Direct Earnings Attachments questions and answers

Employee has other Court orders against them

Courts can make orders that mean you must take money directly from your employee's earnings in a similar way to how we ask you to make deductions for a DEA. Your employee may have an Attachment of Earnings Order (England & Wales), Earnings Arrestment (Scotland) or a Deduction from Earnings Order (for Child Maintenance), for example.

The DEA can be imposed without a court order, but if your employee has any other deduction orders against them there are rules that tell you which money you should take first.

If your employee has one or more of the following in place, these will take priority over a DEA:

England and Wales

• Deduction from Earnings Order (DEO) from CMG
• Attachment of Earnings Order (AEO) for Maintenance or Fines
• Council Tax Attachment of Earnings Order (CTAEO)

Scotland

• Deduction of Earnings Order (DEO) from CMG
• Earnings Arrestment (EA)

Student Loans

A student loan repayment also takes priority over a DEA. This applies to both England and Wales and Scotland.

Once these priority orders have been taken into account in your calculation a DEA will then take priority in relation to other orders or notices in date order (in Scotland this will be the date they were received). The amount you can deduct will be subject to the available net earnings above the protected earnings limit of 60% of net earnings.

Employee thinks the amount they owe is wrong

If your employee thinks that the amount of money they owe is wrong, you should advise them to contact us on the telephone number at the top of the letter they received about the Direct Earnings Attachment.

This number is 01524 582799.

Consequence of paying the DWP rather than Lancaster City Council

Local Authorities can use the same regulations as the DWP.  However, it is very important that monies collected are sent to Lancaster City Council and not the DWP who have different account numbers and postal addresses.  Should this happen then it is your responsibility to ask the DWP to return the money to you and you must still make a payment to Lancaster City Council.

What if my employee does not earn enough for me to make a deduction?

If your employee's weekly or monthly earnings are below the threshold, (as per the earnings deduction in table A/B), you cannot make a DEA deduction but you must send us a schedule informing us of this.

You must continue to check if a DEA deduction is applicable each pay period until we tell you to stop, the amount to recover is no longer outstanding, or your employee leaves your employment.

If you need more information regarding DEAs, or help to operate a DEA, please ring telephone number 01772 906610.