It feels as though halving the debt should halve the deduction. The deduction comes from a statutory table applied to your earnings rather than from the size of the balance.

Here is what the balance includes, how to get a reliable figure, and what a part payment does and does not do. How quickly a wage arrestment can be stopped covers the other routes and their dates.

More than the arrears you remember. The 10% statutory addition and the sheriff officer’s expenses sit inside the sum recoverable rather than beside it.

What the balance is made of

The 10% on council tax

A 10% statutory addition goes on the outstanding council tax when the summary warrant is granted. The 10% summary warrant penalty covers how it is calculated.

The officer’s expenses

For an earnings arrestment, section 93(1) of the Debtors (Scotland) Act 1987 takes the expenses of the charge and of serving the schedule out of what is recovered from your wages, and they cannot be pursued separately.

So they are already inside the figure a lump sum has to reach. Whether sheriff officer fees are added to your wage arrestment balance sets out how the scale works.

Ask the creditor, or the sheriff officer firm acting for it, for a written settlement figure with the date it was calculated. Do not work it out from your own arithmetic.

What to ask for

• The total sum recoverable under the arrestment as at a stated date.
• A breakdown showing the arrears, the statutory addition and the expenses.
• The total deducted from your wages so far and the date of the last payment received.
• Which debt and which years the arrestment covers.
• Where to send the payment and what reference to use.

The figure moves each pay day

Every deduction reduces the balance, and payroll pays money over as soon as is reasonably practicable, so the creditor’s figure can lag your payslips. What happens to money already taken covers reconciling the two.

Ask how long the figure holds good for and get the answer in writing. Paying an out of date figure leaves a small balance behind and the arrestment running.

Send the money to the right place

The payment goes to the creditor or the sheriff officer acting for it, not to your employer. Payroll operates the schedule and has no part in settling the debt.

No. The deduction is set by applying the Schedule 2 tables to your net earnings for that pay period, and the size of the outstanding balance is not part of that calculation.

The same pay, four different balances

The figures come from the tables substituted into Schedule 2 by the Diligence against Earnings (Variation) (Scotland) Regulations 2024, in force since 6 April 2025.

What a part payment does do

It shortens the arrestment. Fewer pay days are needed to reach zero, and less is paid in total if interest or further expenses would otherwise accrue.

It also cuts the number of periods where a rise in earnings pushes you into a higher band. How much they can take from your wages sets out every band and threshold.

Why the table is built this way

Schedule 2 works on the pay period in front of it. The tables are indexed by net earnings for that period rather than by what you still owe.

That is the whole reason a half payment does not buy a half deduction. It is also why the only payment that changes this month’s figure is the one that clears the lot.

A nil period is not a payment

Where net earnings for the period fall below the protected threshold of £750.00 a month or £172.61 a week, the figure for that period is nil. Nothing goes towards the balance and the arrestment simply keeps running.

Where the deduction does change

Net monthly earnings of £1,600.00 produce £132.50 rather than £232.50. The figure moves with your pay, not with your balance, which why a wage arrestment takes more than you expected explains.

The arrestment ends under section 47(2), because the debt recoverable has been paid. The deduction then stops at the next available payroll run once payroll has the instruction, so ask which pay period it reached in time for.

The two dates are not the same date

The legal date is the day the balance reaches zero. The pay date is whichever run your employer next processes after being instructed.

A payment made days before pay day may not stop that pay day’s deduction. Ask payroll which period the instruction reached in time for.

Get the confirmation in writing

• Written confirmation from the creditor that the debt is paid in full.
• Written confirmation that the arrestment has been recalled or has ended.
• A final statement showing everything received and the date of each payment.

That paperwork is what you send payroll if a deduction appears again. Keep it with your payslips.

If a deduction comes out anyway

It is also worth checking that the arrestment took effect properly in the first place. Section 47(3) means it does not take effect unless the creditor gave you a debt advice and information package no earlier than 12 weeks before the schedule was served.

Section 50(1) of the 1987 Act allows an application for declarator that an arrestment has ceased to have effect, and section 50(3) covers a dispute about its operation, which challenging a wage arrestment you think is wrong sets out.

You can put the offer. Whether to accept less than the full sum is the creditor’s decision, so get any agreement in writing before the money leaves your account.

Putting the offer properly

Negotiating a payment arrangement instead of a wage arrestment covers how an offer is built, and how you set up a council tax payment arrangement covers the council tax version.

Our council tax debt advice page covers making the approach, and free money advice is available to help you put the offer together.

Get the terms nailed down first

• That the sum offered is accepted in full and final settlement of that debt.
• That the earnings arrestment will be recalled, and from when.
• What happens to the current year’s council tax, which is a separate liability.

An agreement to accept a payment is not the same as an agreement to recall the arrestment. Ask for both in the same letter.

If you owe more than one creditor

Clearing one debt does not touch another, and only one diligence against earnings can operate against the same employment at a time. A second ordinary creditor has to apply for a conjoined arrestment order, administered by the sheriff clerk.

Paying one creditor a lump sum while others are unpaid is worth taking advice on first. Whether you can have more than one wage arrestment at the same time covers the combinations.

Possibly, and particularly where the money is not spare. Several statutory routes end an existing arrestment without you clearing the balance.

The routes that end it by operation of law

An approved Debt Payment Programme under the Debt Arrangement Scheme stops an existing earnings arrestment and freezes interest, fees and charges. Sequestration ends one on the date of sequestration, and a protected trust deed on the date of protection.

All of them run through the Accountant in Bankruptcy, and whether a wage arrestment can be stopped once it has started runs through each in order.

The court route

Where the sheriff makes a Time to Pay Order, section 9(2)(a) requires recall of any existing earnings arrestment. The debt outstanding must be £25,000 or less excluding interest, and whether an earnings arrestment alone makes an application competent is not settled, so ask a money adviser or the sheriff clerk.

The one that does not help here

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.

Whether a statutory moratorium stops a wage arrestment covers what it does block, and guidance on debt and diligence sits on mygov.scot.

Whether you need it more than the creditor does. A lump sum spent on one debt is not available for rent, energy or the current year’s council tax.

The questions worth answering first

• Is this money already earmarked for a priority bill or a deposit.
• Would the same sum go further inside a statutory solution.
• Are there other debts that will still be there afterwards.
• Is the settlement figure in writing and dated.

Council tax and which year gets paid

Payments are normally allocated to the oldest year of arrears first unless you specify otherwise. Say in writing which year the payment is for.

Where to get it checked

Citizens Advice Scotland, StepChange, Money Advice Scotland and National Debtline are free. Free debt advice in Scotland lists them, and taking the settlement figure to one of them costs nothing.