Arrestments in UK Payroll

Payroll administrators might need to withhold an employee’s pay due to orders from a court or other civil authorities. These withholdings are known as earning arrestments. Administrators can manage arrestments, such as attachment of earnings orders, in the Payroll > Arrestments screen of the People feature.

Arrestment orders can come from several sources, such as a Deduction from Earnings Order (DEO) from HM Courts and Tribunals Service, or a Direct Earnings Attachment (DEA) from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP). The types of arrestments vary on the debt in question. The following is a (non-comprehensive) list of several different arrestment types and the countries in the United Kingdom that issue them:

Partial list of arrestment types and the countries that issue them

Abbreviation	Description	Issuing Country
AEO	Attachment of Earnings Order – priority court ordered attachment that can include unpaid maintenance payments or a county court judgments	England and Wales
CAO	Conjoined Arrestment Order – priority court ordered arrestment where more than one creditor lodges an earnings arrestment	Scotland
CMA	Current Maintenance Arrestment - priority arrestment on earnings where the debtor is in arrears on at least one instalment of maintenance	Scotland
CTAEO	Council Tax Attachment of Earnings Order – priority court ordered attachment on unpaid Council Tax for England	England
CTAEOW	Council Tax Attachment of Earnings Order – priority court ordered attachment on unpaid Council Tax for Wales	Wales
DEA	Direct Earning Attachment – non-priority attachment for civil debts, such as benefits overpayments, issued by the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP)	England, Scotland, and Wales
DEO	Deduction from Earnings Order – priority attachment issued by Child Maintenance Group (CMG) or the Child Support Agency (CSA)	England, Scotland, and Wales
EA	Earnings Arrestment – priority arrestment issued by the court for, say, unpaid council tax; sometimes EAO, or Earnings Arrestment Order	Scotland
IPA	Income Payment Agreement – non-priority attachment issued by the High Court or County Court.	England and Wales
IPO	Income Payment Order – non-priority attachment issued by the High Court or County Court.	England and Wales
IDSN	Income Support Deduction Notice – non priority attachment issued by Job Centre Plus.	England, Scotland, and Wales

Direct Earning Attachments are also subject to two different deduction percentage rates – the Standard Rate and the Higher Rate. These rates are explained in the Direct Earnings Attachment: A Guide for Employers available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/direct-earnings-attachments-an-employers-guide.

Information about IPA and IPO arrestments is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/guide-to-bankruptcy.

Arrestments Types

There are two types of arrestments, or attachment or earnings, orders – priority and non-priority – and deductions are calculated for each differently:

Arrestment order types

Type of order	Used for	If you can’t make the full deduction
Priority	Maintenance orders or fines	Carry the unpaid difference over to the next pay period.
Non-priority	Civil debts	Don’t carry the unpaid difference over to the next pay period.

It's possible to have several orders deducting at the same time. In that case, priority orders are deducted first, in the order the employee received them. Next, non-priority orders are deducted, in the order that the employee received them. Deductions are taken from gross pay less PAYE income taxes, NI contributions, and pension contributions.

Adding and Editing Arrestments

Click Add in the Payroll > Arrestments screen of People to add an arrestment record. To edit an existing record, select it to expand the Wage Arrestments section.

The fields in the Wage Arrestments section are divided into four subsections: General Details, Order Details, Payee Details, and Balances.

Fields in the Wage Arrestments section

Field	Description
General Details Section
Effective From	The active date range for the arrestment
Effective To
Type	Available arrestment types (described in the table above).
Issuing Body	Authority that issued the arrestment, such as DWP, Magistrate’s Court, or High Court.
Active	Checkbox to indicate whether the arrestment is active or not.
Priority	Checkbox to indicate a priority arrestment; When cleared, the arrestment is considered non-priority.
Legal Entity	Legal entity that the application deducts the arrestment from.
Order Details Section
Reference Number	Arrestment reference number, or the employee's national insurance number.
Court Order Issued Date	Date that the order was issued.
Court Order Received Date	Date that the employer received the order.
Ordered Amount	Amount of deduction to be taken (if a fixed amount is specified in the arrestment).
Protected Earnings	Amount of protected allowances. If applicable, this amount is often 60% of the employee's net earnings.
Admin Fee	Allowable fee that the employer can charge for the administration of the arrestment. Note: This is set up in the Arrestment Admin Fee field in the Payroll section of the Properties tab in System Admin > Client Properties. For more information, contact your system administrator.
Initial Debt	Starting amount of the debt
Payee Details Section
Payee	Name of the payee. This drop-down list is searchable if payees are set up for your organization. See Third Party Payee Configuration.
Sort Code	Banking sort code, used by BACS in transfer of funds.
Account Number	Bank account number, used by BACS in transfer of funds.
Balances Section
Arrears	The value of the arrears for priority orders.
Deducted TD	Amount deducted to date.
Remaining	Amount remaining.

View or Hide Columns

You can configure the columns shown on the Arrestments screen and their order. The Type, Effective From, and Effective To columns are mandatory and you cannot remove them.

To change which columns are displayed:

1. Click View to open the Column Manager section.
2. Click Choose Columns.
3. Do any of the following:
   • To remove a column, move it from the Selected to Available list using the arrows.
   • To add a column, move it from the Available to Selected list using the arrows.
   • To reorder a column, select it and use the up and down arrows to change its position.
4. Click Select.
5. In the Column Manager section, click Apply.

You can save the different sets of columns that you configure with the Favourites drop-down list. To save a column set:

1. Follow the steps in the previous task to configure the columns.
2. In the Favourites drop-down list, select Save Favourite As.
3. Enter a name.
4. (Optional) To load the column set by default every time you open the screen, select the Load by Default checkbox.
5. Click Save.