Attachment of earnings

Employer's guide

If you receive an attachment of earnings (AOE) order for someone who is no longer employed by you, or you have never employed, you must inform us within 14 days in writing and your responsibility under the order will then end.

If the person is in your employment, you must make deductions from their earnings. These deductions should begin as soon as possible after you receive the order. The deductions should then be forwarded to us by the 19th day of the month following the date the deduction was made.

You must inform your employee in writing about each deduction. You must state the total deductions made or the outstanding balance to be repaid to the authority when they are given their pay slip.

If no pay slips are usually given you must inform them in writing as soon possible after making the deduction.  In each case you must include the amount you have deducted or will deduct towards your administrative costs for operating the order.

If I refuse to make deductions

An attachment of earnings order is a legal document. You must make deductions, or you could be prosecuted.

Make payments to the council

When you receive the attachment of earnings order you will also be provided with details of how to make payments to us and how to calculate deductions using the deduction tables.

Other information you must provide to us

When you receive the attachment of earnings order you will also be required to complete a form, providing the following details:

  • your company name
  • payroll office address
  • name and contact details of the person completing the form
  • details of the employee

If the employee has ceased to be employed by you at the time you receive the order, you will be asked to provide details of their new employer if known.

If the employee leaves your employment, you must complete the appropriate part of the form to confirm the date they left and other details.

Your employee’s duties

The employee must write to the council within 14 days of being asked to do so, giving:

  • the name and address of their employer
  • the amount of their net earnings 
  • their place of employment, the nature of their work and any pay reference/works  number

They must write to the council within fourteen days of leaving employment or becoming unemployed or re-employed.

Employees could be liable for a fine if they fail, without reasonable excuse, to supply information or make a statement that they know to be false.

The council’s duties

We must tell you when the whole amount, covered by the order, has been paid, including when the payment was not made by deduction from earnings.

We may, on application from a debtor or a debtor’s employer, make an order discharging the attachment of earnings order. We must notify you is discharged.

Administration costs

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

Duration of the order 

Deductions should be made each pay day until the total amount on the order has been paid over to the council or the council has discharged the order.

If the employee leaves my employment

The order will lapse from the pay-day coinciding with or following termination of employment.  

If they leave your employment, you must notify the council in writing within 14 days. When the employee leaves and you have notified the council, you do not need to do anything else. The council will serve an order on the new employer to deduct the remaining amount. 

If I do not comply with an order

An attachment of earnings orders is a legal document and you could be liable for a fine if you:

  • 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, you make a statement which you know to be false or recklessly make a statement which is false

Calculating deductions

You should make a deduction against the total net earnings received by the employee.

How much should be deducted

You should use the deduction tables to calculate how much should be deducted. You can also refer to the example calculations to find out how to work with both regular and irregular pay cycles.