Earnings arrestments, current maintenance arrestments and conjoined arrestment orders are means through which creditors can enforce the payment of debts due to them. Collectively these processes are known as 'diligence against earnings'.
Arrestment schedules and conjoined arrestment orders are served on a debtor's employer and instruct the deduction of money from a person's earnings and for the amount deducted to be paid to the creditor.
Part 9 of the 2007 Act introduced changes on 1 April 2008 to the Debtors (Scotland) Act 1987 in respect of diligence against earnings.
The changes include:
- Where a debtor's wages are subject to both earnings arrestment and also current maintenance arrestment, those arrestments will rank equally when considering deductions from the debtor's earnings if the net earnings are not sufficient to allow full deduction of the amounts due under each. Previously an earnings arrestment took priority.
- A new section 49A is inserted into the Debtors (Scotland) Act 1987. It provides that any holiday pay which is paid with normal earnings will be treated separately for the purpose of calculating the amount to be deducted.
- There are a range of requirements for creditors and employers to provide information to each other and to the debtor.
- Wages of seamen, previously excluded from arrestment, are no longer exempt.
- Creditors have an obligation to provide the debtor with a Debt Advice and Information Package no earlier than 12 weeks before executing an arrestment of earnings.
The tables for calculating the amount that can be deducted from a debtor's earnings are found in Schedule 2 of the Debtors (Scotland) Act 1987. We intend to revise and simplify these tables and expect changes to be introduced from 6 April 2009. Further information will be made available as soon as possible.