Attachment Of Earnings Order
If you have a Court Order (CCJ) against a debt, and you’re failing to make payments, creditors look to enforce payment by an Attachment Of Earnings Order.
An Attachment Of Earnings will mean your employer will become aware of your financial problems.
You and your employer will each get an ‘attachment of earnings order’ (AEO) from the Court.
The order instructs your employer to make deductions from your wages. The employer pays the debt by sending the money to the Court.
When your creditor applies for the order, you’ll receive an N56 form from the Court. You’ll be required to supply information such as:-
- your name, address and number of dependents,
- your employer’s details,
- your income and expenditure,
- details of any other debts and court orders you may have,
You must supply the requested information.
You must return the completed form to the Court within eight days. It’s an offence to provide false or incomplete information. In time, failure to return the form will result in a summons to explain why. Eventually and could go to prison for contempt of court should you fail to comply.
Stopping an Attachment Of Earnings order.
You can request the order stops if it causes hardship, for example, if you wouldn’t be able to pay your bills; this is a ‘suspended attachment of earnings order’.
You’ll need to offer reasons why you think it should stop. For example, you can’t pay bills, or you may lose your job.
You should tell your creditor you’re applying for a suspended order and why. You should also tell them about any debt advice you’re getting.
If you’ve already talked to your creditor and they’ve agreed to let you pay back what you owe differently, you still should say this on the form. You should also tell the Court if you’re getting debt advice, so they know you’re trying to sort your debt out.
Once the Attachment Of Earnings order is granted:
The court order will tell your employer:-
- how much you owe
- if it’s a ‘priority order’ – if it does not say what it is, it’s a ‘non-priority order.’
- how much they have to take from their wages – called the ‘normal deduction rate’ (NDR)
- the minimum amount you still have to take home – called the ‘protected earnings rate’ (PER)
- how often to make payments (weekly or monthly)
A consolidated attachment of earnings order means one amount is deducted by your employer to cover all the CCJs and sent to the Court. The Court then divides the money up and sends the payments to all your creditors for you.