The volumes are close. In 2025-26 the Accountant in Bankruptcy approved 5,288 Debt Payment Programmes, and protected trust deeds fell by 5.6 per cent to 4,644.

One is advertised heavily and the other is not, because no commercial firm profits from selling you the scheme. Hold that in mind while reading any comparison, including this one and our trust deed page.

One repays and one distributes. A Debt Payment Programme repays what you owe in full over an agreed period, and a trust deed conveys your estate to a trustee who pays creditors whatever your contributions and assets produce.

The scheme is not insolvency

A Debt Payment Programme is not an insolvency solution. You repay the debt in full, and what changes is the pressure rather than the balance.

You do not have to be insolvent to use it, and nothing is written off except the interest and charges frozen on application. Whether the scheme writes anything off deals with that in full.

A trust deed works from the other direction

It is granted under Part 14 of the Bankruptcy (Scotland) Act 2016, and section 167(1) requires the deed to convey your estate to the trustee for your creditors. Granting one is itself an act of apparent insolvency.

The trustee owes duties to creditors as a body. That is a different thing from being your adviser, and it is worth understanding before you sign.

On legal status, minimum debt, length, what creditors receive and what happens to anything you acquire later. Those five decide most cases.

Side by side

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.

There is no minimum debt and no maximum. A programme may be approved where it provides for the payment of one or more debts, so a single debt is enough.

How long a Debt Payment Programme lasts and how long a trust deed lasts deal with duration separately.

The one figure worth quoting

The median debt in a Debt Payment Programme was £16,200 in 2025-26, down 4.5 per cent on the year before. That is a median rather than an average, because the spread is skewed.

Differently, and this is where most comparison pages go wrong. The scheme asks whether enough creditors have consented; a trust deed asks whether enough have objected.

The two tests

That is the opposite of how it is usually described. The test is whether enough creditors object, not whether enough approve, and a creditor who never replies is counted as having accepted.

Section 170(2) of the 2016 Act deems creditors to have acceded unless the trustee receives a written objection within the relevant period, and section 193 fixes that period at five weeks.

Nine tenths is not automatic approval

The nine tenths figure was substituted by SSI 2019/315, in force 4 November 2019, and it is by value rather than by number.

Reaching nine tenths does not end the matter. Regulation 24(1) is subject to regulation 24(1A), in force since 1 April 2015, so a programme for an individual may only be approved in accordance with the Common Financial Tool.

Where the threshold is not reached the application does not fail, because the DAS Administrator must approve a programme that is fair and reasonable. Whether all your creditors have to agree follows that through.

An approved Debt Payment Programme, in most cases. Approval recalls an arrestment already running, while a trust deed does nothing until the date of protection.

The scheme

On approval, section 4(2) of the Debt Arrangement and Attachment (Scotland) Act 2002 makes it incompetent to serve a charge for payment or to commence or execute diligence, and approval recalls any arrestment of your income or property.

Since 29 October 2018 the continuing money adviser sends that notice, or the DAS Administrator where there is no continuing money adviser.

The trust deed

Section 173 ends an earnings arrestment on the date of protection, automatically and with no application to any court.

The trigger is protection, not signature, and what happens between signing and protection sets out the weeks in between. Whether a trust deed stops a wage arrestment covers the timing in detail.

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.

Money already taken

Deductions made before either solution takes effect are credited against the debt rather than refunded. What happens to money already taken covers that, and it is worth asking for a written balance either way.

Neither charges you a fee on top of your monthly payment. What differs is where the fee comes from and what that does to the outcome.

The scheme

The fee comes out of what is distributed to creditors rather than being added to your debt. Your creditors fund the scheme out of what they receive.

The 20 per cent distributor fee and the 2 per cent administrator fee both come out of creditor distributions, so the debt is still repaid in full. What the scheme costs sets out the mechanism.

The trust deed

Section 183(1) is an exhaustive list, and the word it turns on is only. A trustee may be remunerated only by a fixed fee, a percentage of the estate realised, and outlays.

Because fees are paid from the same pot as dividends, a small contribution over the minimum term can leave little for creditors once fees are met. How much a trust deed costs goes through it, and the guidance for trustees covers the dividend threshold.

Where a trust deed can be refused as too generous to creditors

Section 168(4) requires that, for an individual, contributions across the payment period total less than the total debt including interest at the date of granting.

So a deed cannot be registered where the projected contributions would repay everything. If you can pay in full, the scheme is the tool built for that position.

Broadly the same ones, with different mechanics. Both take credit cards, loans, overdrafts and arrears, and neither covers your ongoing bills.

In and out

Discharge from a trust deed does not release court fines, penalties, compensation and forfeiture orders, liabilities from fraud or secured debts, under section 184(6), and student loans separately under section 185. Which debts cannot go into a trust deed and which debts can go into a programme deal with each list.

One rule that closes a door

You cannot apply for a Debt Payment Programme while you are a party to a protected trust deed, under regulation 21(2)(b). The bar attaches to protection rather than to signing.

A trust deed does not become protected on the day you grant it, and nothing we can rely on sets out where you stand in the weeks in between. Ask a money adviser before you sign either.

Some grounds are automatic. Sequestration, a protected trust deed and the death of the debtor all end a programme without a decision to make.

Ask whether you can repay the balance itself over a period you can live with. If you can, the scheme keeps you out of insolvency, and if you plainly cannot, a trust deed becomes worth discussing.

Points that push towards the scheme

• Your debt is modest enough that full repayment is realistic.
• You work in a role where insolvency is relevant to a fitness assessment.
• You own a home with equity you want kept out of a trustee’s hands.
• You expect an inheritance or other windfall in the next four years.

Points that push towards a trust deed

• Your debts are large relative to your income and full repayment would take a very long time.
• You owe at least £5,000 and have surplus income after reasonable expenditure.
• You accept a public insolvency record and at least four years of contributions.

Two more comparisons before you decide

A trust deed is not the only insolvency route. A trust deed against sequestration and a trust deed against Minimal Asset Process bankruptcy cover the other two.

Nobody has to pay a provider to work this out, and whether trust deed providers are regulated explains who is accountable for what if you do.