There is no longer any minimum. The old lower threshold went on 6 February 2023, so a small debt you have no way of paying is not a barrier.

Here is how the total is worked out, what goes into it, and what the other seven conditions require alongside it. How a Minimal Asset Process works covers the route itself.

Your total debts must be no more than £25,000, under section 2(2)(b) of the Bankruptcy (Scotland) Act 2016.

It is a total, not a per-creditor figure

Seven creditors owed £4,000 each puts you over the line just as surely as one creditor owed £26,000. The test looks at everything you are liable for.

Interest already added to those debts forms part of the figure. That is on the face of section 2(2)(b), which speaks of the total amount of the debtor’s debts including interest.

In and out

The conditions are all in section 2 of the Bankruptcy (Scotland) Act 2016, and whether you are eligible works through the ones that sit alongside the debt figure.

Missing a debt off is a real risk

A forgotten catalogue balance or an old overdraft can move you over the ceiling. It can also leave a creditor outside a bankruptcy that was supposed to deal with it.

Bring everything to the appointment, including the debts you would rather not mention. Your adviser is working from your list, and the Accountant in Bankruptcy checks it afterwards.

Debts in one name

Only debts you are liable for go into your figure, including anything you are jointly liable for. Each person applies in their own right.

Yes, and the exclusion cuts both ways. Section 2(2A) was inserted with effect from 29 March 2021 by the Bankruptcy (Miscellaneous Amendments) (Scotland) Regulations 2021.

What it does

It provides that a loan made under the regulations to which section 73B of the Education (Scotland) Act 1980 applies is not to be regarded as a debt for the purposes of the £25,000 test.

So a large student loan does not shut you out of the Minimal Asset Process. That is the half everybody prints.

The half nobody prints

The same loan is not written off when the bankruptcy ends. National Debtline lists student loans among the debts you remain liable for after discharge.

It is worth knowing before you apply rather than after. Repayments continue on the usual terms once the case is over.

No. The old £1,500 floor was removed from section 2(2)(b)(i) by the Bankruptcy and Debt Arrangement Scheme (Miscellaneous Amendment) (Scotland) Regulations 2023 with effect from 6 February 2023, and no minimum has been prescribed since.

The provision still exists, with nothing in it

Section 2(2)(b)(i) still requires debts of not less than such amount as may be prescribed. Because no amount is prescribed, it has nothing to bite on.

The change mattered more than the number suggests. On a very low income, £900 of council tax arrears can be exactly as unpayable as £9,000.

Small debts are still real debts

The removal of the floor opened the route to people whose debts are modest and whose income leaves nothing over. Those are exactly the cases the process was built for.

The other routes do have minimums

Full administration sequestration has a minimum debt of £3,000 under section 2(8)(a). That figure is unrelated to the vehicle disregard, which happens to use the same number.

A protected trust deed has a minimum of its own, on a different provision again.

There is a statutory minimum. Section 164(3) of the Bankruptcy (Scotland) Act 2016 requires your total debts, including interest, to be not less than £5,000 at the date you grant the deed.

The Debt Arrangement Scheme has neither a minimum nor a maximum, which whether there is a minimum debt for the scheme sets out.

No. A Debt Relief Order is an England and Wales remedy with a different limit, a different decision maker and a different legal nature, and none of its figures transfer across the border.

The two side by side

The Debt Relief Order figures come from gov.uk’s guide to paying off your debts, and it is available only to people who have lived or worked in England and Wales.

Two figures that do not transfer

The asset limits are not comparable either. A Minimal Asset Process caps any single asset at £1,000, which the English remedy has no equivalent of.

Why the confusion is expensive

Someone in Scotland with £40,000 of debt reading Debt Relief Order content will believe they qualify for something. They do not, because there is no Scottish equivalent and the Scottish ceiling is £25,000.

The other trap runs the other way. A Debt Relief Order is not bankruptcy, while a Minimal Asset Process is, so the consequences are not comparable either.

The Minimal Asset Process is closed to you, but bankruptcy is not. Full administration sequestration has no debt ceiling, and a protected trust deed or the Debt Arrangement Scheme may fit better.

What the longer route costs

Discharge normally comes at a year rather than six months, the trustee can refuse it where you have not co-operated, and a contribution order can run for 48 months. The difference between the two routes sets that out in full.

Where the line actually falls

The Accountant in Bankruptcy’s guide for MAP debtors sets out the same conditions in its own words, and a money adviser will apply them to your figures on the day you sign.

The alternatives worth asking about

• Full administration sequestration, where the Accountant in Bankruptcy or an insolvency practitioner acts as trustee.
• A protected trust deed, which is a formal insolvency with a statutory minimum debt of £5,000.
• The Debt Arrangement Scheme, which freezes interest and charges and repays the debt in full.
• A payment arrangement with the creditor, where the sums are manageable over time.

Each has its own cost, and nobody should choose between them from a table on a website. A Debt Arrangement Scheme against a Minimal Asset Process and our Scottish debt solutions pages are a starting point for the conversation.

Seven more, and every one of them has to be met. Clearing the £25,000 on its own proves nothing.

The rest of section 2(2)

This is where most applications come unstuck. People check the debt figure, assume they qualify, then find that a car, a savings balance or a share in a property rules them out.

Two things that are not counted against you

A vehicle you reasonably require and which is worth no more than £3,000 is left out of the asset calculation altogether, under section 2(3)(b).

Basic household goods inside your home are outside the count too, because section 88 keeps them from vesting in the trustee. Keeping your car in a MAP covers the vehicle rule in detail.

Note that the £3,000 vehicle figure is a disregard from the asset tests. It has nothing to do with the £3,000 minimum debt on the full administration route.

An approved money adviser checks it before granting the certificate for sequestration, and the Accountant in Bankruptcy checks it again before awarding sequestration.

Being near the ceiling

Interest keeps accruing while paperwork is gathered, so a total sitting at £24,600 today may not sit there in three months. Tell your adviser, because it changes how quickly the application should go in, and how to apply sets out the order things happen.

The certificate for sequestration is valid for 30 days under regulation 10 of the Bankruptcy (Scotland) Regulations 2016. An application made after it expires fails on condition (f), whatever the debt total says.

If something is missing

Section 20 gives you 21 days to supply further information or evidence, and the Accountant in Bankruptcy may extend that period.

A refusal is not the end of it either. You can ask the Accountant in Bankruptcy for a review within 14 days, and appeal to the sheriff if the refusal is confirmed.

Keep a note of the date you signed

Both the debt total and the asset tests are measured at the date the application is made. That is the date your adviser will work back from if anything is queried later.

Council tax arrears, which are usually the biggest item

Arrears count towards the £25,000 in full. Councils recover them under a summary warrant, which is how sheriff officers come to arrest wages without a court hearing, and our council tax debt advice page covers that process.

Council tax for the year ahead is a separate matter and still has to be paid. Whether a MAP stops a wage arrestment deals with the deductions themselves.