Attachment of Earnings Orders Explained

If someone owes you money under a County Court Judgment and they are employed, an Attachment of Earnings Order (AEO) is often the simplest way to get paid. The court tells the debtor's employer to take money directly from their wages each payday and pass it on to you through the court. No bailiff visit, no awkward letters, usually just a deduction appearing on the payslip.

It will not suit every case, and it has real limits, but for an ordinary employed debtor it tends to work where other methods stall.

When you can apply

You need a judgment debt (usually a CCJ) that the debtor has failed to pay. The debt normally needs to be at least £50 and the debtor must be in arrears. You apply to the County Court Money Claims Centre using form N337.

Form N337 is short. You give the case details, the amount still owed, and confirm the debtor is in default. A court fee applies; the current figure and the structure for remission are on GOV.UK. If you are on a low income or certain benefits you may be able to apply for help with fees using form EX160.

Once the court has the application, it sends the debtor form N56. This is a statement of means listing income, outgoings, dependants and other debts. They have eight days to return it. If they ignore it, the court can order them to attend a hearing. In theory a judge can commit them to prison for persistent failure to provide information, but this is very rare and hedged with judicial safeguards.

The court uses the N56 to work out two figures: the normal deduction rate (what comes off each payday) and the protected earnings rate (the amount the debtor needs to live on). The employer must never reduce take-home pay below the protected rate. If the debtor earns less than usual in a given week, through short hours or sickness, the deduction is reduced or skipped so the protected amount is preserved. Any shortfall can be made up from later wages. Both figures are set on the debtor's actual circumstances, so they vary from case to case.

The order going to the employer

Once the order is made, the court sends it to the employer with guidance on how to operate it. The employer has no choice about whether to comply. They must:

• Start deductions from the first payday after receiving the order, subject to a short administrative window
• Calculate the deduction based on attachable earnings, which includes wages, salary, overtime, bonuses and statutory sick pay, but excludes certain payments such as statutory maternity pay and most benefits
• Keep take-home pay at or above the protected earnings rate
• Pay the deducted amount to the court, which then forwards it to you
• Tell the court if the debtor leaves their employment

Employers can also take £1 from the debtor's wages for each deduction as an administrative charge. That does not come out of your money.

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Where AEOs do not work, and the alternatives

The order only bites on earnings from an employer. That rules out several common situations:

• Self-employed debtors. Sole traders and freelancers have no employer to serve, so no one is required to make the deduction.
• Company directors paid mainly in dividends. Dividends are not earnings. A director who draws a small PAYE salary and takes the rest as dividends can shelter most of their income from an attachment.
• People on benefits. Most benefits are not attachable through the court. For some debts, separate deductions can be arranged directly with the DWP under the Third Party Deductions scheme, for example for certain priority debts, but that is a different route and is not available to most civil judgment creditors.
• Unemployed debtors. No wages means no deduction.

In those cases the usual alternatives are a charging order against property, a third party debt order against a bank account, or enforcement through High Court Enforcement Officers. By contrast, an AEO tends to fit best when the debtor has a stable PAYE job and no other assets worth chasing, and has either stopped paying or stopped engaging with you. It is cheaper than sending enforcement agents, it does not depend on the debtor having savings, and deductions carry on automatically until the debt is cleared.

The trade-off is speed. The process from application to first deduction can take a few months, and the monthly amount may be modest if the debtor is on a low income.

If the debtor changes jobs

The order is tied to a specific employer. When the debtor leaves, the old employer must notify the court and stops deducting. The order effectively goes dormant.

You (or the debtor) can apply to redirect the order once the new employer is known, using an application on form N244. If you do not know where they have gone, you may need to apply for an order to obtain information, form N316, to try to find out. This is one of the practical weaknesses of the method: a debtor who moves jobs frequently, or drifts in and out of work, can make the order hard to keep running.

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Varying, suspending and consolidating

Either side can ask the court to change the amounts on form N244. A debtor whose circumstances have worsened, through reduced hours, new dependants or illness, can apply to lower the deduction or raise the protected earnings rate. A creditor who believes the deductions are too low, because the debtor's income has risen, can apply the same way.

A debtor can also apply for a suspended order. This sets the terms but holds off telling the employer as long as the debtor keeps paying voluntarily. Many debtors prefer this because it avoids their employer finding out about the debt.

If a debtor has more than one judgment debt being enforced by attachment, the court can make a consolidation order. One deduction comes off their wages and the court divides the money between the creditors in proportion to what they are owed. This saves employers administering multiple orders and gives the debtor one manageable figure coming off their pay. Either a creditor or the debtor can ask for consolidation once a second AEO is in place.

Before you apply

A short checklist worth running through:

• Do you know the debtor's current employer, including the correct legal name and address of the business?
• Is the debtor likely to stay with that employer for the foreseeable future, or do they move jobs often?
• Are they paid through PAYE, or largely through dividends, self-employment income or benefits?
• Is the judgment debt at least £50 and actually in arrears?
• Would a charging order or third party debt order get you paid faster, given what you know about the debtor's assets?

For a stable worker an AEO does its job quietly in the background. For someone who job-hops or whose income comes from outside PAYE, another enforcement route will usually serve you better.

Current court fees, remission thresholds and the forms (N337, N56, N244, N316, EX160) are all on GOV.UK.

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