How much can be taken from my wages for a debt?

An attachment of earnings order instructs your employer to deduct a set amount each pay day and pass it to the court, which forwards it to the creditor. Employers must comply or face a fine of up to £400, and the deduction appears clearly on the payslip.

The three routes, and how much each takes

• County court, for a CCJ. The creditor applies on form N337, with a court fee of £139. You are sent form N56 to set out income, outgoings and expenses, and the court fixes a normal deduction rate and a protected earnings rate — a floor below which your take-home pay cannot be pushed. Completing N56 carefully, using standard household expenditure figures, is the point at which the amount is actually decided.
• Magistrates' court, for council tax. Once the council has a liability order it can apply without a further hearing, and the deduction follows a fixed statutory table keyed to your gross earnings — from around 3% at the lower bands to around 17% at the highest. There is nothing to negotiate at the court.
• Magistrates' court, for fines. The court sets the rate from your means information and can vary it later.

Statutory maternity, paternity, adoption and sick pay are generally excluded from "earnings" for these purposes, as are bonuses agreed before the order was made.

Changing an order, and its limits

If your circumstances change — illness, redundancy, higher rent, a new dependant — apply on form N56 to vary a county court order; the fee for varying a judgment or suspending enforcement is £16 and can be waived. Council tax deductions cannot be varied that way, but councils will often agree a payment plan and stop the attachment if you propose something realistic. Fines can be varied at the magistrates' court on a means form.

Some things put the order out of reach entirely. Self-employed people cannot have an attachment of earnings — there is no employer to deduct — so creditors must use enforcement agents, a charging order or a third party debt order instead. If you are made redundant and claim benefits the order is paused, though separate rules allow direct deductions from benefits for certain debts. Where several orders exist, only the highest priority runs at a time — maintenance ahead of CCJs, CCJs ahead of fines — and a consolidated order can combine them.

Tell the court within 7 days if you change employer; failing to do so is a contempt. And when the debt is cleared, get written confirmation and apply to discharge the order, because it continues until it is formally ended.