An employer who does not operate a valid earnings arrestment becomes liable for the sums that should have been deducted. That is the whole of the risk in one line.

Here is the duty in order, the figure it is calculated on, and the things an employer has no power over. How does a wage arrestment work in Scotland covers the mechanism from the other side of the payslip.

Deduct a sum calculated in accordance with sections 49 and 49A of the Act from the debtor’s net earnings on every pay day, and pay any sum so deducted to the creditor as soon as is reasonably practicable. Those words set the whole standard.

The duty in order, with the source of each step

The Part of the Debtors (Scotland) Act 1987 that contains section 47 also contains the current maintenance arrestment and the conjoined arrestment order, which is why the same vocabulary keeps appearing across all three.

Every pay day is the phrase that does the work

The obligation is not a single payment. It attaches to each pay day that falls while the arrestment has effect, and it is recalculated each time.

So a rise, a bonus period or a short month all change that period’s figure. The employer applies the table again rather than repeating last period’s number.

As soon as is reasonably practicable is a standard, not a diary date

The subsection fixes the timing of the payment over to the creditor by that phrase. It does not give payroll a discretion about whether to pay it over at all.

The document that starts all of this is the schedule, and what an earnings arrestment schedule is covers what it is and who serves it.

Net earnings, which is a defined figure rather than take-home pay. Section 73(1) reaches it by taking four deductions off the pay for the period and no others.

The four deductions, and nothing else

They are income tax, National Insurance primary class 1 contributions, pension scheme contributions, and a child maintenance deduction from earnings order that has priority over diligences against earnings. What counts as net earnings sets out each one with the paragraph it sits in.

Student loan repayments, union dues, other attachments and the employer’s own administration charge are not among the four deductions that produce net earnings. So none of them reduces the figure the table is applied to.

The order of operations in one pay period

Step five sits after the calculation, not before it, and why an arrestment takes more than expected runs through what that does to the figure.

The £1.00 administration charge

An employer may deduct £1.00 per deduction as an administration charge. It comes out of the employee’s pay on top of the arrested amount rather than out of what the creditor receives.

Sheriff officer expenses work differently again, and whether sheriff officer fees are added to the balance covers where they sit.

The table that matches the frequency the employee is actually paid on, from Schedule 2 to the 1987 Act as substituted by the Diligence against Earnings (Variation) (Scotland) Regulations 2024, in force since 6 April 2025.

The nil bands as they stand

Net earnings not exceeding £750.00 a month, £172.61 a week or £24.66 a day produce no deduction, on the figures in force since 6 April 2025 under the Diligence against Earnings (Variation) (Scotland) Regulations 2024. How much they can take from your wages sets out every band above them.

Net monthly earnings of £1,800.00 produce £172.50 for that month, and net weekly earnings of £400.00 produce £36.85. The protected earnings limits covers the thresholds on their own.

Fortnightly pay and rounding

There is no fortnightly table. Fortnightly pay is normally handled using the daily table, or by applying the weekly table to each week in the period, following your own payroll guidance.

Calculations run to two decimal places of a penny and are then rounded to the nearest whole penny, with an exact half penny rounded down.

A nil period does not end anything

Where the period’s net earnings fall in the nil band the deduction is nil and the arrestment carries on. What happens if you earn below the threshold covers the point from the employee’s side.

It begins on the date of execution, which is service of the schedule on the employer. Under section 47(2) it runs until the debt is paid or otherwise extinguished, until the employee ceases to be employed by that employer, or until the arrestment is recalled or abandoned.

The precondition that sits behind service

An earnings arrestment does not take effect unless the creditor gave you a debt advice and information package no earlier than 12 weeks before the schedule was served, under section 47(3).

That precondition attaches to the creditor and to the service, not to payroll. It is worth knowing about because it is part of what makes a schedule effective.

The statutory routes that end one early

An approved Debt Payment Programme under the Debt Arrangement Scheme stops an existing earnings arrestment and freezes interest, fees and charges.

Sequestration ends one on the date of sequestration under section 72(2) of the 1987 Act, and a protected trust deed ends one on the date of protection under the Bankruptcy (Scotland) Act 2016.

Where a sheriff grants a time to pay order, the sheriff must recall any existing earnings arrestment. Whether an application is competent on a particular set of facts is a question for a money adviser or the sheriff clerk.

Where a statutory moratorium sits

A statutory moratorium is the exception to that pattern.

It does not stop an earnings arrestment that was already running. Section 197(5)(d) of the Bankruptcy (Scotland) Act 2016 lets a creditor carry on executing an earnings arrestment, a current maintenance arrestment or a conjoined arrestment order that came into effect before the moratorium began.

When the employee leaves

The arrestment falls with that employment under section 47(2), and tracing a new employer sits with the creditor. What happens if you leave your job and whether a new employer has to continue one take each side of that in turn.

The sums that should have been deducted. Refusing to comply moves the cost from the employee to the business rather than making the money uncollectable.

Ignoring a schedule does not help the employee

The debt is unaffected and the creditor’s authority is unaffected. What changes is who is out of pocket.

The same is true of a delay while somebody looks into it. The duty runs from service, and each pay day that passes is a deduction that should have been made.

A genuine query is a different thing from a refusal

Where the arrestment does not relate to your business or to anyone on your payroll, put the point in writing to the creditor, or to the sheriff officer firm that served it. What an employer should do if they receive an arrestment schedule sets out how that runs alongside the duty.

Reduce the deduction, pause it, or apply an affordability test to it. The sum comes from the statutory tables, and the only review power is section 50, which carries no affordability or hardship ground.

The things payroll gets asked for and cannot give

Where affordability actually goes

The unduly harsh test in sections 73Q and 73R reaches funds and moveable property rather than wages, so it is not a route against a deduction from pay. What an unduly harsh application is sets out what it does reach.

An employee who cannot manage the deduction needs one of the statutory routes rather than a conversation with payroll. How you stop a wage arrestment in Scotland sets those out, and stopping one that has already started covers the position mid-arrestment.

Only one diligence against earnings can operate against the same employment at a time. A current maintenance arrestment is the exception and can run alongside an ordinary earnings arrestment.

A second ordinary creditor cannot simply add another schedule

They have to apply for a conjoined arrestment order, which the sheriff clerk administers. The employer then pays the sheriff clerk, who distributes the money among the creditors.

Whether you can have more than one at the same time works through the combinations, and the sheriff court service is where the conjoined order is applied for.

Priority, and three floors that are not the same floor

A child maintenance deduction from earnings order comes off before net earnings are computed where the child support regulations give it priority over diligences against earnings. Which arrestment takes priority sets out the full sequence.

The 60% retained earnings rule belongs to a direct earnings attachment and a child maintenance order, and an earnings arrestment has a fixed cash nil band instead. The employer’s guide to direct earnings attachments sets out that side, and what a direct earnings attachment is covers how it differs from an arrestment.

The duty to deduct is owed to the creditor and says nothing about the employment itself. There is no law allowing an employer to dismiss someone for having a wage arrestment.

Dismissal and confidentiality

Dismissal on that ground alone would be exposed to an unfair dismissal claim, which whether an employer can sack you for having a wage arrestment covers, and only payroll and whoever processes the paperwork need to know, which whether your colleagues find out covers.

What the employee can usefully be told

Which net earnings figure the table was applied to, and which table was used. Whether a wage arrestment shows on your payslip sets out the questions worth putting to payroll and what each answer establishes.

Free money advice is the other half of it, and guidance sits on mygov.scot and with the Accountant in Bankruptcy.