Your expenditure is looked at again at the same time, and a bigger contribution can bring the finish line closer. How trust deed monthly payments are calculated sets out the calculation this all runs on.

Here is what you must report, what the trustee does with it, how overtime and bonuses are handled, and what happens if you say nothing.

Yes. mygov.scot puts it as an obligation rather than a courtesy: you must tell your trustee if your circumstances change, and income going up is one of the changes it lists.

Where the duty comes from

The Scottish Government’s guidance on changes during a trust deed, last updated 31 August 2023, states the duty and adds that if your income goes up your trustee may ask you to increase your payment.

The Accountant in Bankruptcy’s protected trust deed information document, which your trustee had to give you before you signed, says the same thing: if your financial situation changes you must tell your trustee right away, and your payments will be reviewed at least once a year.

There is no threshold

No source sets a size of increase below which nothing has to be reported, and no period over which a rise has to persist first. That is an absence rather than an unwritten rule.

So the safe course is to report it when it takes effect. A contribution that jumps after twelve months of silence is harder to absorb than one adjusted in steps.

Disclosure is one of your obligations

Disclosing financial information is among the debtor duties AiB sets out, alongside complying with the terms of the deed, co-operating in the realisation of assets and paying the contributions.

Reassess. AiB’s guidance requires the trustee to reassess your financial position annually, and says that where income rises or expenditure falls the contribution should be adjusted.

What the review looks at

It is a fresh assessment rather than an arithmetic uplift. Both sides of the budget are looked at, which is why the outcome is not a foregone conclusion.

What can change besides the monthly figure

AiB’s guidance says a material change in circumstances may warrant modifying either the contribution amount or the repayment timeframe, and section 180 requires the trustee to notify AiB of any modification to the payment period. How long a trust deed lasts in Scotland covers what moves the end date.

Ask for the recalculation in writing and ask what it does to your projected end date. Both are reasonable requests and a trustee should answer them.

Because the contribution is worked out on surplus, not on gross pay. If your reasonable expenditure has risen by as much as your income, the surplus may be roughly where it was.

How the surplus is measured

Expenditure is assessed against trigger figures published as part of the Common Financial Statement, which is the method prescribed by regulation 15(1) of the Bankruptcy (Scotland) Regulations 2016. The figures cover categories such as telephone, travel, housekeeping and other costs, with no trigger figure for rent or mortgage.

Regulation 15(3) lets a trust deed trustee allow expenditure above a trigger figure where satisfied it is reasonable, and regulation 15(4) puts the onus on you to show why. Section 168(5) then applies whatever surplus is left.

Bring evidence, not an argument

• A tenancy agreement or a rent increase letter.
• Nursery or childcare invoices.
• Energy bills, or a change in your travel costs with the reason for it.
• Anything unusual, such as a disability related cost, with the supporting paperwork.

Documents carry more weight than a summary. That is true whether you are asking for a rise to be absorbed or asking for a reduction.

Both are income and both should be declared. How much of either feeds through depends on the assessment, because section 168(5) applies the surplus rather than a fixed share of any particular payment.

There is no statutory share of overtime

No Scottish provision lets you keep a set proportion of overtime. Guidance written for an English individual voluntary arrangement sometimes quotes one, and it does not describe Scottish practice.

What the legislation says is that the whole surplus belongs to creditors during the payment period, and that the trustee reassesses at least annually.

Everything else is a matter for the deed and the trustee, so ask for their approach in writing. What a protected trust deed is explains why the deed’s own terms matter alongside the Act.

Irregular overtime

If your overtime swings from month to month, say so at the assessment. A trustee working from a stable average is doing something different from one reacting to a single heavy month.

Keep your payslips either way. Where a contribution was set on a level of overtime you no longer get, that evidence is what supports a request to reduce it.

A bonus is not a windfall

A bonus is pay, so it is assessed as income alongside the rest. That is a different question from money that arrives from outside your employment.

That is estate rather than income, and it is caught by a different provision. Section 167(1)(b) binds you to convey any estate acquired in the four years beginning with the date the deed is granted.

The four-year acquirenda clause

Under section 167(1)(b) the test is whether the thing would have been conveyed to the trustee had you owned it on the day you signed.

mygov.scot also states the duty in terms: you must tell your trustee if you have a windfall, such as an inheritance or a lottery win, and it may be used to pay your creditors.

Extra money, sorted by type

Get advice before you spend anything from the fourth row. How much a trust deed costs in Scotland explains where money realised in the trust actually goes.

Only on one narrow route. Section 168(2)(b) lets the trustee determine a shorter payment period, and section 168(3) permits that only where payment, from income or otherwise, would allow the debts to be met in full.

In full means in full

The comparison in section 168(3) is against the total amount of your debts including interest as at the date you granted the deed. A rise that increases the contribution without reaching that total does not shorten the term by itself.

There is a ceiling in the other direction too. Section 168(4) requires an individual’s contributions across the payment period to total less than that same figure.

That is why AiB will not register a deed where the projected contributions would repay everything. A trust deed is not meant to be an expensive way of paying a debt you could have paid in full.

The end date can move the other way as well

Section 168(2)(c) allows a longer period where contributions have been missed or where you and the trustee agree, and a section 175 agreement about heritable property can require monthly payments after the payment period ends. What happens to the equity in your home in a trust deed covers that second one.

The sanction is not a fine. It is your discharge, because section 184(2)(a) makes discharge depend on a trustee statement that you met your obligations and co-operated with the administration of the trust.

The chain, and where it ends

Since 1 July 2024 a trustee cannot refuse your discharge alone. Section 184 and section 184A require an application to AiB on Form 5A, with reasons, and AiB has to agree.

If it does, section 172(2) means creditors cease to be deemed to have acceded and AiB’s position is that they are free to enforce debt recovery action. What happens if your trust deed fails sets out what that looks like.

What is not held against you

AiB lists grounds that are not proper reasons to refuse a discharge. They are a change of circumstances preventing you paying a contribution, extenuating circumstances, and assets realising less than the trustee originally estimated.

So a genuine drop in income, properly disclosed, is a different thing from an unreasonable failure to co-operate. What happens if you miss a payment on your trust deed covers the falling side of this.

If the numbers look wrong to you

You do not have to accept a recalculation without a second opinion. Citizens Advice Scotland, StepChange and National Debtline all advise on trust deeds without charge, and whether to use a free debt charity or a paid debt adviser covers that choice.