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Record New Attachment

Use

An Attachment of Earnings Order is issued by a Court and will instruct an employer / contractor to deduct an outstanding debt from an employee via their wages. The employer / contractor is legally required to collect the stated amount. Deductions are always taken from the employee's attachable earnings. The employer / contractor must then pass the deductions on to the issuing court. An employer / contractor can deduct a £1 administration fee to cover its costs.

In this screen you can add new attachments details, If an Attachment to Earnings Order has been issued to the employee. Once entered, attachments will act as an automatically recurring item. Deductions will be made from the employees pay in any pay period run and updated after the Effective from date so long as the employees pay is above the protected earnings level for attachments.

Although the deduction is recurring it will only be made if the user ticks to select the employee concerned to do the payrun and then clicks on the Process Pay button. Attachments will only be taken after the tick is made. The user needs to remember to tick the employee if anything needs to be done. Recurring items will not run until the employee concerned in the particular period is ticked to run the payrun.

The rules governing the order in which AEOs can be deducted from an employee are complex. To make life easier for its users this service has incorporated these rules in its package. You simply enter the details of your employee's different AEOs and this service will ensure that they are deducted in the correct sequence in compliance with the above.

Order of deductions

The HM Revenue & Customs specifies the precise order in which employers / contractors should take AEO deductions from employees.

In summary, if an employee has more than one AEO, deductions must be taken in date order. However priority orders must be deducted before non-priority orders.

Orders made under the 1971 Act, CCAEO, CTAEO and DEO, issued after March 1993 have equal priority and are deducted in date order. Non-priority orders made under the 1971 Act are deducted after priority orders, in date order.

Where there are orders dated pre and post 31 March 1993 the order of priority is as follows:-

Priority orders under AEA 1981 and DEO's in date order.

Non priority orders under AEA 1971 in date order, after (a)

CCAEO dated pre 1 April 1993 and CCAEO dated after 31 March 1993, pre 1 April 1993 AEO's and CCAEO's must be cleared before any others of a later date can be paid.

Student loan deductions are made after any priority orders, whatever their date, but before non-priority orders. A CTAEO or CCAEO takes priority over Student Loan deductions. If an employer / contractor has to apply either of these orders, Student Loan deductions must not be made.

Path

Payrun > Payment Frequency (Weekly/Monthly/2 Weekly/4 Weekly/Quarterly/Annual/Bi-annual) > Deduction & Pension > Attachment Order > Add New Attachment

Fields Available

Fields marked with an asterisk (*) are mandatory.

Record New Attachment

• Order Type: From the drop down list, select the appropriate type of attachment order that has been issued for the employee.

There are 11 common AEOs: -

• CAO: A Conjoined Arrestment Order (Scotland)
• CMA: A Current Maintenance Arrestment to cover maintenance after a divorce/separation.
• CTAEO: A Council Tax Order.
• DEA: Direct Earnings Attachment (DEA) and deducting any money an employee owes the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) from their pay.
• DEA Higher Rate: Direct Earnings Attachment (DEA) and deducting any money an employee owes the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) from their pay.
• Deduction from Earnings Order (DEO): Child Support Make child maintenance deductions from an employee's pay
• Earnings Arrestment (EA): An earnings arrestment is precisely what it suggests it is the arrestment of sums of money payable by an employer to the defender. The rules for operating this form of diligence are as laid down in Part III of the Debtors (Scotland) Act 1987 and a summary of what constitutes earnings for the purposes of the Act is given at para 73(2).
• Maintenance - Priority AEO: The Child Maintenance Service can ask you to:
  • Give information about an employee.
  • Deduct child maintenance from an employee’s earnings.
  • Send an employee’s child maintenance payments to the Child Maintenance Service.
• Civil Debts - Non-Priority AEO: You have to make deductions from your employee’s wages if a court orders you to. This could be to pay off:
  • unpaid maintenance payments.
  • A county court judgment.
• Fines - Priority AEO (post 5 April 2004): The courts can fine you and ‘endorse’ your driving record with penalty points if you’re convicted of a motoring offence.
• Fines - Priority AEO (pre 5 April 2004: The courts can fine you and ‘endorse’ your driving record with penalty points if you’re convicted of a motoring offence.
• What debt included in your CAO? From the drop down list select the appropriate debt included in the employee CAO.
• Order Issued By: Enter here the name of the authority which issued the Attachment of Earnings Order to the employee.
• Order Reference: Enter in your own reference to help you identify the specific order.
• Other Reference: Enter here the other reference if any.
• Normal Deduction Rate: Enter here the normal amount to be deducted for the attachment. Please note that in the case of Post 92 CCAEO and CTAEO, the attachment value is taken as a percentage.
• Do you know the total debt amount of Attachment ? State whether the total debt amount of the attachment is known to you or not.
• Total Debt: Enter here the total sum of the attachment as specified in the court order.
• Protected Earnings: Enter here the minimum level of earnings that an employee must retain after a deduction is made. Where attachable earnings do not reach this figure, no deduction can be made.
• Effective From Date: Enter here the date on which the order was made. You can use the calendar button to enter the date.
• Stop Date: Enter here the date on which the order has to be stopped. You can use the calendar button to enter the date.
• Administrative Charge: To cover their administration costs employers / contractors can deduct an administration charge of £1 per order from the employee (50p in Scotland). The fee is charged per pay period for each attachment and must be taken from employee's net pay. Enter here your administration charge if appropriate.

Associated Tasks

• Back: If you wish to exit this screen without saving the changes, click on this button. You will be taken back to the Deduction & Pension screen.
• Save: If you are sure about all the entries and wish to continue, click on this button. You will be taken back to the Deduction & Pension screen, where all the details can be viewed.

Related Topics

Edit Attachment Order

Click here to view the demo to enter the attachment order.