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13th July 1973, Page 55
13th July 1973
Page 55
Page 55, 13th July 1973 — know the law
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

by Les Oldridge, Tang (CEO, MIMI, AMIRTE

The Attachment of Earnings Act (2)

WHEN a court orders an employer to deduct a certain amount each week from an employee's pay packet until a debt is paid, the court is careful to ensure that the man will be protected from serious hardship if his wages fall below average in any particular week. This is done by the court declaring the "protected earnings" rate and this amount must be set aside before any deductions are made and must be paid to the employee in so far as he has enough wages to cover this amount.

The "normal deduction" rate is what the court decides the debtor should pay each week or month to meet his liability.

The "attachable earnings" are the gross sums payable by the employer to the debtor by way of wages less income tax, National Insurance and contributions to superannuation schemes.

There are two types of orders which a court may make, "priority" and "non priority" orders. The important difference between them is that when operating a priority order any shortfall in payment of the normal deduction for the court, or of the protected earnings, is carried forward from pay-day to pay-day until it is cleared. With a non-priority order any deficit in one week is not carried forward to the next.

Perhaps one or two examples may make the procedure clearer. Let us suppose that an employee is living apart from his wife and has failed to maintain her. The court has made an order for him to pay her £7 a week and this he has failed to do.

The court then makes an order under the Attachment of Earnings Act and this order will be a "priority" one. Let us suppose that the "protected earnings" is stated as £15; the normal deductions as £7. On a normal week the debtor's wages would be allocated like this:— The employee will receive his protected earnings — £15 — plus the £8 remaining, making £23 in all; the sum of £7 normal deductions is then sent to the court which will, in due course, pay the wife.

If the debtor has a poor week, let us say he only earns £18, the following will apply:— Attachable earnings 18 Protected earnings 15 Then only £3 of the normal deductions can be met. The employee will receive £15 and £3 will be sent to the court and the £4 deficit in the normal deductions will be carried forward to the following pay-day. On the following pay-day, if he earns a sufficiently high sum, he will then be deducted his £7 normal deductions for that week plus the £4 that was not paid the previous week.

In each of the examples given the employer can take 5p from the sum paid to the employee as a contribution to the expense of making the deduction and forwarding it to the court.

Tell the court Section 15 of the Act requires an employer to notify the court in writing when a debtor leaves his employment.

An offence punishable by a fine and in some cases imprisonment is committed:—

(a) if information concerning an employee's earnings is not supplied to a court when required; (b) if an order is received for a debtor who is not an employee and the court is not informed of this fact; (c) if all reasonable steps are not taken to comply with an order; (d) if the court is not informed when a debtor ceases to be employed by a company; (e) if knowingly or recklessly false information is given to a court concerning any of these matters.

It will be found, generally, that magistrates' clerks or officials of other courts will be very helpful in giving information or assistance over the administration of the Act and in particular where there is difficulty or doubt about an order made by that court.

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