It also replaces what was coming off before. An existing wage arrestment stops by law, and one assessed payment takes the place of it.

Here is how the figure is set, where the four years actually start, and when a contribution can be taken through payroll. The seven types of wage arrestment in Scotland puts a contribution order beside the deductions it displaces.

Through the common financial tool, which section 89 of the 2016 Act empowers Scottish Ministers to specify. It measures your income against your reasonable living costs, and where there is no surplus the contribution can be nil.

What the tool does

Published figures for reasonable expenditure are compared with what you actually spend, and the lower of the two is used. Your whole surplus above that figure is the contribution.

There is no statutory percentage, because the assessment produces the amount directly. Expenditure above the published figures can be allowed where it is reasonable, and you are allowed to keep a contingency allowance.

When the contribution is nil

Where your income comes solely from social security benefits and tax credits, no contribution is due. A nil order is still an order, and the case still runs.

What the assessment has to allow for

• Reasonable expenditure of not less than any income you receive by way of a guaranteed minimum pension.
• Aliment, and any periodical allowance to a former spouse or civil partner.
• Child support maintenance.

Money advice is mandatory before a debtor application, so the assessment is not something you face alone. What sequestration in Scotland involves covers the application itself.

The sections it all sits in

Part 6 of the Bankruptcy (Scotland) Act 2016 holds all of it, and the Accountant in Bankruptcy administers it.

A contribution is worked out from your outgoings. An earnings arrestment is worked out from statutory tables that take no account of them at all.

The two calculations side by side

Why the arrestment figure cannot be argued down

Section 50 of the Debtors (Scotland) Act 1987 is the only review power over an earnings arrestment, and it covers validity and disputes about how the arrestment operates.

It carries no affordability ground, and a sheriff cannot reduce a Schedule 2 deduction because you cannot afford it. Which type of arrestment takes priority if you have several covers what does and does not move when more than one is running.

So the comparison is about mechanism, not price

Neither figure is negotiated. One is set by tables and the other by an assessment, and which of them suits you is a question for a money adviser on your own numbers.

48 months by default, and section 91 runs that period from the date of the first payment rather than from the date of sequestration. Discharge does not bring it to an end.

Where the clock starts, and why it matters

The period begins with the date of the first payment. A gap between the award and the first payment shifts the whole four years back rather than shortening them.

A shorter period can be set where the estate would meet all the debts in full. A longer one can be set where payments have been missed, or by agreement between you and the trustee.

Discharge and the contribution are separate events

Under section 93 the requirement to pay applies whether or not you have been discharged. Discharge deals with the debts, while the order deals with the money you were assessed as able to pay, and what sequestration involves covers the discharge timetable.

In a full administration the Accountant in Bankruptcy may discharge you at any time after the date 12 months from the award. The Minimal Asset Process works differently and discharge comes six months after the award.

The payment break

Section 96 allows a payment break of not more than six months, during which payments are deferred. Only one application can be made per debtor, so it is worth advice before you use it.

Yes. Under section 72(2) of the Debtors (Scotland) Act 1987 an existing earnings arrestment, current maintenance arrestment or conjoined arrestment order ceases to have effect on the date of sequestration.

It happens without an application

It works by operation of law, so there is no separate application and no hearing. Whether bankruptcy stops a wage arrestment in Scotland covers the point in full, and a current maintenance arrestment is named in the same subsection.

The Minimal Asset Process has the same effect, because it is a form of sequestration. The date of sequestration is the date that matters in both.

What creditors cannot do afterwards

Section 72(4) stops creditors executing a new earnings arrestment or obtaining a conjoined arrestment order for debts claimable in the sequestration. Section 72(3) leaves sums already paid to the sheriff clerk under a conjoined order to be disbursed.

Money already taken

Deductions made before the date of sequestration are credited against what you owed rather than returned. What happens to money already taken when a wage arrestment stops sets out the position for each route.

If a deduction comes off after that date, raise it with payroll and with your trustee straight away. Keep the payslip that shows it.

It can, under section 94, but only where you have failed to comply with the order and have failed to pay for two payment intervals. Contributions are otherwise paid over directly.

What the trustee can instruct

The trustee may instruct your employer, or another person paying you income, to deduct specified amounts and pay them over. Payment to the trustee discharges that person’s liability to you to the same extent.

The instructions have their own prescribed forms: Form 19 where you set the deduction up yourself, Form 20 for a trustee instruction under section 94, and Form 21 for a variation.

What it costs the employer, and what happens if they ignore it

The employer or other payer may charge a fee equivalent to the charge under section 71 of the Debtors (Scotland) Act 1987 and take it from the balance due to you. An employer who without good cause fails to pay is liable to pay the trustee the amount that should have been paid.

Who at work needs to know

Only the people who process pay need to be involved. There is no law allowing an employer to dismiss someone over a wage deduction of this kind, and whether your employer can sack you for having a wage arrestment covers where the protection ends.

Dismissal on that basis alone would be exposed to an unfair dismissal claim for an employee with the required service. Whether your colleagues will find out covers who sees what.

Tell the Accountant in Bankruptcy or your trustee as soon as they do. Section 95 lets the trustee vary or quash the order on a change of circumstances, and the duty to report runs in both directions.

What counts as a change

Job loss, reduced hours, a new child, a rent increase or a health problem all change what is reasonably available. So does a pay rise.

If you disagree with the figure

Section 92 provides for review of, and appeal against, the order itself. Section 97 does the same for a decision on a payment break.

Those are the routes that reach the amount. Non-payment is a different matter, and the Accountant in Bankruptcy’s notes for guidance set out categories in which discharge is deferred, including until the end of the payment period.

What the record looks like

Sequestration is a public process, recorded in the Register of Insolvencies, which the Accountant in Bankruptcy maintains. The entry is held until one year after the trustee’s discharge.

On a credit file, sequestration is recorded for six years from the date it begins. Whether a wage arrestment affects your credit score separates that from the position on council tax arrears, which are not reported to credit reference agencies.

All three can end an existing wage arrestment, but they act at different moments and for different reasons. The date each one bites on is the practical difference.

When each route acts on an arrestment

Sequestration acts on the date of sequestration under section 72(2), a protected trust deed on the date of protection under section 173, and a Debt Payment Programme on approval. How quickly a wage arrestment can be stopped sets every route against the provision that fixes its date.

Where a sheriff makes a time to pay order, section 9(2)(a) requires recall of any existing earnings arrestment. Whether an earnings arrestment on its own makes an application competent is not settled, so ask a money adviser or the sheriff clerk first.

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.

The gap between signing and protection

A protected trust deed acts on the date of protection rather than the date you sign, which leaves a real gap. What a protected trust deed is covers how protection is obtained, and whether a trust deed stops a wage arrestment covers the timing.

The scheme that is not an insolvency solution

The Debt Arrangement Scheme repays the debt in full and you do not need to be insolvent to use it. What the Debt Arrangement Scheme is sets out how a programme is approved.

There is no statutory maximum on the length of a Debt Payment Programme. The average programme runs around six years, on the Accountant in Bankruptcy’s statistics published on 22 July 2026.

Before you apply for anything

Get a full list of your debts, who they are owed to, and what is already being deducted. How you stop a wage arrestment in Scotland sets the routes out in order, and general guidance sits on mygov.scot.

The Mental Health Moratorium provided for in the Bankruptcy and Diligence (Scotland) Act 2024 is a separate protection for people receiving compulsory mental health treatment. It has not been commenced, so check the current position before relying on it.