CLC Enforcement Series: Attachment of Earnings
12 March 2025
In this series I will explore the circumstances in which each enforcement mechanism may be used and why a judgment creditor may want to use a particular mechanism, and set out some of the advantages and disadvantages of each of these methods.
Enforcement mechanism 3: Attachment of Earnings
If the judgment debtor has an identifiable employer, a pension (but not a state pension) or receives statutory sick pay, a judgment creditor will want to consider obtaining an attachment of earnings order (“AEO”), which will compel the employer to pay some portion of the judgment debtor’s post-tax salary directly to the judgment creditor.
The County Courts have exclusive jurisdiction to award AEOs, so it may be necessary to transfer judgments made in the High Court to the County Court to make use of this mechanism.
When to use this method?
The judgment debtor must be behind in at least one payment towards judgment debt, and the outstanding debt must be greater than £50.
The Part 71 procedure will reveal under section 2 and 3 of form EX140 whether an AEO is appropriate. If the judgment creditor is in any event aware of the judgment debtor’s employment status without undergoing the Part 71 procedure, the application for an AEO will nevertheless compel the judgment debtor to report details of their employment, income and outgoings in form N56.
However it is important to have some idea of what the judgment debtor is earning and spending before making the application, as where the income is too low (i.e. below a protected rate determined by how much the judgment debtor requires to pay for food, rent, their mortgage and other essential regular bills called the “protected earnings rate”) no order may be made or the amount that the judgment debtor is ordered to pay may be so small that it takes an unacceptably long time to satisfy the judgment debt while interest accrues on the outstanding balance.
Advantages and disadvantages
An AEO can be made without a hearing and without a judge where it is clear cut that the judgment debtor’s income is greater than the protected earnings rate, making it fairly quick and simple to obtain. Once obtained an AEO also requires no cooperation from the judgment debtor. It is also fairly easy to transfer from one employer to another and the application for this requires no additional fee.
However, the usefulness of this mechanism is limited, in that it cannot be used against a corporate judgment debtor, or the self-employed (although it can be used against a company director if the director is personally the judgment debtor).
It can also cause minor delay in the execution of a writ or warrant of control as set out in the article dealing with that enforcement mechanism.
Timescales
Assuming that the application can be dealt with by a court officer (which is typical where a judgment creditor has already established that the judgment debtor has the income to warrant making the application) this process can be dealt with in a matter of weeks. However, if the application is transferred to the judgment debtor’s home court for a hearing (or if the judgment debtor applies for the AEO to be reconsidered at a hearing) then the judgment creditor will be at the mercy of the court system and the final order can take much longer to be issued.
This series provides a general overview of options for judgment creditors. For detailed advice and assistance with enforcing your money judgments contact Seamus Smyth at seamussmyth@cartercamerons.com, Head of Litigation and Arbitration, or Julian Smith at juliansmith@cartercamerons.com.
