Because entry depends on having nothing spare. Section 2(2)(a)(i) requires the common financial tool to assess you as needing to make no contribution at all.

The contribution machinery is already in place

Section 90(1) makes a debtor contribution order mandatory in every sequestration, and section 90(4) allows the amount to be fixed at zero.

The guide for MAP debtors puts it plainly: the order fixes your contribution at zero. Whether you make payments during a MAP covers it in full.

So nothing new has to be created

The order exists even though the figure is nil. That is why a change in income can have an effect quickly.

The prescribed tool is the Common Financial Statement, under regulation 15(1) of the Bankruptcy (Scotland) Regulations 2016.

The assessment is not about gross pay

Section 90(3) requires the tool to be used, and it measures income against allowed expenditure rather than against earnings alone.

Two people on the same wage can be assessed very differently, which whether you can get a MAP while working explains.

Any change in your income, any money you receive and any inheritance. That requirement comes from AiB’s own guidance rather than from a section of the Act.

Where the duty actually comes from

No provision of the 2016 Act imposes a general, proactive duty on a MAP debtor to report a change in income. Section 215 is a duty to co-operate and contains no notification obligation.

What the Act does give AiB is a power to ask. The version of section 116 that applies in a MAP lets it require a written account of your current state of affairs at any time before discharge, under Schedule 1.

What is a criminal offence, and what is not

Section 218 makes a false statement about your assets or financial affairs an offence, and so is concealing or disposing of part of the estate, in each case unless you show it was not done to prejudice your creditors.

Failing to volunteer news of a pay rise is not framed the same way. Concealing what you have received is a different matter entirely.

What to report, and why each one matters

AiB repeats the duty after discharge as well, asking you to advise your trustee of any change in your circumstances and to return a current state of affairs.

When AiB decides it should. Paragraph 2(5)(b) of Schedule 1 makes an assessment that you can make a contribution one of the listed circumstances.

The window is wider than the six months

Paragraph 2(5) applies at any time after the date on which the debtor application is made. That includes the period before the award as well as the months after it.

There is no published cash threshold for the income trigger. It runs through the assessment rather than through a figure.

The listed circumstances, and one that is not listed

The guide for MAP debtors adds liabilities over £25,000 to its own list. That is AiB’s guidance rather than a statutory trigger, and the difference is worth knowing.

Timing inside the six months

A rise in month one and a rise in month five are treated the same way on the statute. What changes is how much of the six months is left to run.

Where a decision would take longer than the remaining period, discharge under section 140 may arrive first. That is a practical point rather than a rule.

AiB decides, and nobody else

Not you, and not a creditor. Paragraph 2(2) puts the duty to consider on AiB alone.

It vests in the trustee. Section 86 vests property acquired after the date of sequestration in the trustee at the date of acquisition, and no court order is needed.

There is no small sum exception

A modest inheritance is caught by the same words as a large one. Tell AiB before you spend any of it.

Where the money is sitting in a bank account, section 86(9) requires the trustee to serve a written notice on the bank once it knows.

The asset figure, and the one people quote wrongly

Paragraph 2(5)(a) reads £5,000 on the face of the Act. Regulation 14 prescribes £2,000 in its place and has been unamended since 30 November 2016.

That aligns the in-process trigger with the entry test. How assets are valued against the £2,000 limit and what happens to your savings both deal with the valuation side.

A pension lump sum can fire both triggers

AiB’s guidance says benefits coming into payment during the bankruptcy, including a lump sum, are taken into account for a contribution, and the trustee may seek a one-off contribution.

So it can breach the asset figure and produce an assessed contribution at once. Whether you lose your pension in a MAP sets out how far the sources go.

There is a proper procedure with deadlines on both sides. Paragraphs 3 and 4 of Schedule 1 give you 14 days to make representations and 14 days to appeal to the sheriff.

The steps, in order

What the appeal decides

If the sheriff grants the appeal, the minimal asset modifications continue. If it is refused, abandoned or withdrawn, they cease.

Fourteen days is not long. Get the notice to your money adviser the day it arrives.

Nothing pauses while you decide

The six-month clock in section 140 keeps running until the modifications actually cease, which how long a MAP lasts covers.

Variation and conversion are different mechanisms. Section 95 lets the trustee vary or quash a contribution order following a change of circumstances, using the common financial tool.

Which one applies is not your choice

Varying an order changes the figure inside the case. Ending the Schedule 1 modifications changes the kind of case you are in.

Both are decisions for AiB on your facts. That is another reason to put your position in writing early rather than waiting to be asked.

If a contribution does become payable

Section 91(2) sets the payment period at 48 months beginning with the date of the first payment, unless a shorter or longer period is determined.

Payments do not stop at discharge. What a debtor contribution order is sets out how one is calculated and collected.

The payment break is narrower than people think

A payment break of up to six months is possible, but it is not available on request. Section 96 requires your disposable income to have fallen by at least half, because of one of seven listed changes in your circumstances, and the decision is still a discretionary one.

Section 96 also adds the break to the payment period rather than shortening it, so the obligation is deferred rather than reduced.

The automatic discharge goes. Section 138(2) lets AiB discharge you at any time after the date which is 12 months after the date sequestration was awarded.

The clock does not restart, it disappears

The twelve months runs from the original award rather than from the conversion. A case converted at month five faces a discretionary decision at month twelve, not at month seventeen.

The bigger change is the word. Is discharged becomes may discharge.

Everything that comes back

Every consequence is set out at whether a MAP can be transferred to full administration, including what AiB says about an additional administration charge.

What does not change

The debts you owed at the date of sequestration remain the debts in the case. Conversion changes how the estate is administered, not what you owed when it started.

What to do the week your income goes up

Tell your money adviser and AiB in writing, and keep the evidence. Do not spend money you have just received until you know whose it is.

Concealment is the one route that makes things markedly worse, and it can lead to a bankruptcy restrictions order. The conditions that follow discharge are at which restrictions still apply after a MAP ends.