The differences that matter are in what is protected, in whether hardship is a ground at all, and in what a statutory moratorium does to each. Those three are the spine of this comparison.

Here are the two instruments set against each other on those points. What a bank arrestment in Scotland is covers that instrument on its own, and the seven types of wage arrestment covers the wage side of the family.

A bank arrestment attaches funds you already hold, caught at the moment it is served. A wage arrestment attaches income you have not been paid yet, over and over.

The two instruments side by side

Why that difference drives everything else

One is a snapshot and the other is a standing instruction. A snapshot can be argued about afterwards, because the money is still sitting there while the argument happens.

A standing instruction produces a new deduction on every pay day instead. How a wage arrestment works in Scotland covers what payroll is actually told to do.

Where each schedule lands

A bank arrestment schedule goes to your bank and involves nobody at work. An earnings arrestment schedule goes to your employer, and what an earnings arrestment schedule is sets out what it instructs them to do.

A bank arrestment leaves the first £1,000 of the balance alone. A wage arrestment leaves a cash band of net earnings alone each pay period, and takes a banded percentage of everything above it.

The £1,000 is fixed on the face of the statute

The protected minimum balance sits in section 73F(3)(a) of the Debtors (Scotland) Act 1987. It was put there by section 22(2)(a) of the Coronavirus (Recovery and Reform) (Scotland) Act 2022, in force from 1 November 2022.

The same section repealed the old power to uprate the figure by regulations. So the £1,000 does not move with the earnings arrestment tables, and the lower figure that predates November 2022 is out of date.

The wage side protects a slice, not a sum

The nil bands are £750.00 a month, £172.61 a week and £24.66 a day, substituted into Schedule 2 by the Diligence against Earnings (Variation) (Scotland) Regulations 2024 and in force since 6 April 2025.

Above them there is no percentage cap, so monthly net earnings of £1,800.00 produce £172.50 for that month. How much they can take from your wages sets out every band.

So the two protections are not comparable amounts

One protects a stock of money once. The other protects a threshold of income repeatedly, and gives up a share of everything above it each time you are paid.

Against a bank arrestment, yes. Against a wage arrestment, no, and that asymmetry is the most important practical difference between the two.

The two routes compared

What the unduly harsh route does

Sections 73Q and 73R let a sheriff order the release of arrested funds where the arrestment is unduly harsh to you or a dependant, and section 73R(2) puts that in mandatory terms. What an unduly harsh application is and how you make one sets out the application in full.

Those sections apply where an arrestment attaches funds or moveable property. They do not apply to earnings.

What is available against wages, and what is not

Section 50 is the only review power over an earnings arrestment: section 50(1) for a declarator that it is invalid or has ceased to have effect, and section 50(3) for a dispute about how it is operating. Challenging a wage arrestment you think is wrong covers both.

Neither limb carries an affordability ground, so a sheriff cannot reduce a Schedule 2 deduction because it leaves you short. Which type of arrestment takes priority if you have several covers what changes when more than one deduction is running, and it is not the size of the deduction.

No. A moratorium stops arrested bank funds being released to a creditor, while it leaves a wage arrestment that was already running to carry on.

What a moratorium does to each

The wage side carve-out

Despite the prohibition on diligence in section 197(3)(b), section 197 of the Bankruptcy (Scotland) Act 2016 keeps it competent to execute an earnings arrestment, a current maintenance arrestment or a conjoined arrestment order that came into effect before the moratorium period began.

So the deductions keep coming off through the six months. Whether a statutory moratorium can stop a wage arrestment works through what that means before you apply.

The bank side is the opposite

A moratorium does stop arrested funds being released to the creditor under section 73J of the Debtors (Scotland) Act 1987, and the moratorium period is left out of the count for that clock.

A moratorium lasts six months and you get one per rolling 12 months. How a statutory moratorium protects you covers what else it reaches, and it does not stop a creditor obtaining a decree.

Yes. They are separate diligences against separate assets, so nothing stops a creditor using both for the same debt.

The single diligence rule is about earnings only

Only one diligence against earnings can operate against the same employment at a time, with a current maintenance arrestment as the recognised exception. That rule is about diligence against earnings.

A second ordinary creditor who wants a share of your wages has to apply for a conjoined arrestment order instead.

Where both running actually helps you

Under section 73R(3) the sheriff considering an unduly harsh application has regard to all the circumstances, including whether an earnings arrestment, current maintenance arrestment or conjoined arrestment order is already running.

If both are running, say so in the application. Section 73R(4) also treats a spouse, civil partner, cohabiting partner and children under 16 as dependants for that test.

A bank arrestment ends when the funds it caught are dealt with. A wage arrestment runs until the debt is paid or extinguished, the employment ends, or it is recalled or abandoned.

The clocks on the bank side

Arrested funds are released to the creditor 14 weeks after execution unless you sign a mandate earlier or lodge a notice of objection, and an objection has to be lodged within four weeks. What a bank arrestment in Scotland is covers those deadlines properly.

Benefits and tax credits should not be arrested where they can be clearly identified in the account. Identifying them may be something you have to raise yourself.

The clock on the wage side

Under section 47(2) an arrestment takes effect when the schedule is served on the employer and runs until the debt is paid or extinguished, the employment ends, or it is recalled or abandoned.

A nil pay period does not end it, because the arrestment carries on. What happens if you earn below the threshold covers what actually brings one to a close.

What insolvency does to each

An existing earnings arrestment, current maintenance arrestment or conjoined arrestment order ceases to have effect on the date of sequestration under section 72(2) of the 1987 Act. Whether bankruptcy stops a wage arrestment covers what replaces it.

A protected trust deed does the same on the date of protection, and both are registered with the Accountant in Bankruptcy.

Work to the deadlines first and the debt second. On the bank side the four-week objection window is the urgent part, and on the wage side the priority is a route that stops the deduction at source.

If it is your bank account

• Note the date of execution, because both clocks run from it.
• Check what was in the account and where each payment came from.
• Get advice inside the four weeks, and ask about the unduly harsh route as well as the objection.

If it is your wages

An approved Debt Payment Programme under the Debt Arrangement Scheme stops an existing earnings arrestment, freezes interest, fees and charges and blocks new diligence.

• Sequestration, including the Minimal Asset Process, ends it on the date of sequestration, and a protected trust deed on the date of protection.
• A time to pay order, where the debt outstanding is £25,000 or less excluding interest, obliges the sheriff to recall an existing earnings arrestment. It is not settled whether an earnings arrestment on its own opens the door to an application.

Ask a money adviser or the sheriff clerk whether one is competent on your facts. How you stop a wage arrestment in Scotland sets the routes out in order.

Money already taken either way

Money already collected is credited against the debt rather than refunded, so check the position with the creditor. What happens to money already taken when a wage arrestment stops covers each route, and guidance on debt and diligence sits on mygov.scot.