Diligence against earnings – Information for Scots in debt

Diligence against earnings is a collective term for the ways creditors can deduct money directly from your salary in order to enforce the payment of a debt. The three methods are: earnings arrestment, current maintenance arrestment and conjoined arrestment orders.

What is an Earnings Arrestment?

Earnings Arrestment (EA) – This is the most common type of arrestment order in Scotland. Earnings arrestment is used to make a deduction from your earnings for enforcement of a single debt. The deduction to be made from your employment earnings is calculated according to a set of tables that recover a percentage of the debt according to the level of earnings in the pay period. Earnings arrestment is a serious step for a lender to take and will only be considered once all other avenues to obtain repayment have been exhausted. An earnings arrestment order will not come out of the blue; rather this will be the final step in a long process which involves the lender being granted a court order. Before this can happen, a Charge for Payment (this is a final notice to pay which gives you 14 days to settle the outstanding debt in full), must have been issued and subsequently expired.

The only exception to this is where the debt is being pursued by a Fines Enforcement Officer for an unpaid court fine; in this instance no Charge for Payment is required and your earnings can be arrested automatically.

The amount that can be taken from your wages hinges on how much (and how often) you’re paid. There is a minimum amount you will be allowed to earn before a percentage can be taken, which currently stands at £494.01 per month or £113.68 per week. The deductions from your pay packet will continue until the debt is paid in full.