In Scotland a creditor can recover a debt through an earnings arrestment, which makes your employer take a sum from every pay day. Enter your net pay and how often you're paid to see the deduction from the statutory tables, with or without a current maintenance arrestment.
Debtors (Scotland) Act 1987, Schedule 2
An earnings arrestment is one of the ways a debt is enforced in Scotland under Part 3 of the Debtors (Scotland) Act 1987, which deals with diligence against earnings. A creditor holding a decree or a summary warrant, such as a council collecting unpaid council tax, serves an earnings arrestment schedule on your employer. From then on your employer must deduct a sum from your net earnings every pay day and pass it to the creditor as soon as it reasonably can.
The arrestment stays in place until the debt is paid or otherwise extinguished, you stop working for that employer, or the creditor recalls or abandons it. Before it can take effect, the creditor must have given you a debt advice and information package no earlier than 12 weeks before the schedule is served. Only one earnings arrestment can be in effect against the same employer at a time.
The deduction depends only on your net pay and how often you're paid. The Diligence against Earnings (Variation) (Scotland) Regulations 2024 replaced the tables in Schedule 2 to the Debtors (Scotland) Act 1987 from 6 April 2025:
Swipe the table sideways to see every column.
| Net pay a week | Net pay a month | Net pay a day | Deduction |
|---|---|---|---|
| Up to £172.61 | Up to £750.00 | Up to £24.66 | Nothing |
| £172.62 to £345.22 | £750.01 to £1,500.00 | £24.67 to £49.32 | 15% of pay over the first limit, at least £2.30 a week, £10.00 a month or £0.33 a day |
| £345.23 to £575.37 | £1,500.01 to £2,500.00 | £49.33 to £82.19 | £25.89 a week, £112.50 a month or £3.70 a day, plus 20% of pay over £345.22, £1,500 or £49.32 |
| £575.38 to £863.06 | £2,500.01 to £3,750.00 | £82.20 to £123.29 | £71.92 a week, £312.50 a month or £10.27 a day, plus 25% of pay over £575.37, £2,500 or £82.19 |
| Over £863.06 | Over £3,750.00 | Over £123.29 | £143.84 a week, £625.00 a month or £20.55 a day, plus 50% of pay over £863.06, £3,750 or £123.29 |
Each percentage is worked to two decimal places of a penny and rounded to the nearest penny, with an exact half penny rounded down. If you're paid every 2 or 4 weeks, your pay is divided by the number of weeks, the weekly table applied and the result multiplied back. Pay at another regular interval uses the daily table for the number of days in it.
The policy note to the 2024 regulations explains the protected minimum: nothing is taken from monthly pay up to £750, weekly pay up to £172.61 or daily pay up to £24.66. The lowest band fell from 19% to 15%, and a new band was added for pay up to £2,500 a month.
The tables that took effect on 6 April 2025 are the latest set on legislation.gov.uk, and we found no later variation regulations when we checked on 26 September 2026, so they still apply in 2026/27. The policy note to the 2024 regulations says it is usual practice to uprate the tables every three years, and that the protected minimum and the bands would be looked at in a public consultation.
New tables don't automatically apply to an arrestment that was already running. They take effect for it once the creditor or you tell the employer in the prescribed form, although an employer can choose to use them sooner.
A current maintenance arrestment collects maintenance as it falls due under a maintenance order. The schedule states the maintenance as a daily rate: a monthly amount is multiplied by 12 and divided by 365, and a quarterly amount multiplied by 4 and divided by 365. On each pay day the employer deducts the smaller of two figures: the daily rate times the days since the last deduction, or your net pay above £24.66 a day for those days.
One earnings arrestment and one current maintenance arrestment can run at the same time. If your pay above the £24.66 a day protection isn't enough for both, section 58 of the 1987 Act shares it between them in proportion to the two deductions. Tick the box in the calculator to include one.
Earnings include wages and salary, fees, bonuses and commission, statutory sick pay and pensions, apart from those listed below. Net earnings are what's left after your employer deducts Income Tax, primary Class 1 National Insurance and pension contributions. Disability pensions and allowances, social security benefits, tax credits, a guaranteed minimum pension and a statutory redundancy payment don't count as earnings.
Each time your employer pays money to a creditor under an earnings arrestment or a current maintenance arrestment, it can charge you a fee of £1. It comes out of your pay after the deduction itself, so with both kinds of arrestment running the fee can be £2 a pay day.
Work out your net pay with the Scottish income tax calculator or the take-home pay calculator. The council tax calculator shows a yearly bill, and the child maintenance calculator estimates maintenance payments.
It depends on your net pay. Nothing is taken from monthly pay up to £750. Above that the deduction rises through bands of 15%, 20% and 25% to 50% of monthly pay over £3,750, on top of a fixed sum.
Since 6 April 2025, nothing is deducted from net pay up to £750 a month, £172.61 a week or £24.66 a day.
No new tables have been made since the ones that took effect on 6 April 2025, so those still apply in 2026/27. The tables are usually uprated every three years.
On net pay: your earnings after Income Tax, Class 1 National Insurance and pension contributions.
No. Only one earnings arrestment can be in effect against the same employer at a time. One earnings arrestment and one current maintenance arrestment can run together.
Yes. Your employer can charge £1 each time it pays money to a creditor under the arrestment.
