Attachment of Earnings order – guidance for employers

The guidance on this page is for employers who have been sent an ‘Attachment of Earnings’ order from Bradford Council. This means that an employee has not paid their Council Tax and you, the employer, must now make deductions from the employee’s net earnings and pass these payments on to Bradford Council.

The legislation for ‘Attachment of Earnings’ orders can be found on the legislation.gov.uk website.

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How much should I deduct from my employee’s earnings?

The amount that you deduct can be found in the tables below:

• Table A: for employees paid weekly
• Table B: for employees paid monthly
• Table C: deductions based on daily earnings

Table A – for employees paid weekly

Table B – for employees paid monthly

Table C – deductions based on daily earnings

You should make a deduction against the total net earnings received by the employee. This is earnings after the deduction of:

• Income tax
• Primary Class I national insurance contributions
• Superannuation contributions and
• Any deduction with a higher priority

How to deal with advances and loans is covered below.

What are earnings?

Earnings are defined as sums payable by way of:

• Wages or salary (including any fees, bonus, commission, overtime pay or other emoluments payable in addition to wages or salary payable under a contract of service)
• Statutory sick pay

Earnings do not include:

• Sums payable by public departments of the Government of Northern Ireland or of a territory outside the United Kingdom
• Pay and allowances of members of the armed forces (other than that paid by an employer to a person as a special a member of a reserve force)
• Benefit or allowances payable under any enactment relating to social security (this includes statutory maternity pay, statutory paternity pay and statutory adoption pay)
• Tax credits
• Allowances payable in respect of disablement or disability; and
• Wages payable to a person as a seaman, other than as a seaman of a fishing boat.

How much should be deducted?

Once you have worked out your employee’s net earnings, you should use the deduction tables above to calculate how much should be deducted.

Working out the correct amount to deduct from net earnings will usually be straightforward. Find the earnings range the employee falls into in the first column of the deduction tables (weekly or monthly as appropriate) and apply the appropriate percentages deduction rate from the second column.

If you pay your employee at intervals of whole months or weeks, but not each week or month, for example fortnightly, then you should simply divide the payment by the number of weeks or months to which it applies, calculate the deduction as normal and then multiply the resulting amount by the number of weeks or months to arrive at the total deduction to be paid.

What if an employee is not paid in whole weeks or months?

If an employee is paid at regular intervals, but not at intervals of whole number of weeks or months, then net earnings should be divided by the number of days. The daily deductions table should then be used to work out the appropriate daily rate, which should then be multiplied by the number of days in the period.

What if more than one series of regular payments is made to an employee?

You may, for example, pay earnings to a salesperson on a weekly basis and pay them commission monthly. If this is the case, you should apply the appropriate table to work out the deduction for the series with the shortest interval between payments. This means that, if they are paid on a weekly basis but also receive a regular monthly sum, you should apply Table 1 to their weekly earnings. In addition, you should deduct 20% of the attachable earnings payable monthly.

How should advances for holiday pay be treated?

The amount to deduct is the aggregate of:

1. the amount that would have been deducted on the pay day if there had been no advance of pay; and
2. the amounts that would have been deducted if the amounts advanced had been paid on the normal pay day or days.

How should other loans be treated?

Loans made, for example, for the purchase of a season ticket or for helping with moving house, are not advances of pay and should not be counted as earnings.

The way that repayments of such loans are treated in calculating a deduction depends on the date that the order was made.

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How do I pay the council?

You can set up payments via bacs or standing order using the bank details below. You must quote the payment reference number (shown on the letter we have sent to you) for each payment. Our bank details are:

• NatWest Bank
• Sort Code: 560036
• Account Number: 00143790

Or you can send a cheque to: Council Tax, PO Box 1242, Bradford, BD1 9YN

IMPORTANT – however you pay, you must also email to us at customer.payments@bradford.gov.uk to tell us:

• The payment schedule: when you will transfer these payments to us and for how much each time
• The Council Tax reference number (shown on the letter we sent to you)
• The name of the employee

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What about administration costs?

You may deduct £1 towards your administration costs from your employee’s earnings each time you make a deduction under an attachment of earnings order. This amount must be included when you notify your employee about deductions made.

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How long does an order last?

Deductions should be made until the total amount specified on the order has been paid over to the authority or until the order is discharged by the local authority.

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What happens if the debtor leaves my employment?

If your employee leaves your employment, the order will lapse from the pay-day coinciding with or following termination of employment. You must notify the local authority in writing within fourteen days of the debtor leaving your employment. When the employee leaves your employment and you have notified the local authority nothing further is required of you. The local authority will have to serve a copy of the order on the new employer that will state the amount remaining to be deducted.

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What happens if an employer doesn’t comply with an attachment of earnings order?

A request to deduct from an employee’s wage is a legal document and an employer could be liable for a fine if they:

• Fail to comply with the order unless they can prove reasonable steps were taken to comply
• Fail to give all required notifications relating to the order
• In giving notification make a statement which they know to be false