None of that makes it right for everyone. You deserve the full picture before an application goes in rather than a year into it.

Several of the objections you will read online are not disadvantages at all, and two of them are simply out of date. Our guide to how the Debt Arrangement Scheme works covers the scheme itself, and what follows is the cost side of it.

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.

Repayment in full is the design, not a flaw

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.

That is the trade at the heart of the scheme, and it is why whether a Debt Arrangement Scheme writes off any of your debt is the first question worth settling.

Where the write-off percentages come from

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 one route that does reduce a balance

Composition needs both twelve years from approval and seventy per cent of the debt paid, under regulation 46A(1). It is a long stop for very long programmes rather than something you can ask for.

So it is a long stop for programmes running past a decade, not a settlement you can ask for.

Longer than most people expect, because the length is set by the debt divided by what you can afford. The Accountant in Bankruptcy expects a programme approved in the last three financial years to run between 5.1 and 6.1 years.

There is no maximum for an individual

No maximum length applies to a programme for an individual. The five-year limit that appears on some pages belongs to Business DAS.

The five-year figure that appears on several pages is the Business DAS condition. How long a Debt Payment Programme lasts sets out where programme length comes from.

The published figures, and what they are

The Accountant in Bankruptcy’s 2025-26 annual statistics record 5,288 programmes approved and 2,402 completed in the year, with around £68.9 million repaid through the scheme.

The median debt in a Debt Arrangement Scheme was £16,200 in 2025-26, down 4.5 per cent on the year before.

The median monthly contribution was £260, and those are medians rather than averages because the distribution is skewed.

Length is a real cost

So the comparison is worth making properly. A Debt Arrangement Scheme against Minimal Asset Process bankruptcy puts the two side by side.

The DAS Register is free to search and open to anyone, and it is kept by the Accountant in Bankruptcy.

What the register holds about you

The Accountant in Bankruptcy’s guidance on the DAS Register describes it as a free web-based register accessible to everyone, holding your full name and any former names, your date of birth, your home address and any business address.

This is the genuine sticking point for many people. What the DAS Register is and who can search it covers what is entered and when.

The one exception

Information may be left out where including it would be likely to put someone at risk of violence or otherwise jeopardise their safety or welfare. The Accountant in Bankruptcy publishes a separate sensitivity obligation document on how that works.

Raise it with your money adviser at the first appointment if it applies to you.

What happens to the entry afterwards

No statutory period governs how long an entry stays after a programme completes. The Accountant in Bankruptcy says details are removed on completion without giving a timescale.

Revocation is different, and it does have a timescale. The Accountant in Bankruptcy’s guidance on revocation says the details are removed from the register 14 days after the revocation was approved.

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 six years everybody prints is the wrong rule

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.

Pages ranking for these queries state six years, some attributing it to the credit reference agencies by name. None of those agencies lists the scheme in its own published retention tables.

What is actually sourced

Citizens Advice Scotland says your credit rating is affected for as long as you are in the debt payment programme, which is a statement about the period during, not after.

National Debtline says credit reference agencies check the register regularly and may update your file to reflect it. What a lender sees is the state of each account in the programme.

What to do about it

Get your own file from all three agencies and check how each account has been marked. Rebuilding your credit after a Debt Arrangement Scheme sets out the steps that actually help.

Treat any page quoting you a fixed number of years for a Debt Arrangement Scheme with caution. Nobody publishes that rule.

The programme can be revoked, and revocation is the most serious drawback in the scheme. Creditors may apply interest, fees and charges to the debt once 14 days have elapsed from the revocation.

The arrears trigger, and the warning you get first

Regulation 42(1)(c) bites where a payment falls due and the sum unpaid on earlier payments reaches the aggregate of payments due in a period of two months.

That measure replaced a count of two missed payments on 2 July 2013. It is a ground rather than an automatic outcome.

The Accountant in Bankruptcy’s revocation guidance says a revocation proposal states the reasons and gives all parties four weeks to provide information or reasons why it should not be revoked.

The timetable

The 14 days and the 28 days are in regulation 44A, so they are statutory rather than guidance. Why a Debt Arrangement Scheme is revoked covers every ground.

What to do before it gets there

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.

A material change in your financial circumstances is a ground for varying the programme, under regulation 37(1)(d).

A set of standard conditions in regulation 27, running for the whole life of the programme. They cover payments, continuing liabilities, borrowing and keeping your adviser informed.

The conditions in short

• Make the first payment within 42 days of approval, and every payment as it falls due.
• Pay continuing liabilities, such as this year’s council tax, when they are due.
• Make no payment to a participating creditor other than through the programme.
• Notify a change of address or a material change of circumstances within seven days.
• Answer a written request for information about your income, assets or liabilities within ten days.

Borrowing is capped

An individual may take credit up to £2,000 without a variation, but not where they already owe £1,000 or more outside the programme, disregarding excluded rent and mortgage arrears on their home.

That rule has applied since 29 October 2018, and the other exceptions are narrow.

You cannot do it yourself

You cannot apply on your own. Regulation 20(2)(a) requires the application to be made by a money adviser on the debtor’s behalf.

That is a restriction, though not an expensive one, because a money adviser may not charge you for the work on an individual’s programme.

Student loans cannot go in and ongoing liabilities stay outside it. Home arrears are different again, because you may choose whether they go in.

The exclusions that matter most

Student loans cannot go in. Regulation 3(2)(d), inserted with effect from 27 June 2015, excludes them from the debts a programme may cover.

mygov.scot says court fines cannot be included. The Accountant in Bankruptcy’s own guidance does not address fines either way.

Home arrears are a choice, not an exclusion

You do not choose which debts go in. Regulation 20(2A) requires the programme to provide for every debt you owe at the time of the application that a programme can cover.

Rent and mortgage arrears on your sole or main residence are the exception. Regulation 20(2AA), which has applied since 29 October 2018, lets an individual leave them out rather than requiring it.

Anything left out sits outside the programme’s protection as well as outside the programme. Interest and charges on those arrears are not frozen, and diligence for them is not recalled.

So it is a decision with a price attached, on the debt most likely to cost you your home.

Continuing liabilities are yours to meet

Only arrears go into the programme. This year’s council tax, your rent, your mortgage payments and your utilities all still have to be paid as they fall due, and which debts can and cannot go into a programme sets out the full picture.

Several of them, and two are simply the old law. The consent rule changed on 4 November 2019 and the moratorium changed on 1 October 2022.

Myth against rule

The consent threshold was substituted by the Debt Arrangement Scheme (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2019, and whether all your creditors have to agree explains how the nine tenths is counted.

Objecting is not a veto

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.

There is also no statutory list of grounds for an objection, and nothing requires a creditor to give a reason. What happens if a creditor objects follows the application through that stage.

If you are unhappy with a decision

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.

Both stages carry their own 14-day limit, the review is decided within 28 days, and the appeal lies on a point of law by summary application. The sheriff’s decision is final.

The trade, in one place

Against all of that, approval recalls any arrestment of your income or property and the interest freeze starts. Whether a Debt Arrangement Scheme stops a wage arrestment covers the point that matters most if money is already coming off your pay, and our Debt Arrangement Scheme page sets out how we help.