are legal registers. What a lender sees on a credit file is a separate question with separate rules.
Work and directorships
The disqualification in section 11 of the Company Directors Disqualification Act 1986 applies to an undischarged bankrupt. Neither a Debt Payment Programme nor a protected trust deed makes you one.
Whether a Debt Arrangement Scheme affects your job sets out what the register does and does not fix, and what nobody can tell you.
Which one fits your circumstances?
It turns on one question. Can you clear what you owe from surplus income in a reasonable period, or not?
Working it through
| Your situation | What it points to |
|---|---|
| You can clear what you owe from surplus income in a reasonable period | The scheme. It repays in full without insolvency and leaves your estate alone |
| You cannot repay in full however long it runs | A trust deed writes off what is left. The scheme has no mechanism for that |
| You owe less than £5,000 | A protected trust deed is not available. The scheme has no minimum |
| You have equity in a home you want to keep | The scheme leaves it with you. Take the trust deed question to an adviser before granting one |
| Your worry is a role or a directorship | Neither makes you an undischarged bankrupt, so the disqualification does not attach to either |
| You need the arrangement over with in a few years | A trust deed has a defined payment period. A programme runs until the debt is repaid |
No maximum length applies to a programme for an individual. The five-year limit that appears on some pages belongs to Business DAS.
The questions to put to an adviser
- What my monthly figure looks like under each, and how long each would run.
- What happens to any equity in my home under a trust deed, in my circumstances.
- Whether my creditors are likely to consent to a programme, and what happens if they do not.
- Whether anything I own would be dealt with differently under each route.
Where to get that conversation
From a free adviser rather than from a firm that sells one of the two. The disadvantages of a Debt Arrangement Scheme sets out the honest costs of the scheme.
Our trust deed and Debt Arrangement Scheme pages explain how we help with each.
Frequently asked questions
Is a Debt Arrangement Scheme better than a trust deed?
It is lighter if you can repay in full from surplus income, because nothing transfers to a trustee and it is not insolvency. A trust deed is the route where full repayment is not realistic.
Is a Debt Arrangement Scheme insolvency?
No. It is a statutory repayment scheme in which you repay the debt in full, and it is not recorded on the Register of Insolvencies.
How much of your debt does each one write off?
A Debt Payment Programme writes off none of the principal, though the frozen interest and charges cease to be owed. A trust deed writes off what is left at discharge, and no percentage can honestly be promised at the outset.
Do creditors have to agree to each?
For a programme, not less than nine tenths in value must consent, and silence for 21 days counts as consent. For a trust deed, protection is prevented only if a majority in number or not fewer than one third in value object within five weeks.
Is there a minimum debt for either?
A trust deed needs total debts of not less than £5,000 including interest at the date of granting. The Debt Arrangement Scheme has no minimum and no maximum.
Which stops a wage arrestment faster?
A programme recalls an arrestment on approval. A trust deed ends one on the date of protection, which is the date the notice is registered rather than the date you sign.
Which is worse for your credit file?
No credit reference agency publishes a retention rule for a Debt Arrangement Scheme at all. A protected trust deed is insolvency, which the agencies do publish rules for, so the structural difference is real even though no comparison of durations is available.
Can you be a company director under either?
The disqualification in section 11 of the Company Directors Disqualification Act 1986 applies to an undischarged bankrupt, and neither route makes you one.
Related guides
- Which Is Better, A Trust Deed Or The Debt Arrangement Scheme? How the two Scottish routes compare on cost, length, creditor agreement and public record, and which one stops a wage arrestment sooner.
- Is A Debt Arrangement Scheme Better Than Sequestration If You Own Your Home? What sequestration does to your home, whether it comes back after three years, what a programme does instead, and who qualifies for each route.
- Will You Lose Your Home In A Debt Arrangement Scheme? Why nothing vests in a trustee, what happens to your mortgage and arrears, what a condition can require, and how this differs from a trust deed.
- How Do You Rebuild Your Credit After A Debt Arrangement Scheme? Why no fixed retention rule applies, what a programme leaves on your file, how to correct something wrong, and which parts you can change.
- What Are The Disadvantages Of A Debt Arrangement Scheme? No debt is written off, the DAS Register is public, and programmes run for years. The genuine drawbacks, and the ones that are myths.
- Do All Your Creditors Have To Agree To A Debt Payment Programme? How consent is measured by value, when silence counts as agreement, and what happens when creditors owed more than a tenth object.
- Does A Debt Arrangement Scheme Write Off Any Of Your Debt? Why the principal is repaid in full, what happens to the frozen interest and charges, and which Scottish routes do write debt off.
- Will A Debt Arrangement Scheme Affect Your Job In Scotland? When an employer has to be told, what a payment mandate does, which bankruptcy restrictions do not apply, and what to do if you change jobs.
- What Is A Protected Trust Deed? What you sign, the 48-month payment period, how a deed becomes protected, what it does to an arrestment and what it leaves you owing.
- How Does The Debt Arrangement Scheme Work In Scotland? One monthly payment, interest and charges frozen, creditors blocked from diligence, and an arrestment already running recalled on approval.
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.