Attachment of Earnings Order(AEO)

An Attachment of Earnings Order (AEO) is a civil-court mechanism that obliges your employer to deduct money from your net pay and forward it to a court or local authority until a debt is cleared. AEOs are most often issued by County Courts for unpaid council tax, court fines, parking penalties, and consumer debts that have progressed to a County Court Judgment (CCJ). The order tells the employer the amount owed, the deduction rate, and the protected earnings rate — the floor below which your take-home pay must not fall.

Deductions appear on your payslip as a negative line, separate from PAYE and NI. There are two main flavours: a fixed-rate AEO (a set pound amount each pay period) and a percentage AEO that scales with attachable earnings. Priority AEOs (e.g. magistrates' fines) take precedence over non-priority ones if multiple orders are in force, and the employer must apply them in the order specified by HMRC's deduction-of-earnings rules.

Worked example: Sam has a £900 council tax AEO at a 17% deduction rate on attachable earnings of £1,800 per month. The employer deducts £306, the council receives the money, and the AEO is cleared in roughly three months. If Sam's pay drops below the protected earnings rate one month, the deduction is reduced or skipped — the order does not push net pay below subsistence level. Employees can ask the issuing court to vary the order if their circumstances change. Employers may charge an administration fee of up to £1 per deduction.