Scots law treats those deductions as payments towards the debt rather than as money held on account while your position is sorted out. Either way the balance falls by what was taken.

There is one situation that works differently, and it has nothing to do with how the arrestment ended. How quickly a wage arrestment can be stopped covers the dates, and this guide covers the money.

No. Sums your employer has paid over have reduced what you owe, and ending the arrestment does not reverse them.

What being credited actually means

Every deduction that reached the creditor came off the sum recoverable under the arrestment. The debt is smaller by exactly that amount.

Section 47(2) of the Debtors (Scotland) Act 1987 keeps an arrestment running until the debt is paid or otherwise extinguished, the employment ends, or it is recalled or abandoned. Nothing in it unwinds payments already made.

Sequestration and a protected trust deed, in terms

On the date of sequestration an existing earnings arrestment ceases to have effect under section 72(2), and on the date a trust deed is protected the same happens under section 173 of the Bankruptcy (Scotland) Act 2016.

Money deducted before that date is not returned. It is credited against the debt, and whether bankruptcy stops a wage arrestment covers what else changes on that date.

A Debt Arrangement Scheme, hedged

Money deducted before a Debt Payment Programme takes effect is credited against the debt and is not usually refunded, so check the position with the creditor. Whether a Debt Arrangement Scheme stops a wage arrestment covers what approval does to diligence.

They stay where they are. The rule that strips a creditor of any advantage gained from diligence shortly before sequestration expressly does not apply to earnings arrestments.

The 60-day equalisation rule

Section 24(6) of the 2016 Act provides that no arrestment, money attachment, interim attachment or attachment executed within the 60 days before the date of sequestration, or afterwards, creates a preference.

That is how a trustee stops one creditor jumping the queue on the eve of bankruptcy. Funds caught by a bank arrestment in that window pass to the trustee.

Why wage deductions sit outside it

Section 24(9) takes earnings arrestments, current maintenance arrestments, conjoined arrestment orders and deductions under the Child Support Act 1991 out of that rule. So a wage deduction in the run-up is not clawed back into the estate.

The contrast with a bank arrestment is sharp, and what a bank arrestment is sets out how that diligence works.

Money held by the sheriff clerk under a conjoined order

Section 72(3) of the 1987 Act provides that sums already paid by the employer to the sheriff clerk under a conjoined arrestment order before the date of sequestration are still disbursed. What a conjoined arrestment order is explains who holds the money.

The date changes, and there is one route the law does not clearly settle. What is consistent is that deductions already paid over reduce the balance rather than coming back.

Every route and what happens to the money

The row that is deliberately open

Where a sheriff makes a Time to Pay Order the sheriff must recall an existing earnings arrestment under section 9(2)(a). What happens to sums already deducted is a question for a money adviser or the sheriff clerk on your own facts.

It is also not settled whether an earnings arrestment on its own makes an application competent. Ask before you rely on the route.

That is a different question from where the debt money went. A wrong figure is a dispute about how the arrestment is being operated, and section 50(3) of the 1987 Act is the route for it.

Check the input before the band

The tables are applied to net earnings, which section 73(1) defines as pay after income tax, National Insurance primary class 1 contributions, pension scheme contributions and a priority child maintenance deduction from earnings order. What counts as net earnings sets out the closed list.

Net monthly earnings of £2,200.00 produce £252.50 under the tables substituted by the Diligence against Earnings (Variation) (Scotland) Regulations 2024, in force since 6 April 2025.

Ask payroll in writing first

• Which net earnings figure the table was applied to.
• Which of the weekly, monthly or daily tables was used.
• The date each deduction was paid over to the creditor.

A few pence of difference can be rounding, because calculations run to two decimal places of a penny and round to the nearest whole penny. A larger gap is worth pursuing.

Where section 50 goes next

Section 50(1) covers a declarator that the arrestment is invalid or has ceased to have effect, and section 50(3) covers a dispute about its operation. Challenging a wage arrestment you think is wrong sets out what each application is for.

Neither limb carries an affordability ground, and a sheriff cannot reduce a Schedule 2 deduction because you cannot afford it. An unduly harsh application explains why that test reaches funds rather than wages.

To the creditor, and for council tax it is normally applied to the oldest year of arrears first unless you say otherwise. Fees and the 10% statutory addition sit inside that balance rather than beside it.

Council tax and which year got paid

Payments are normally allocated to the oldest year of arrears first unless you specify otherwise. Say in writing which year a payment is for, and how you set up a council tax payment arrangement covers putting that in an offer.

The 10% and the officer’s expenses

A 10% statutory addition goes on the outstanding council tax when the summary warrant is granted, which the 10% summary warrant penalty covers in full.

For an earnings arrestment, the expenses of the charge and of serving the schedule come out of what is taken from your wages under section 93(1) of the 1987 Act. Whether sheriff officer fees are added to your balance sets out how that works.

Why the balance can look wrong

Payroll pays deductions over as soon as is reasonably practicable, so the creditor’s figure can lag your payslips by a pay period. Why a wage arrestment takes more than you expected covers the other reasons the two numbers differ.

Get one figure from payroll and one from the creditor, then compare them against your own payslips. Ask for the closing position in writing.

The six things to ask for

Do the arithmetic yourself

Add up the deductions on your own payslips and set the total against the creditor’s opening balance. The difference should be the closing figure you were given.

Where it is not, ask for a dated breakdown rather than a single number. A deduction paid over after the statement was produced will not appear on it.

Keep the paperwork

Written confirmation that the arrestment has ended is what you send payroll if a deduction appears again. Keep the payslips alongside it.

If the deduction does restart without a fresh schedule, that is a section 50(1) question. Whether a wage arrestment can be stopped once it has started covers what a valid arrestment needs behind it.

Take free money advice and look at the statutory routes, because several of them end an arrestment by operation of law rather than by agreement.

The routes that bite on the arrestment

An approved Debt Payment Programme under the Debt Arrangement Scheme stops an existing earnings arrestment and freezes interest, fees and charges. Council tax arrears can go in, and the current year’s bill cannot.

Sequestration bites on the date of sequestration and a protected trust deed on the date of protection, both of which are run through the Accountant in Bankruptcy.

A statutory moratorium is the exception. 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.

Asking the creditor directly

The creditor can recall or abandon an arrestment, and for council tax the creditor is the council. Whether you can ask the council to recall a wage arrestment covers how to put that request.

Clearing the whole balance also ends it under section 47(2), and whether paying a lump sum ends a wage arrestment early covers what the balance includes. Guidance on debt and diligence sits on mygov.scot.